N3OC

Brookeville, Maryland USA

FM19LE

Thanks for visiting my web page.  I am Brian, N3OC, and I have been a ham radio operator for almost forty years.  Most of that time was spent on the VHF and UHF bands.  For the last twenty years, I have become very interested in HF contesting, DXing, and collecting military radios.

I am a member and past President of the Potomac Valley Radio Club.  PVRC is the contest club in the mid-atlantic region of the USA.

Between 1995 and 2001, I had a small house outside of Ocean City, Maryland where the salt water and coastal location gave a real boost to otherwise mediocre antennas.  I learned a lot about contest operation, and particularly about the low bands, from that QTH.  I had a 2-element inverted-L phased array for 160 meters, and worked a lot of good DX on topband during those years  (155 countries, 160m DXCC #806).  But that QTH also had antenna restrictions, and eventually I got busted by the homeowner's association.  Rather than fight them, we elected to put up the "For Sale" sign.

In August 2002, my wife and I purchased a new house just outside of Brookeville, Maryland with just over two acres of land.  Although not as big as we had once hoped, the property was well suited to realize my dream of building a modest contest station that would be suitable for single-op, multi-single, multi-two, and VHF contesting.

That began the process of planning and designing the station, acquiring the permits, and obtaining the towers, antennas, rotors, feedlines, and all the other hardware needed to assemble a station.

One of the great things about belonging to a contest club is the expertise and resources of fellow members, and many PVRCers gave invaluable advice and experience to the design and installation of my new station.  Having access to guys like W3LPL, K3ZO, N3RR, W3ZZ, K1DQV and W4NRS is a real benefit.  (My station is 5 air miles south of W3LPL!)

The links at the top of this page contain information about the design and construction of my new station.

73!  Go PVRC!

Brian, N3OC