Member Bio

I got my Novice ticket in October 1978. CW did not come easy for me as I didn’t want to practice. I met my future XYL earlier that year and somehow dating was more fun than CW. I never lost interest in Ham Radio, but life got in the way. I worked my speed up close to 13wpm but not solidly enough to take get my General.

Then, in 1987, Novice Enhancement came along. I set up a 10M vertical and a 10M inverted Vee and joined the 10-Ten club (#47560). This reignited my passion for Ham Radio! I decided to upgrade. To force myself to polish up my CW I made a pact to spend twice as the time pounding the key as I did “squashing the pickle.” In less than three months I went from a Novice to an Advanced and passed the Extra written with a perfect score. Unfortunately, I never got the 20wpm down solid enough to pass.

Today I’m part of a dying breed since the Advanced class no longer exists. At least I knew CW at one time. But I’ve been playing with CW lately and getting the itch to upgrade. So who knows?

I want to give a shout-out to my Elmer and first mentor Frank McCollum, now a. He got me started, provided encouragement, and sold me my first HF rig. It is a Heathkit SB-102 with a matching power supply/speaker and a D-104. He built it himself and I still have it today.

I currently have an IC-7300, FT-747gx, and a TS-430s on HF, an FT-7800 on VHF/UHF, a GD-77 as a high power DMR hotspot, among other rigs now and then. I’ve set a TS-430s up for my son KN4EFJ in Virginia for when he upgrades. According to my XYL (KB5VDR), I have too many talkies, but I mostly use my TYT U/V380 while mobile and at work using a GD-77 as a hotspot.

Currently, I only have an End Fed Longwire up on HF with an autotuner and verticals for VHF/UHF.