Thanks for stopping by
I first became licensed as a technician in September 2012. I upgraded to General in November 2012, and to Extra in March 2013. I primarily dabble with VHF/UHF and digital modes, but do find myself on HF quite frequently. I recently learned CW and it has become my new favorite mode. I still have a lot of learning to do. If you happen to work me on CW in the meantime, I apologize in advance… ha!
I'm President of Red River Radio Amateurs, the amateur radio club in Fargo-Moorhead, and also serve as a technical coordinator. We're a fairly active group. We'd love to have you join us if you're in the area.
I'm also a volunteer with the North Dakota State University Amateur Radio Society and the trustee of their D-STAR Repeater, KDØSWQ. I graduated from NDSU in 2012 and love helping college students discover the hobby and applying the technical knowledge to their engineering classes.
By day, I work as a Broadcast Engineer for over 10 radio stations across North Dakota and Minnesota. I hold Certified Broadcast Radio Engineer (CBRE), Digital Radio Broadcast Specialist (DRB) and Certified Broadcast Networking Engineer (CBNE) certifications from the Society of Broadcast Engineers. I also work with North Dakota State University Football's radio crew as their on-site producer and engineer.
HF & Parks on the Air
I try to activate Parks on the Air at least once a month, and I'm slowly working towards activating POTA in every state. I either use my Yaesu FTX-1 on the back of my tailgate with whatever antenna I feel like deploying, or I'll operate from my truck using a Yaesu FT-891 and ATAS-120A.
Home Station
At home I am using a Yaesu FTDX10 and an Ultimax 100 End Fed for 80m–6m mounted in an inverted V configuration off the roof of my house. Not the most ideal setup, but it's low profile and it gets the job done. It's certainly better than no antenna at all!
Repeater
I operate a multi-mode repeater in Fargo on 443.400. It does Yaesu System Fusion, D-STAR, and DMR. Check out the K0RQ MMDVM Repeater page for more info.
APRS
I have two APRS digipeaters. KØRQ-1 is in Fargo in the middle of town. KØRQ-2 is east of Detroit Lakes, MN near Detroit Mountain. More info on the APRS page.
Clubs & Memberships
| BKG | #40 ND OG |
| LICW | #8927 |
| NAQCC | #12281 |
| QRP-ARCI | #18061 |
| QRQ Crew | #197 |
| SKCC | #31290 |
QSL via LoTW or QRZ (direct with SASE only). Twitter/Instagram: @jakebechtold
See you on the air. 73!
Jake, KØRQ