I started my activities as a ham in Brazil in 1976 through the Boy Scouts, where Jamboree on the Air got me hooked right away at the ripe age of 14. As a matter of fact, to this day, the yearly JOTA gathering in October is still one of my favorite radio related weekends, where we can show the youngsters the world of radio!
My first call sign was PY2WTY as a novice and later I upgraded to general and extra, getting the call PY2CGB. During major contests I several times used the special calls ZV2CGB and ZW2CGB. Those were the days of the big 25m tower with good Yagis and the Drake R4C/T4XC line topped off with the wonderful L4B.
All through high school and college I was very active chasing DX and contesting, mainly on CW, after my local Elmer, a retired Navy Radio Operator had taught me the code with his heavy old brass SK.
Then life happened… job, wife, kids, the dog the cat and the hamster, so, although the ham radio activities never really stopped, these had to take second fiddle for a while.
We moved to Texas in the late nineties, and I got the extra call AC5TV and requested the vanity call N5GG shortly after.
I’m still a CW enthusiast and like working DX on HF, mainly QRP out in the field, where my beat-up but trusty Elecraft K2 is still going strong, together with my various QRP-labs QCX’s which are great to take on lightweight POTA/SOTA activations.
At home I have only a very modest station these days: Icom 7300 and Kenwood TS-450 into a 5BTV vertical or dipoles. The paddle is still the old BY-1 from Bencher that I got in the early eighties feeding an old homebrew discreet component WB4VVF Accu-Keyer box (Do you remember that 1973 QST project? Look it up in the ARRL archives)
During the pandemic I had the chance to become more active again, and since I still enjoy contesting, the weekly 1-hour sprints became an automatic magnet… (work schedule permitting) you can find me during CWT, MST, SST, etc. I’m also active in various other modes, including the digital modes, satellite work and ATV, although CW is my passion and represents well over 95% of my on-air activity.
I recently joined the CWA advanced class to get the rust out of the finger joints and apply WD-40 to my CW skills! Thank you both, Joe and Muley for the wonderful job you guys are doing. We have a great group going there twice a week!
Besides ham radio, I like the outdoors and my other hobbies are offshore sailing, scuba diving, flying gliders and single engine planes, riding bicycles and motorcycles, hiking and camping. On that note, one of my most exciting and terrifying QSO’s ever, happened when I had the (not so brilliant) idea of stringing a 20m dipole across the leading edge of my glider’s wings and work CW while in the air circling the thermals over Texas… Don’t try this at home…
Professionally I’m an RF engineer working in the 4G/5G cellular telecom space. We live in Lewisville, DFW metroplex area in Texas.
Thank you Joe, AA2IL and all my sponsors for nominating me for CWops. For me It is a great honor to be invited to the group and to participate in the fostering of the CW art!
This biography is what appeared in Solid Copy when the member joined CWops.