Thanks go out to Bob, WR7Q, for his tireless efforts in assisting the CWops organization and for nominating me. Bob and the gang at Utah DX Association were the catalyst in my diving back into the hobby in 2015 after many years off the air. And participation in weekly CWT sessions was a boon for getting the rusty ‘ol CW chops back to where they used to be.
I was first licensed in 1976 as WN7DPU/WB7DPU and really enjoyed CW during high school, volunteering for traffic networks and chasing DX. As many can relate, life comes at you, and hobbies fade into the background, as I married the cute violinist who shared a music stand with me in the college orchestra in 1984. We now have five children and seven grandchildren.
As we live in an HOA I decided to install a 24′ flagpole vertical from Zero-Five antennas and have really had a ball with it, with over 225 DXCC confirmed on CW. For the past few years I have made mini-DXpeditions to Tuvalu as T2JM, T2R, and last year with new CWops member Antoine, 3D2AG, we operated as T2AR. Antoine and I assisted Tuvalu’s largest NGO in leveraging a Canada government grant program to plan, setup and train local islanders in new emergency communications system over HF. Being on the other side of the pileup is something I hope all CW operators have a chance to experience.
Long live CW – the original digital mode!
This biography is what appeared in Solid Copy when the member joined CWops.