Ham Radio Station - N5SMD

I’m originally from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, but have lived in Georgia since 2001. I have been licensed for 16 years first as KC5ELH and now N5SMD. I am married to a beautiful lady who I am convincing to get licensed as well. I am blessed to have a 5 year old little boy and a 3 year old little girl.

Back in the mid 90’s, I was very active in VHF/UHF phone as well as packet radio. I operated a high volume packet BBS forwarding hundreds and sometimes thousands of messages a day to other forwarding stations around the world. I also had the opportunity of starting several 2 meter and 70 centimeter nets. One that is still around today after 10+ years of existence is the T.G.I.F. net on Fridays at 9PM local time on the 146.940 (PL 107.2) repeater in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. If you are ever in Baton Rouge during that time, check in to the net and say hello to the nice folks there. In addition, I have been net control for many Ares and non Ares nets which are too many to mention.

As for now, I enjoy spending time on all HF bands as well as the 2 meter and 440 local repeaters.  I am a W5YI CVE and ARRL VE (Volunteer Examiner), and spend some of my spare time heading up the Barrow County VE team and testing sessions that are an extension of the Barrow Amateur Radio Emergency Services Club.  I also serve as the club's Vice President and Webmaster.  If you have time, check out our website at http://www.barrowhamradio.org

I live in a rural area with wide open land and rolling hills as the Appalachian Mountain chain begins about 30 miles north of my QTH.  Listed below are the details of my radio equipment.

Primary Equipment

6 – 160 Meters:

Full wave 80 meter horizontal loop at 40 feet

MFJ-962D Versa Tuner to work the 80 meter loop on all bands

Mosley TA-33 Beam at 50 feet for 10/15/20 Meters

Radio is a Kenwood TS-2000 using a Heil HM-10 mic

Amplifier is an Ameritron AL-811H (800+ watts)

2 Meters:

10 element (Cushcraft A148-10S) Beam at 55 feet.

I use the TS-2000 as my primary 2 meter rig.

70 Centimeters:

7 element beam mounted on the tower at 40 feet pointed west.

I also use the TS-2000 as my primary 440 rig.

Secondary Equipment

6 – 160 Meters:

Full wave 40 meter horizontal loop at 20 feet

MFJ-945E Mobile Tuner to work the 40 meter loop on 40 and above.

Yaesu FT-100D using a Heil HM-PRO mic.

2 Meters & 70 Centimeters:

Dual band J-Pole mounted in the attic at 20 feet.

Yaesu FT-100D

I also use the Yaesu FT-100D in the mobile with the Yaesu ATAS antenna that allows me to work everything from 40 meters on up to 440 mhz.

I also have an Alinco DJ-580 HT dual bander which on occasion I carry to work to listen to the local repeaters during the day.

When I am not on the radio, I enjoy playing Christian music. I play piano/keyboard and Hammond B3 organ. I have had the opportunity to work with various church bands and orchestras and minister in services to tens of thousands of people. I have participated in two album recordings as well as played music behind well known Christian music artists and evangelists.

During the week, I support a complex Windows Active Directory and Novell Server Infrastructure for a very large bank in the southeastern United States. 

I hope that you have enjoyed reading about me. If you would like to visit my website, please go to http://www.n5smd.com/  I look forward to hearing you on the airwaves real soon. I QSL direct and eQSL 100%… 73 and God Bless…

Be sure to visit the different areas of this website.  I have uploaded lots of pictures of the studio, antennas, and tower projects.  I also have a calendar which will list events that I will attend such as ARRL Field Day, various contests, public service activities, guest operator at other stations, and DX trips where I plan to operator portable as I travel to other countries.  I also have a blog section where I will talk about future projects and list real time information on my current operating/monitoring band and frequency schedule so that friends can make contact.

I hope that you have enjoyed reading about me. I look forward to hearing you on the airwaves real soon. I QSL direct and eQSL 100%… 73 and God Bless…