Biography

I have been a listener since I was 11 years old. I became a tech, then a general class in 2016. I am a member of FISTS and as of March 2017 am halfway through the FISTS CW course. I enjoy DXing. You see a picture from January 2017 of our Watertown Amatuer Radio Club. My wife Elizabeth is to the right of me(black sweatshirt) in a big red hat.

I live on 60 acres of mostly woods and my house and antennas are atop a hill. It is ideal for an antenna farm with no restrictions. The nearest neighbor is 1/2 mile away.

My house is composed of three log buildings from the 1800's put together. The owner of the property lives in a restored 1890's Norwegian brick and log home. Our two homes share a front yard filled with flowers, trees, bushes and gardens. There are 12 restored log buildings on the property including a wood burning sauna, a chicken barn, two animal barns, a one room building that a summer resident lives in, a workshop barn, a couple of garages, a storage building, a gallery, an old maple syrup building and a collapsed wood shed. We have alpacas, sheep, chickens, peacocks, turkeys, cats and a Lluthor the llama and Jesse the donkey. Oh, and variety of wild rodents, bats, birds, deer, etc.

I am a composer and an author by calling and work in a recording studio several days a week. I have recorded and published over a dozen Native American Flute albums and a dozen more albums playing a variety of flutes, harps, hand drums, guitars and many other odd World instruments. I used to make a living performing and touring as a pianist. I am an accomplished guitarist, drummer, bassist as well. I also write music programs for school age children. My hobbies include woodturning, cross country skiing, bicycling, sailing, canoeing, fishing, camping, hiking, mountain climbing, water skiing, ice skating, oil painting and playing the cello.

Amateur radio is an excellent form of communication, and is inhabited by the most helpful and friendly people I have ever known; and it is an excellent emergency communication system.

Worked DXCCs:

Equipment

In my shack, I use an FT 101 B and a Yaesu FTdx-1200 for HF and a Kenwood TM271 for 2 meter and an MFJ Versa Tuner and MFJ Keyer paddle My Yaesu 7900R moves back and forth between two cars and the ham shack. I use a Bluebird Microphone from the recording studio through a small Yamaha mixer to the radio with a PTT footswitch I rigged up with lots of technical input from wise old hams. I set up two G5RV dipoles one N-S and one E-W both up 40 feet stretched out horizontally with a 40 foot ladder line to Coax wrapped 9 times around a 5"diameter plastic jar at the bottom of the ladder line. I use trees and nylon stranded 750 lb rope so we are watching for tree growth changes. For UHF-VHF I have a dual band Yagi 58 feet up on the tower with a rotator. I easily reach Over 2 dozen repeaters up to 75 miles away as the crow flies.