Biography

Some people may think me a little odd, I’m bald and have this odd thing going on with my facial hair. But with all the oddness I have to tell you I’m a fast learner. Being home schooled hasnt made me any smarter than others, but has given me this knack of retaining odd or useless information. When I first stated in this wonderful world of wireless communications, a friend introduced me to CB/11 meters. I fell in love with the band... well sort of. Being a child born in the 80’s I remember watching the movie Smokey and the Bandit and seeing how wonderful CB’s were/are, I jumped into it. What I found was not pleasant, users who had more of a potty mouth than my self, it just turned me off. So what did I do? Well I have always loved taking things apart and after spending much time at a local CB repair shop and started working part time. While working I heard about ham radio from a fellow employee and from people coming in to get there microphones fixed, After doing some research I decided not to pursue becoming a ham because CW was required to get licensed, that and tests have never been a strong point in my life and have always sweated when taking them.

A few years went by and a fellow friend and ham approached me to go to a hamfest, he didn't know the area and needed some help on directions. This is where it began... After seeing all this stuff and not knowing what it all was, it peaked my interest and I fell in love. After I got back home, I jumped in the internet and started taking some practice courses, to my surprise I knew most of the stuff on the test from working at the repair shop and some from general conversations... and hey no CW.

At the 2011 KARS Hamfest in Peotone, IL, I decided to take the test and to my surprise, I passed.

I started looking for clubs to belong to and found the Lake County Amateur Radio Club (LCARC). A short time later the editor of the clubs newsletter Short Skip wanted some help in finding content and I volunteered my help, 3 months later a total redesign and added pages and became Editor and Chief. In 2012 I also wanted to learn more about the in and outs of the club by attending board meetings. During my course I started researching nets with in the Chicago-land area and found only 2 nets in in NWI. I went to the board and asked if we could start a net to drum up new membership, they thought it wasn't a good idea because they hadn't had a net in years. When asked what my net is going to be about I replied “an Information net that shares info about what is going on in ham radio. than was told I can do it on a trial basis. The net is still going to this day even though I am no longer affiliated with the club.

During this time I found it hard to find nets in my area, that's when I created the Chicago Area Net Directory (CAND) along with a fellow hams who were able to hear the nets I couldn't. CAND utilizes Google Docs to give an up-to-date spreadsheet so you don't have to download it again when it gets updated.

I enjoy learning new and odd things and even though I may be sort of new to the ham community(who isn't nowadays), I’m becoming a what I call a “New Elmer”. I may not know as much as you the reader, but I'm getting there. In the first month of getting my ticket I have built my very own 2m/440 antenna, studying to get my General ticket, and learning CW... Yes the same thing I dreaded learning when I first heard about amateur radio.

So here I am, a wandering ham junkie, and I mean junkie. You know a lot of new hams have mic fright and don't get on the radio! Well all I can say to that is find a net to check into and start talking.

If you're in the Chicago or NWI area, give me a shout I might be listening.

Worked DXCCs:

Equipment

Radios:

Yaesu FT-991A: Powered by an Astron RS-35M and a Furman M-8x2 Power Conditioner. For audio I am using an Audio-Technica AT2040 microphone into a Cloud lifter and a Behringer Xenyx 1204 mixer.
ADI AR-247: 220 operations, Found on eBay at a good price but needed the microphone cord fixed (Yeah its on of those cords that disintegrates over time). I think the microphone had problems to began with because even after replacing it, it just never worked. So I went ahead and replaced it with a TS-430s that worked... sort of! Currently in storage, need to put antenna in attic. UPDATE: The radio has more problems than I thought! the screen bugs out for some reason and needs service.
AnyTone AT-778UV: Radio was bought used off eBay. Currently using it for GMRS.
Icom IC-207H: Bought this at a local hamfest, after getting home it has an screen issue, the incandescent bulbs tend to blow out and did a LED mod on it. Here is a link on how to do it your self if you have a ic-207.
Yaesu FT-70D: Fusion and analog portable operations.
Retevis RT3S: DMR/Analog portable operations. This is my second one, the first was bricked due to some software/programming issue.
Vertex VX-150: Found this 2M HT on eBay for super cheap! It didn't come with a charger and took a chance that it still worked. To my luck and surprise it did!
Quansheng UV-K5 V1 with a HLN8255 Belt Clip and VUURWERK Firmware.
2 MMDVM Hotspots: Both running WPSD, The first is a Raspberry Pi 3 Model B W/ a Duplex MMDVM for Fusion, the other a Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W for DMR.

Antennas:

MFJ-1522 144/440 MHz, 4.5/7.2 DB antenna: I bought this to replace my DIY copper jpole in the attic. Was kinda worried about the height of the 1522 as the old jpole was the right size for the attic. Well the at 5.5 feet, its perfect and was able to use the same mounting... a plastic water pipe mount attached to the peek of a rafter. LMR-400 to feed the beast!
Taurus 6M horizontal dipole: Got this antenna on eBay for $50 back in Aug of 2022. I sat on this antenna for a year before putting up in my attic. Its not mounted the way I want, but is sitting on across beams in the attic. Connected via LMR-240.
MFJ-1610T 10M Ham sticks on a MFJ-347 pipe mount. I got this antenna from a now SK W9WY and used it for portable 10M work, Now it finally has a home, mounted on a RCA jpole antenna mount... again in the attic and connected via another length of LMR-240.
DIY attic four-segment collinear ADS-B antenna that turned out to be total junk and doesn't to a better job then then my MFJ-1522!
BNC mag mount with a extendable antenna tuned for GMRS that's stuck in the basement window ledge. I also have a bunch of HT antennas that are too numerous to list.