Outlaw Dave AB7E

Outlaw Dave Gilbert AB7E

Southern Area Regional Vice President

I became interested in amateur radio while attending high school in a suburb of Minneapolis, Minnesota, but didn’t get licensed until half way through college at the University of Minnesota. I went straight for my General Class license in 1967 and received the callsign WA0TAC. My early interests were CW DXing and building antennas, and after graduation with a Bachelor Degree in Electrical Engineering I landed a job at Collins Radio in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. I never worked on any of the Collins ham gear, but I certainly gained an appreciation for what went into them.

After being drafted into the Army in 1970 and spending 18 months at Ft. Huachuca, I developed a love of Arizona and began a 30+ year career in Motorola’s semiconductor operations in Phoenix, beginning as a product engineer before being drawn to the dark side as an operations manager with business responsibility. I helped establish two manufacturing joint ventures, one in Malaysia and one in China, and served on the board of directors for both of them. For most of that time neighborhood considerations restricted me to roof-mounted ground-plane verticals, but I was still able to work my fair share of DX and achieved 5BDXCC confirmed roughly twice over with that simple setup (although I’ve never applied for the award). I upgraded to Extra Class in 1976 with the callsign AB7E, and I became a member of the Central Arizona DX Association shortly thereafter.

For most of my time in Phoenix I merely dabbled in contests, but operating Field Day on the Mogollon Rim was an annual treat for me because of all the wire it was possible to string up in 140 foot tall Ponderosa Pine trees. Field Day was also a good training ground and in 2000 my friend K7ZB and I set the then all-time ARRL points record for the 1B-2op category.

I retired in 2002 and moved to a four acre hillside lot two miles from the Mexican border just south of Sierra Vista, Arizona. My wife Alice and I have been building our own home here ever since, the gory details of which can be seen at http://www.stone-ridge-road.com. Being in a semi-rural area also allowed me to finally put up a 70 foot freestanding tower and a pair of Optibeam yagis, at which point contesting became a stronger attraction for me. With the gracious indulgence of good friends and fine contesters K8IA, N7RQ, K7WP, and KC7V, I became a founding member of the Arizona Outlaws Contest Club in June 2009.

My current station consists of:

Shack (uncompleted)
Elecraft K3 transceiver
Henry 2K-4 amplifier (functional, but no 160m capability)
QRO Technologies HF-2500DX amplifier (in repair)
AN Wireless HD-70 freestanding tower (70 feet with additional 15 feet of mast)
Prosistel PST-61D rotator
Optibeam OB160-3 tribander at 73 feet (4 elements on 20m, 4 elements on 15m, 8 elements on 10m)
Optibeam OB2-40 at 82 feet (2 coil-shortened elements on 40m)
80m Inverted-V
Future plan is to shunt-feed the tower for 160m

AB7E Optibeam and 2-el 40 Meter Beam

Optibeam tribander & 2 element 40 Meter beam