Operator · KD9TAW
DX chaser, DXpeditioner, technologist.
I'm KD9TAW. Licensed in 2021 and active since 2022, I quickly found my calling in chasing DX, antenna building, and building out my shack. I'm a technologist at heart and love tinkering and improving things.
In April 2023 my first DXpedition took me to KP2 (St. John) and VP2V (British Virgin Islands), combining vacation with a semi-serious operating schedule. From an oceanfront QTH in VP2V, I logged over 6,000 QSOs in a few days — including bringing 6m SSB back on-air for the first time in years.
Contest highlight
1st in Illinois · 10th in North America — CQWW 160m DX (2025), only my second contest.
Operating focus
- DX
- Always chasing new ones — HF, 6m, VHF/UHF
- Portable / DXpeditions
- Efficient, travel-ready setups
- VHF / UHF
- Beams, 6m halo, satellites
Why I built Nexus
My shack ran the way most do: one program decoding, another mapping, another alerting, a logger keeping the log, and a panadapter app on the side — every one of them with its own settings, fighting over the same COM port. I'm a technologist at heart, and rebuilding that stack as one program became the project that would not let go: Nexus, free and open source, and the software I operate with every time I'm on the air. The TempoFast and TempoDeep weak-signal waveforms — two original protocols — came out of the same push, along with the tools across this site.
Portable operating stuck with me too. I'm actively seeking the chance to join a broader range of DXpeditions in the coming years, bringing my technical skills, operating focus, and field experience to the team.
Station
- Yaesu FTDX10 · Yaesu FT-991A · Icom IC-9700
- SPE Expert 1.5K linear
- OCF dipole @ 50′ · Multiband vertical (160/80/40/30)
- VHF/UHF beams · 6m halo
DXpedition · April 2023
KP2 & VP2V
Split between St. John (KP2) and Tortola (VP2V — 113th most-wanted at the time). VP2V was the main target: an oceanfront location with superb propagation to NA and EU. The expedition mixed relaxed island life with high-rate operating windows.
