Biography

With a background in German (B.A. degree from SUNY at Buffalo, 1969) and Computer Science (B.A., 1983), I've had a meandering career, ...first, as a foreign language instructor, and then - after a 3-year stint in the U.S. Army as a Russian linguist, - I obtained my Computer Science degree and worked as a computer programmer and Web development manager in Western NY. I'm now semi-retired, with some occasional work publishing books by and about local artists and writers.

My first Ham ticket came in early 1977 as a General, then upgraded to Advanced a few months later. My first rig was a Heathkit HW-101. In February, 1978, I was hired as store manager of the local (Amherst, NY) Heathkit Electronic Center, a job I kept until 1982. There, my interest turned from radio to computer electronics, building my first microcomputer (...we didn't call them "PCs" back then ;-) - a Heathkit H-8, which had a whopping 64 kb of memory, and a cassette tape player for storage.

Unfortunately, I lost interest in Ham radio after going back to school for my Computer Science degree.

Fast forward nearly 40 years to March of this year (2019). After renewing my license last year, my interest was rekindled by picking up some old Ham literature I still had laying around. I decided to see what my former hobby looked like in the 21st century, and was pleasantly surprised to see how much it had embraced, and been enhanced by, today's technology.

I now am the proud owner of an ICOM IC-7300 and have been spending my time getting familar with the digital modes - mostly FT8 and WSPR, but hope to sample all of them. I'm studying to upgrade to Extra, although I'm having second thoughts. Are the few additional privileges really worth giving up the Advanced ticket? It's kind of neat being a member of a dying class.

Equipment

Rig is an Icom IC-7300, with LDG IT-100 tuner, and SuperAntenna MP1 covering 40-10 meters.