About KH7AL
Allen Le Vie
Amateur Extra Class. I got into ham radio as a way to combine a love of the outdoors with a fascination for HF propagation. It turned into something I didn't expect — a passport to places and people I wouldn't have found any other way.
The Wake Island Chapter
From late 2024 through mid-2025, I worked on Wake Island (KH9) — a remote U.S. territory in the central Pacific, roughly 2,300 miles west of Honolulu. Wake is one of the most sought-after DXCC entities in amateur radio, and operating from there as KH7AL/KH9 was something I'd only dreamed about.
The operation produced over 20,000 contacts across multiple bands and modes. FT8 was the workhorse, eventually running in Super Fox/Hound mode. I also ran CW pileups, built and tested a Vertical Dipole Array (VDA), and dealt with everything from wasps to machete mishaps. The full story is in the log.
SOTA
If I am not on a summit I'm usually thinking about my next hike to get to one. Summits On The Air gets me into the mountains with a portable rig — usually a KX-3 or LNR MTR4B — chasing points and enjoying terrain that most people only see on a map.
Gear
- Home: Icom IC-7300, EFHW antenna
- SOTA: Elecraft KX-3, or LNR Precision MTR4B. EFHW or linked dipole antennas.
Contact
Best way to reach me is through QRZ. I'm happy to arrange skeds, answer questions about Wake Island, or talk SOTA.