Biography

At the heart of my life is a deep, abiding love for the medium of radio itself, a love manifested since childhood.


Let me tell you a little bit about myself since you have taken the time to stop by and read my words.

I was born into the Space Age in 1956 the same year the Johnson Viking Valiant came on the market and one year before the launch of the first orbiting satellite Sputnik

As a young boy I had a tendency to take things apart and use the parts to build other things of my own invention. As I entered my teen years I became interested in anything electric and electronic.

It should come as no surprise that when I saw a neighbor put up a tower and antennas I became interested in what it was all about.

I discovered HAM RADIO

I enrolled in a technical electronics program in high school and started working after school at a TV repair shop. I went on to work at a Two Way radio shop and then into Industrial control at a local photo finishing plant.

Being autodidactic by nature and having a tendency to surround myself with people who are much smarter then me. This allowed me to expand my knowledge of many aspects of electronics, radio , and programming. As well as design and construction techniques.

In 1983 I began working as a Broadcast engineer at a contract engineering company. Designing, building and maintaining a large number of radio stations over a near 17 year run. This has enhanced my skill set and made me . HAM Ready

In 2000 I left the Broadcast field and began working as a design engineer in the Cell industry.

In June of 2001 At the Rochester NY hamfest I Became a HAM .

Shortly after becoming a HAM I was drafted into service in a local ham repeater club ( BARRA) The nature of my broadcast experience made me a likely choice as repeater trustee,

So when the opportunity to step into the role presented itself I signed on as trustee for the W2EUP repeaters.

Sandy became my wife in 2002 and took on the challenge of myself and my 4 daughters.

Sandy was the only woman I ever met that had her own Telephone Linemen Set and punch tool so naturally at my urging she became a ham in 2003 (KC2LGK)

We began our ham operations as technicians and decided to pursue Amateur Satellite as a entry point to the hobby. Thinking that this would afford us the greatest DX opportunity with our class of license. SEE http://barra.hamgate.net/links/jul2008.pdf page 4

When the code requirement was dropped from all amateur radio licensing I became a General. My Very first HF contact that day was W1AW (How Cool is that?).

In August of 2008 Sandy (KC2LGK) and I moved to a new "Antenna Friendly" QTH

In the fall of 2008 We set about building our new Ham Shack

The plan was to build a ham shack that would serve our needs for many years to come.

The shack would need to house rack mount equipment as well as modern ham transceivers and computers.

All the wiring would need to be accessible from the rear so we planed the workshop behind the shack.

All cable access through workshop behind the desk

Worked DXCCs: