Biography

I've talked with Kings, doctors, actors, astronauts, aristocrats, Indian Chiefs and Fire Chiefs. With the news makers and the news reporters all over the world. I've talked to Dictators, Communists, Socialists, Democrats, Republicans, and independents. With Christians, Jews, Baptists, Methodists, Buddhists, Hindu’s, Muslims, Mormons and even atheists. I've talked with Russians, Chinese, Italians, the Scottish, English, Germans, French, Cubans, the Japanese and now and again a Spaniard. I've even talked with Eskimos at the North Pole and scientists at the South Pole, ships on and under the sea and others in flight.

I've done this by bouncing my voice off the face of the moon or the tail of a meter or the space shuttle vapor trail as it was coming in for a landing. I've watched the aurora borealis dance and twitch as my signal was passing through it. I've followed the sun during its eleven year cycle while it strengthened and weakened the ionosphere making all of this possible by bouncing my signal far beyond the horizon.

I've taken regular trips deep into the stratosphere on a helium filled balloon and peered out from the edge of space at our hazy blue atmosphere as it hugs the curve of our planet against a backdrop of the black abyss beyond. And tracked it using mobile computers and radios I can carry in my pocket. And at the same time I've exchanged notes with astronauts on the International Space Station comparing the view from above and below.

I've pulled a child's doll from the wreckage of her home after a cyclone tore it asunder, and then communicated the rescue to her. Built road signs in a city so devastated by a tornado that none remained. Delivered messages of love and well being from Viet Nam, Iraq, Afghanistan, the back woods of Minnesota, Joplin, Missouri, Greensburg, Kansas and in the summer of 2013 the mountains of West Virginia.

I've taken this hobby to the young at Boy Scout and Girl Scout camps, a mountain deer camp in Wyoming, the old at retirement homes, the sick in hospitals, the blind at the Courage Center in Minnesota. Demonstrated it from schools, farm fields, homes, RVs, cars, bicycles and once from the top of a ski jump in Bloomington, Minnesota.

I've used transmission modes with names like PSK31, RTTY, Olivia, Domino, Hellschreiber, JT65, FT4 & FT8, Packet, Pactor, and Throb. I've swapped images via television using SSTV and conversed for hours on CW and SSB.

All these things and more I've done with a battery, a length of wire and a radio I built myself.


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Amateur Radio High Altitude Ballooning (ARHAB) is another hobby I enjoy. I am currently the President of Near Space Ventures, Inc. A not-for-profit Missouri Corporation dedicated to the advancement of Aerospace Education with an emphasis on low cost access to Near Space. We use high altitude balloons and amateur radio to launch simulated satellite payloads into near space reaching altitudes of 100,000 feet and more. We were the recipients of the Central Region 2006 Frank G. Brewer Award in recognition for our outstanding contributions to youth in aerospace activities.
These pages might be of interest:
www.arhab.org
www.superlaunch.org
www.nearspaceventures.org


I log all my contacts on eQSL and LOTW. I do my best to see that everyone gets a QSL that wants one. If you didn't get one from me let me know (eMail) and I'll rectify that. I don't chase paper awards but I enjoy collecting your QSL, so please send one via eQSL or whatever method you use.



I am a life member in ARRL.

My YLISSB number is 10261.

I'm a member of the Straight Key Century Club #7967

I'm also a member of the World Slow-Scan Television Club as #627



73's to all,
Keith, WA0TJT

Worked DXCCs:

Equipment

Icom IC-7000
120ft Dipole @ 100 feet
Apple MacBook Air M1
SignaLink USB interface and CI-V for control