It’s my great pleasure to become a part of the CWops gang and now having my own personal member number. I’ve played with the Wednesday events for the past several months and it has been a great way of keeping sharp on CW while the bands ebb during the present solar cycle.
Starting as a Novice at age 15 in 1958, CW was the only allowed mode and I couldn’t wait to pass the General so I could move on to joining the AM phone crowd. Well, I got the General while still 15, migrated from a homebrewed rock bound single 6146 CW rig to a Heathkit Apache, and QSY’ed to the higher end of the bands. While this was great fun, the lure of CW always drew me back to the low end of the bands.
Over the next 50+ years, the station equipment changed and evolved and the many varied aspects of the hobby were tried. I built a satellite station during the early bird flights, chased weak signal on the VHF/UHF bands from 6M thru 1296 MHz, operated fast scan TV, built a number of repeaters, homebrewed lots of equipment, etc. However, for some reason, I always returned to CW as my favorite mode of operation. After confirming 336 countries on CW, new ones were becoming very difficult to find, so over the past year or two, I’ve gotten into working more RTTY and digital modes.
As a retired “old timer” I have been able to focus on personal interests without the interference of having to work for a living. Other hobbies and interests include woodworking, golf, hunting, fishing, travel and the grandkids. The XYL and I have been able to travel all around the world, but our favorite place is the island of Aruba. We have been vacationing there for a couple of weeks a year for the past 28 years and during the past two years, we have stayed on the island for a couple of months during the winter and will again be there next winter. I’ve gotten approval to operate and have taken a rig along to operate as K3DMG/P4. Swing the beam south next winter and you may hear my IC-7300 exciting an EFHW wire on all bands. I expect to participate in the Wednesday CWT as time permits.
I have arranged my golf schedule to keep Wednesdays free, so I’ll be for every event whenever possible.
This biography is what appeared in Solid Copy when the member joined CWops.