Thank you for accepting me into CWops, it is truly an honor to be part of such an esteem group of operators.
I am 68 years old and have been married to my lovely wife going on 44 years, and we have one daughter and two grandchildren. Our youngest granddaughter has shown some interested in ham radio as she sees Pop Pop sending code. Hopefully she will pursue it, but for a 11-year-old with a cell phone its not likely as of yet.
I have an identical twin brother, Nick, W3NRL, who is also a serious ham, but not much for CW, and does enjoy all other modes of operating.
My hobbies are of course ham radio, I love running QRP, 5-10 watts, and sometimes when conditions call for more power, I’ll run 20 watts out of my G90. I run a mcHF QRP radio and a Xiegu G90, I also have my old FT 897D.
I recently added an Sigma SE HF X-80 end fed ground vertical antenna to my antenna farm, which is proving to be a outstanding antenna; and a home brewed G5RV Jr.
I no longer have the gumption to run an amp, besides can’t be bothered with the loading the plate and all that, as I am getting older all I want to do is turn on the rig hit the auto tuner and go. Besides it’s more of an accomplishment making a contact with 5 to 10 watts and the person you’re making contact is running 800 watts. So, what I have learned about my shack, less is more, more fun.
While I favor the HF bands, I can be found on 146.520 FM simplex as well as APRS, and I also enjoy Fusion (C4FM) and can be found on American Link-Wires X, and on DMR Tri-State and Global WW (TG:91), and GMRS.
And while I do love ham radio I also love to go fishing, mostly freshwater fishing. I have made my own rods that I use all the time, when my health allows for me to get to the many lakes where I live in southern New Jersey.
This biography is what appeared in Solid Copy when the member joined CWops.