Biography

My ham radio journey began while spending the Christmas holiday of 1956 at my grandparents. One of my aunts was a school teacher and one of her co-workers was a neighbor of my grandparents. This neighbor’s husband was a WWII vet who used his GI Bill to become a Radio / TV repairman. The day after Christmas Mr. Vance C McCain / WA4IDE (SK) invited my cousin and I into his repair shop, fired up his SSB rig, called CQ a few times and “BEHOLD”; a voice came back sounding like Winston Churchill. As a product of post WWII, I had been acquainted to that foreign accent from times spent sitting on the floor in front of our big RCA cabinet radio listening to shortwave and domestic broadcasts with my parents and both sets of grandparents. It was fascinating for my young ears to witness someone in Madisonville, KY talking with someone in Great Britain. At that young age I was hooked.

I reside in apartment and it hasn’t prevented me from working the world on SSB, CW, PSK31, RTTY, FT8 and SSTV with a Mag Loop Antenna sitting next to one of my bedroom windows. I’ve also worked satellites, ISS, HF / UHF packet, JS8Call and Winlink. Since retiring in 2016, I’ve had more time to enjoy the hobby; however, the pandemic shutdown propelled me deeper into the hobby than ever before. I’ve rekindle my efforts in troubleshooting and repairing equipment, kit and antenna building, become more proficient in Morse code, operate mostly QRP, become more involved in studying Space Weather.

Since going car-free several years ago, 99% of my POTA activations are done by bicycle. I call myself “Ham on a Bike” and as a bike tourist it is nothing for me to load up my bike for a trip which includes ham radio to add to the adventure.



The winter weather of December 2024 leading into 2025 has moved my Ham Radio activities indoors, I've used another repaired Ten Tec rig, my 580 Delta to keep my Morse Code skills half way decent. I'm relatively new to using a bug, having purchased one a couple of years ago. Since I mostly operate portable I don't make time to practice operating my bug. However, this winter I'll participate in some Morse Code groups/club activities. The Straight Key Century Club (SKCC) groups' activities https://www.skccgroup.com/, has their WES Weekend Sprintathon and their SKED PAGE which will help my bug operating skills.

Other groups which I'll participate in are the biweekly "SST" activities from the K1USN Radio Club http://www.k1usn.com/ and The North American Quarter Century Club (NAQCC) http://www.naqcc.info/ which has monthly challenges. As we are likely still in peak conditions of Solar Cycle 25, hopefully solar conditions will continue to allow more10 meter CW DX all over the like this one into Santiago, Chile

Worked DXCCs: