Biography

I started out in electronics at the age of 8, growing up in a poor family in Chicago, when my late brother got me one of those 101 Electronic Project kits, the one with the springs that stick up and you stuck a wire in there to make connections. The most interesting project was the crystal radio. To be able to pick up stations and not have to spend money on batteries or other power sources put a big smile on my face, I fell asleep with the earpiece on and was so excited to hear the station still coming through.

Later on I got into CB radio and found some new friends and also met my future wife that way too, we've been together almost 40 years and married 32.

My parents put me through technical school, Devry Institute of Technology as it was known during the 1980s and I graduated with an electronics technician diploma, not as special as a degree but it opened doors to some intersting jobs I had. I was a bench repair technician fixing some early credit card terminals, cash registers, telephone answering machines, the ones with the cassette and microcasettes tapes and then I started repairing Cable TV converters, the analog versions, as well as amplifiers you'd see up on the telephone pole in aluminum finned housings, and this sent me on my next adventure, Cable TV technician.

I worked outside for 8 years in all kinds of weather installing and servicing the customers and because of that my health changed to where I couldn't do the stuff the younger guys could do so I got into building control panels and wiring machine tools, CNC machines and so on. I still do control panels but also debugging setups so the machines are running when they go to final test.

I got my ham license in November of 1994 while living in my 1st house, that was around the time they removed the code requirements for the Technician class. Despite what others may say, that was the best thing to happen to save ham radio. I spent the first 10 years operating on 2 meters and had a home made 12 element beam that I used to get around.

The hobby came to a halt until 2020 when we had children, we were so busy raising them up and taking care of other problems that I had to devote all my time to family and worked a lot to provide for them during some hard times where I was laid off about 6 times and coming close to losing our home because I was barely making enough to make ends meet. There's more but you get the idea about life.

I started up the hobby again in 2020 in the Fall, my mom had passed away in the Spring of 2020, she lived to be 98. My boys are grown now and I have more time for myself again. A lot has changed in technology since the 1990s and I tried to keep up with it all this time.

Equipment

I currently use a Icom IC-718 with a MFJ Deluxe Versa Tuner II into a Cushcraft 5BTV vertical which is only 20 feet off the ground in my yard. At present I only use FT-8 and FT-4 modes with a Signalink USB modem.I put this station together in a kind of rush so it's not the best setup but it helps me get out. I'm planning on trying some other modes such as SSTV in the near future just to add some variety and fun, especially for any SWLs out there.

The 5BTV is designed for use on certain bands but with the tuner I try to load it up on the other bands, not as efficient, but thats what the hobby is about, find out if it works with what you got.