Hello friends and thank you for letting me join CWOps. I am thankful to Jim (N3JT), Hank (W6SX), Bud (AA3B), and Rob (K6RB) who supported my candidacy. I am very honored to be part of this special group or operators.
I am 46 years old and work as Professor of Music in Southern California. My field is orchestra conducting. Besides the university, I conduct a professional orchestra in Michigan and the largest Youth Orchestra in Orange County. The intersection of patterns, rhythm, and language in regards to CW has always fascinated me.
My hobbies are, of course, radio (CW only at this point). I enjoy SOTA activations and overall QRP. I am happiest when I am hiking up to a peak in solitude and feel part of nature. My plan for the not too distant future is to hike the John Muir Trail and activate SOTA peaks along the way. I work mostly CW on 40, 30, 20, and 17m. My antennas are a vertical Diamond CP5H (40/20), a ham-stick dipole (30m), and a simple wire dipole (17m). I wish I could find the space for an 80m antenna. My main rig is an ICOM IC-7300 (100W); I also use an MTR-3B and SW-3B (both <5W) for mobile QRP operations. Looking forward to using my new QCX mini for 17m portable.
Growing up in my native Germany, I began my interest in radio by listening to international shortwave stations. I loved climbing in trees and experimenting with various kinds of wire antennas. I started to learn Morse code in order to get my license but got sidetracked with school and college. After finally settling in California, I went back to the hobby in 2015 and got all licenses in short order. I am having fun building various QRP antennas and tuners from QRPguys kits.
I am married to a pianist who is equally busy and so far tolerates my radio hobby. She even hikes along to some of the SOTA peaks with me.
I have been licensed since 2015. My journey in CW was helped tremendously by the Long Island CW Club, in particular Jerry (WB0JRH) and my CW Academy Intermediate and Advanced Advisors Kevin (VE7KHI) and Ed (K6HP)
This biography is what appeared in Solid Copy when the member joined CWops.