First off, I would like to thank Craig K9CT, John W2GD, Axel DL6KVA, Keith NM5G, and John W4NU for their sponsorship.
I was first licensed as WN6IZT in 1968. I upgraded to Technician class in 1970, Conditional/General class while in the USAF in 1973, then Advanced class in the early 80s, and finally obtained my Extra class license in the mid-80s. I caught the DXing bug in the mid-80s, after working FR5AI/g on 20 CW. Little did I know at the time, what that one contact would lead to.
In 2000, my YL Wendy and I decided to go to St Martin for a vacation. I took along an Icom 706. This trip turned out to be the first of many trips that we took to FS. In 2000, I operated mostly SSB, but quickly transitioned to CW only operation.
In 2007, I met Bob K4UUE, and he asked me to join a team going to TI5KDs QTH for CQWW SSB. In late 2008, Bob invited me to join the K5D team. I wasn’t too confident in my ability to run large CW pile-ups, so I signed on as a SSB op. While on Desecheo, one of the CW radios was sitting idle, so I gave it a try. I can do this!
Over the years I took many trips with Bob. In 2016 I was on the team that activated Navassa, K1N. George AA7JV was on the team, and a few years later while planning a trip the Chesterfield Reef, George and I crossed paths again, which led to my participation in his RiB project. In late 2022, George and I discussed a building a smaller RiB that would be tailored to address an expanded set of use cases.
After returning from Ducie in July of 2023, I began work on what has been dubbed the NexGenRiB. Small enough to fit in an aircraft overhead compartment, and light enough to be carried by one person, this design is intended to be complimentary to a typical DXpedition operation enabling rapid deployment as well as access by remote operators.
While in Dayton this year, I had a chance meeting with Neil Rapp WB9VPG, Neil is an advisor with Youth on the Air, YOTA. A couple of days later we announced a partnership with YOTA, this partnership paved the way to our upcoming trip to Rotuma in November. Our six person on-island team consists of three young ops. We have an off-island team of 43 young ops, joined by a similar number of Elmers. Many of our young members are accomplished CW ops, and 6 are YLs. We are hopeful to pull off two DXpeditions next year that will include a number of YOTA ops.
Over the past year or so much of my time has been spent on RiB related projects, as such, I have not spent too much time on the air. Top of my list of New Years resolutions is to make more Qs!
This biography is what appeared in Solid Copy when the member joined CWops.