I first became interested in “radio” at a young age, having grown up near an AM broadcast station that shared its frequency with the former legendary border blaster, XERF. I found the night time long distance radio propagation to be nothing short of magic. A central Plains ice-storm in the early spring of 1984, which left me and my family with only a battery-powered transistor radio as our sole form of technology for nearly two weeks, made my radio-affliction even worse. Parents enabled my interests with radios and electronic project kits. Grandmothers gave me Part 15 (49 MHz) walkie-talkies. Family friends loaned me antique tube shortwave receivers. Eventually, I stumbled upon two hams having a conversation on 40 meters – AM. I clearly recall an engineer for WGN in Chicago causally chatting with another ham in California. I’ve been hooked ever since.
With the help of my hometown radio club, the Marshall County (Kansas) Amateur Radio Club, I obtained my Novice License (Originally licensed in 1985 as KAØVSZ). With the help of my dad, I obtained my novice rig, a very used Kenwood TS-520. I quickly followed with upgrades to Technician and General in early 1986. But despite the phone privileges afforded by those upgrades, I always had an affection for Morse code and found myself in the CW sub-bands. High school and college took priority for a few years, but I finally progressed to Amateur Advanced in February 1991, and then Amateur Extra prior to the Y2K amateur radio license restructuring. My current interests include DXing (with CW DXCC #10,766 and individual awards on 7 bands, so far), contesting, traffic handling, emergency preparedness/communications, Raspberry Pi and Linux on the ham radio desktop. I am a member of the Society of Midwest Contesters. I am currently serving my third term as Secretary of the Douglas County Amateur Radio Club, in Lawrence, Kansas. And I was recently appointed ARRL Assistant Section Manager for Kansas.
Outside of ham radio, I am a Professional Geologist and have spent my entire career working in the world of water resource management. I spent 23 years with the Kansas Department of Agriculture’s Division of Water Resources. I am currently Assistant Manager of the Kansas Rural Water Association, where I have been employed for the last 7 years. My areas of interest and expertise are in water rights and source water protection for communities and rural water districts.
Thank you to my sponsors and I’m very happy to be part of CWops. My only regret is that it took me so long to participate. The demands of home and work life have distracted me from CW contesting in recent years, but the CWTs have been an EXCELLENT way to get back into the groove and I look forward to working you with my Elecraft K3 SN #4583.
This biography is what appeared in Solid Copy when the member joined CWops.