Biography

NO PART OF THIS PROFILE, INCLUDING IMAGES, CAN BE REDISTRIBUTED WITHOUT WRITTEN CONSENT FROM ME.

* New logbook created after moving to EN53XC *

Back on the air after taking some time off to focus on family (my wifes oldest son passed away in July).

My voice has been a problem since 2018 when a hospital screwup caused me to stop breathing then aspirate when they tried to bring me back. After a traumatic intubation, a week hooked up to a breathing machine, and months of the worst pneumonia I could imagine, I was left with lifelong breathing problems, throat damage, and vocal cord damage. This is why controlling my voice is a problem and why my voice gets easily fatigued or outright stops working.

Some operators have been rather understanding, which I appreciate beyond words, but some operators make me wish I stuck with digital modes where I don't have to speak.

I'm married to the most wonderful woman on the planet and my pronouns are she/her. If you don't like lesbians or you can't respect me enough as a person to use my pronouns then don't bother contacting me. If you don't like who I am then don't contact me but do not preach to me about how much you don't like me because I would NEVER do that to another human being. Deal with it.

I originally got into amateur radio for public service when I was a child and got heavy into HF in about 2018. I love designing and building antennas, playing the game of "will it resonate" to see what I can turn into an impromptu antenna, and I love sharing how diverse and fun amateur radio is. I try to help and encourage folks get started in amateur radio and especially encourage YLs; just ask, I'll find your interests and match it with some part of amateur radio! ❤️

I've never needed more than 100 watts; I'm from the school of maximizing what you have and I've worked over 150 countries on all 7 continents

You can usually catch me on the NATA, OMISS, or YL System nets or watching DX clusters to see who I haven't talked to yet. ????

I don't have much money but I'll get QSO cards out as soon as I get more printed for my new QTH. I'll confirm contacts electronically usually within a day but cards cost money. I do have a program that I wrote that can generate images/PDFs of a QSL card of my own design and I could email your QSL cards for you to print if you would like. Additionally, if you would like a QSL card with a custom image (electronic or printed), that can be arranged for an additional charge...

Worked DXCCs:

Equipment

HF Station:
- Icom IC-7300
- Zoom ZDM-1 XLR microphone
- LDG IT-100 tuner
- End-fed "random" wire strung between two trees, inverted-L (vertical segment up 23.3m)
- Custom dual-core 9:1 transformer
- Custom 1:1 common-mode choke/isolation transformer

DMR:
- Anytone AT-D878 UV II Plus

DMR Repeater:
- Receiver: RadioShack Pro 2096 scanner with IF tap
- Transmitter: Motorola Astera
- Raspberry Pi + DMR hat

APRS I-Gate/Repeater:
- Icom IC-F521
- Kantronics 9612 TNC
- Raspberry Pi 4 running APRX
- Backup low-power radio: RadioShack HTX-212

RIP:
- Icom IC-756, desperately wanting to get fixed