Member Bio

I’m John, moved to South Dakota in spring 2022 for freedom. Currently living in Sioux Falls.

Born, raise in small towns of southern Minnesota, until a 3 year enlistment in the U.S. Army 1973-76, just out of HS.  Married and worked a number of years as a Carpenter, then as an IT guy (applications Software Engineer) for 2 national wholesale/retail companies in the Twin Cities. Retired since 2017 from all of that….

Home station is Yaesu FT-991A with HF antenna Chameleon EMCOMM II wire endfeed (HF), dual band antenna Diamond V2000A (VHF/UHF). I just got my “General” license in July 2022 (Technician in Jan 2020).

HT radio Yaesu FT-4XR I’ve mainly used to listen and contacts on repeaters on SDLINK across South Dakota.

I’m just getting started learning HF and the features of my home station radio.  Learning as I go, since I haven’t had any close contacts with “Elmers” I always read about, but like Sasquatch I haven’t had the honor of meeting personally yet. (Oh, my wife told me after 35 yrs of marriage, she didn’t know I had a sense of humor, until after we were married… I didn’t press the subject by asking how many months, years before this dawned on her).

I’ve hunted and fished all my life i.e. squirrels, waterfowl, pheasants, deer, elk (see profile pic NW Wyoming Absaroka Mtns elk hunts). I garden for the fresh vegatables and love to see what amazing things the Lord causes to grow.  I’m really looking forward to experiencing more of that in our adopted state of South Dakota and learning the Ham Radio world! I appreciate your patience as I do.

I regularly check into NATA 40m Net and OMISS 40m Net.  They’re friendly folks and making contacts under all sorts of band, atmospheric conditions helps me learn how well, where my signal carries and I can RCV and use various Yaesu radio features to make that experience better.

Antennas (humble beginnings)

(Inverted “L” 18.3 m di-pole with 4 m of it a “dog leg at my garden to fit within backyard mounted on a 20′ extendable “mast” aka Home Depot paint roller handle.

Read and applied ARRL book concepts on grounding/bonding shack equipment, antenna before I hooked everything up to my radio to start using. Safety safety safety!)

QSO Card KF0EAU

My Bird Dog Cindy (Yellow Lab) reading hunting regs, scanning for “Duck Commander” re-runs

and Companion Baylee (Black Lab) learning to share 

Moving Snow (At family homestead in NE MN Mar 2022 with my 1957 Farmall 350)