Biography

My interest in SWL and radios started as a young man (around 12 yr old) when my uncle gave me a Zenith Transoceanic Radio that he repaired. I listened long into the night time to long distance radio stations (Radio South Africa was one I remember), sometimes to the detriment of sleep. While I was in the Boy Scouts I wound up learning about Morse Code and became proficient in copying in this mode and it was fun.
I guess it stayed with me because when I went into the Army, I went into radio operations / repair and did my setting up and fixing of radios in extreme heat and monsoon rains (Vietnam). When I came back to the states I got the plush job of teaching radio operations (voice and morse code). As the years went by and married life and children took precedence over any radio hobbies my participation in any hobby fell by the wayside. Then the CB rage came and radio listening and talking was back in again. After spending many years with the CB crowd and moving to SSB I wanted even MORE. I found out how to study for my HAM license and I got my Novice Ticket in the mid 1970's. The old CW operations and radio repair knowledge came flooding back and before the year was out, I was a Tech class licensee. Feeling like there was much more to this hobby, I purchased a used HW-101 and after listening for a couple of months, my "hunger" for more had me taking the test again, this time I jumped to the Advanced Class license. I was hooked now. Over the years since, I have tried many of the modes that Amateur Radio offers including Satellites, SSTV, Moon Bounce, RTTY and JT modes.
Now, here it is 40 years later and I am still "hooked" in the hobby.

Worked DXCCs:

Equipment

Low Bands:Yaesu FT-450D with vertical helix antenna (31 ft) and Cobra Jr at 30 ft.
SignaLink USB for digital work (JT65, PSK, etc.)

Added recently (Low Band + )VHF/UHF: Yaesu FT-991 with beams on 6m,2m,70cm.

Mainly working FT8 on the low bands.