Earlier in September I opened my postbox and found a letter from Mike, N8DNA. He conveyed that we had worked each other in a recent CWT event and was curious about whether I had any interest in joining the CWops organization. He provided an explanation of what the club was all about and… it caught my interest. After researching a bit more about it on-line, I accepted his offer to nominate me for membership. Surprisingly, just a few short days later, I received an email that some other members had spotted me in their log and had quickly completed the nomination process. I would like to thank everyone for their kindness.
I first became interested in Morse code in 1963 at age 12 when I received a pair of “Key-Municator” code practice sets and a roll of wire. A buddy and I had a blast tapping messages back and forth that summer back in Orchard Park, NY. Denny, now WA2TDE, got his Novice license a few months later and gave me a glimpse into how much fun ham radio could be. With his help as an ‘Elmer’ as well as Kay Deskur’s K2ZRO (SK), I received my own Novice ticket in 1964. Over time, I’ve had the calls WN2PAS, WB2UKT, N2DLO, N2DLM and have enjoyed NN2L since about 1984.
I graduated from Clarkson College in 1973 with a BSEE and began a career in telephony that lasted almost 40 years. I was located the entire time (rare these days certainly) in the Johnstown/Gloversville area of N.Y. at the base of the Adirondacks. Over the decades I’ve worn a hat whose logo included a variety of names like General Telephone, Contel, GTE, Citizens Communications and with retirement in 2013, Frontier Communications.
My wife, Carol, and I have been married now for over 44 years and raised two sons, both of whom reside with their families in the Rochester, NY area. It did not take a lot of convincing for us to likewise move to the Rochester area to be with our four grandchildren ages 9, 6, 3 and the youngest at just 5 months.
I am currently a DXCC Honor Roll member with 336/340 confirmed ‘mixed’ entities, mostly on CW. I suspect that the final four will permanently elude me given the restrictions in place by their governing bodies. But you never know, right? During the winter I spend a great deal of time scouring 160 m for new DX entities but have recently taken a liking to QRP on 40 m with a little NorCal40 transceiver (1 watt) I found at a recent hamfest. My other interests include reading, fly fishing and the occasional round of golf.
This biography is what appeared in Solid Copy when the member joined CWops.