My current QSL and QTH info is here.
Most of my current ham radio activities since 2002 are on the shortwave bands. I'm an ARRL Life Member and ARRL A-1 Operator. Awards earned: DXCC (Mixed, CW, Phone, Digital, 40/30/20/17/15/12/10m Single-band, Challenge), WAS (Mixed, Digital, 15m, 15m Digital, and FT8), WAZ (Mixed and 20m CW), and WPX (Mixed and Digital).
I am interested in measurements of WSPR signal transmission and reception. I also love to listen to the FM and various radio broadcasts. I've made a command-line FM receiver with multipath interference canceler called airspy-fmradion.
I occasionally show up as N6BDX and KP4/N6BDX on the air using Remote Ham Radio (RHR) station stations.
I was born in Setagaya City, Tokyo, Japan, in 1965. My first shortwave experience was in 1973 with a Sony portable radio ICF-5800 at age 8. On February 25, 1974, I went to Boulder, Colorado, USA, with my parents. I spent 1.25 years of American life there until May 1975 at age 9.
I got my first ham radio phone-only license in Japan in March 1976. I also earned my CW license in 1979. Later, I upgraded my Japanese License in 2003 as the 1st Class Amateur Radio Operator. I also got the FCC Amateur Extra Class ticket, with the current callsign N6BDX.
I started my first ham radio operation on 6m SSB in 1976. Then, I learned to operate CW in 1979. After that, I became a packet radio enthusiast from 1985 to 1992. During the period, I was experimenting with TCP/IP on AX.25. I also ran the Terakoya NetNews System with the people of Packet Radio User's Group (PRUG) on 70cm/23cm FM 1200bps AFSK.
I lived in Toyonaka City, Osaka, Japan, from July 1992 to February 2020. I was active as JJ1BDX/3 from June 2002 to October 2014 and was operating JO3FUO during 2005-2014, mainly on HF CW, with 100W output and simple antennas. During this operation, my grid locator was PM74rt, and the JCC/JCG number was 2504. Unfortunately, I could not operate HF due to my business priority from 2015 to 2020. I went back to Setagaya City again in February 2020.
From May 2020 to February 2024, I had been experimenting with HF operation in Setagaya City for the first time in my life since 1976, on the 40m to 10m HF bands, mostly with FT8 and FT4, occasionally with CW. I was able to confirm the contacts of more than 100 DXCC Entities and all the US 50 States (earned ARRL Digital WAS Award) during this operation. The maximum output was 100W, and the antennas were restricted to 2.2m-length mobile whips with the counterpoise wires in the balcony.
I've neither had a tower nor linear amplifier exceeding 100W output nor HF and 6m beam antennas. I am enjoying simple and restricted antennas, bear-foot transceivers, and manageable systems at home.
My life as a condo dweller keeps putting me in second-class citizens' status in the ham radio world due to smaller ERP and restricted antennas. It's sad to say that only people who own a shack in a detached house, towers, linear amplifiers, and beam antennas are regarded as first-class citizens in the world of ham radio, especially in DXing.
However, I believe that those lavish property ownerships of maximizing one's ERP are not sustainable through a human being's life. I see more and more cases of the advantages being neutralized and vanished by the owners' unfortunate life events. I respect big system owners who actively maintain the system with passion and devotion, but that is not my style and I think that style should not be forced on anyone. And I don't want to be treated as a second-class citizen.
I believe all amateurs are equal, aren't we?