Member Bio

I was a novice ham radio operator when I was 14 years old growing up in Tennessee.  My call sign was WN4JFR.  I worked CW on the 40 meter band at a little over 5 WPM.  Back then novices were only allowed to work CW; no voice operation.  My rig was a Heathkit HW-16 I built and, with the help of an “Elmer”, found my mistakes and got it working.  I put up a 40 meter dipole from the chemny on our single story home to a neighbor’s tree.  I loved making CW contacts on my HW-16, but in a few years my interests turned to cars and girls; I lost interest in ham radio.

Fast forward a little over 50 years and I am a retired electrical engineer.  My wife and I had planned on doing a lot of travelling when we retired, but that had been put on hold due to COVID-19.  Having lots of time on my hands, I decided to get back into ham radio and, with lots of studying, passed my Technician, General, and Extra Class exams in one sitting in March 2022.  My first “rig” was an Anytone D878UVII Plus HT, shown below, and a Skybridge hotspot, both purchased from Bridgecom Systems. I enjoy working the local analog and DMR repeaters, as well as using the hotspot. I put a Discone antenna in my attic for further “reach” to local reapeters.  My HF base station is a Yaesu FT-DX10 and a Diamond W-8010 wire “trap” combo dipole & inverted V..  I use a Diamond BB7V for POTA HF operation.  I hope to add a few other, more efficient, antennas to my stations soon.

I was suprised at the numerous diverse aspects of ham radio when getting back into it.  My current interests include ARES, portable operation, HF (The upper part of 80 meters an 40 meters and up, limited by HOA restrictions.  Also POTA, DMR, VHF/UHF hotspots, APRS, SMS over APRS, and public service for local events such as marathons working with The Woodlands Amateur Radio Club.  I am currently using FT8 and WSPR with WSJT-X.

I graduated from the University of Texas at Arlington with a BSEE, attending school at night while working full time as an electronics technician and later as an electrical engineer in telecommucations.  I worked primarily in wireline and fiber optic communications, as well as power electronics.  I worked a few years for a company that made lead-acid battery chargers as well as solar powered battery chargers. I retired after 5 years with Nokia in Irving Texas, specializing in baseband (digital) and power electronics (SMPS) in their remote radio head cell tower radios.

I’m looking forward to logging lots of QSO’s here on QRZ!

73’s