My initial interest in CW began in the 4th grade, when I was assigned to write a report on Samuel Morse and the telegraph as part of our study on American inventors. While I never actually learned the code proficiently at the time, I was enthralled with the idea of Morse as a second language.
In early 2023, while renewing my fascination with the Battle of the Atlantic and the Enigma code, I was once again bit by the CW bug. After a couple weeks of humming the rhythms of the characters on my afternoon walks, I was amazed to be able hear words (at painfully slow speeds) and actual messages. My desire to expand on CW led me to amateur radio, and I became KK7NJT a couple months later.
In December of the same year, after many hours of listening to recordings and banging away on my trusty J-38, I finally had a dipole strung up and made my first contact. In early 2024 I upgraded to General and Extra and requested a much better CW callsign, WN7JT.
About a year after beginning my CW studies, and many long ragchews later, I received my 25 wpm certificate from the ARRL. While my overwhelming interest is still late night ragchewing on my favorite band, 40 meters, I have since ventured into POTA and field operations, and have been enjoying outdoor radio immensely.
Outside of amateur radio, I volunteer as a docent at the Flying Heritage and Combat Armor Museum in Everett, WA, where I am surrounded by my two other interests, WW2 and military aviation history.
My thanks to Hank W6SX for the nomination and Doug KR2Q, Rob K6RB, Carl WS7L, and John WJ7S for the sponsorships.
This biography is what appeared in Solid Copy when the member joined CWops.