Biography

Hello! I was born and raised in NE Minneapolis and lived out my childhood in that area. I first got into "radio" when I was 6 years old. My dad bought me a set of 100mW walkie talkies with channel 11 crystals. I had a lot of fun with them. In 1978 I bought my first car. It was a 1971 Mercury Cougar XR7. I never forgot the fun I had with those walkie talkies, so I ran out and bought a CB radio for my car. After several months of sitting in my car talking on the CB, I decided to put up a base station. I went to Radio Shack and bought a 40 channel/SSB CB base station, that I still own today. It is a Realistic Navaho, TRC-458, and I attached a .64-wave base station antenna to it. Now between cruising downtown Hopkins, MN, on Friday and Saturday nights and meeting other CBer's down there; and coming home and staying up all night on my CB Base station, I was hooked on radio. After moving out to the country in 1991, I met a guy off my CB, who was a Ham, but also liked talking on CB. He and I did a lot of experimenting around with our radios, and built AWESOME radio systems! He got me into talking on SSB instead of AM with my CB. I found I liked SSB much better. His name is Terry, and his call is KB0JZY. Finally in 2000, I decided to study and get my Ham License. Another motivating factor in wanting my Ham Ticket was being able to legally install a mobile police scanner in my vehicle. Now I spend most of my mobile radio time on VHF/UHF, or listening to the cops, while my CB is mostly used by my kids. In March of 2005, I became SkyWarn certified for the first time! Now I can put my storm chasing habit to good use. When the FCC decided to drop the "Code" requirement for all classes of Ham License, I decided I had nothing to lose by trying for an upgrade. In January of 2007, I passed my General Class (element 3) test, then a month later passed the Extra Class (element 4) test! Two weeks before the Code requirement was officially dropped, I was already to become an Amateur Extra. I turned in my certificates in March 2007, and now I am no longer considered by some HAM's, a "Glorified CBer." April of 2007 marked the beginning of my DXing on the HF Bands, when at home on the Base. To complete my Amateur Radio credentials, I became an accredited Volunteer Examiner (VE) in April 2009. Some of this must have rubbed off onto my wife, Anita, because in December of 2009, she went to a three-day Ham Radio class and then took and passed her Technician test! Be sure to look her up, she's KD0JTD. I am also a huge fan of the 220 MHz Band, and dream of putting up a 220 Repeater someday. There is not much activity on our local 220 Repeaters, but I'm always up for a QSO on one of them if you are able to access them. A few other things I enjoy, are surfing the Internet, Genealogy, Muscle Cars/Trucks, Storm Chasing/Meteorology, Astronomy, Creation-Science, Garden Railroading (G-Scale), Stimulating Conversation, and Science-Fiction TV shows and Movies. As of 2015, I've started dabbling around with a GMRS Repeater on 462.7000+. I'm looking at it as a learning experience to prepare me for someday putting up a monster 220 Repeater system! Well that's all I can think of to say right now, so 73's. Russell.

Equipment

HF Base: Yaesu 767GX
Portable: Kenwood SAT 480

Mobile: Icom 208H, Alinco 235T

HT Icom V-85

Digital: Icom ID-880H, Yaesu FTM-400DR

Antennas: 160M Dipole, 80M Dipole, Comet CX-333, Dominator 6M Vertical.

Check out my Custom built Tip-Tower Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cY-7VgZNypk