First, and most sincerely, I’d like to thank my CW Academy classmates and instructors, Joe KK5NA and Ron VE3FXX for their help (still in progress) overcoming my shortcomings and encouraging progress along the CW trail.
I’d have gotten here sooner if I’d had been able to draw on some CWops know-how when I was in the sixth grade. Back then, I spent some lawn mowing money on a Heathkit code practice oscillator. It was my first attempt at soldering/kit-building. It didn’t work. CW went to the back burner and I SWLed for the next 20 years.
I finally got licensed in 1988, took to CW right off the bat, and advanced to Extra Class within a few years. For the usual reasons, I went QRT in July of 2003 and stayed that way until July of 2021 when I gave in to a friend’s urging to take the hobby back up.
I have a pea-shooter station: an Icom 7300 feeding a G5RV about 35 feet up in the neighborhood tree canopy. I also have a QCX+ for portable use and a nonfunctioning Ten Tec Omni in the closet that could use some love.
For a living, I produce video and audio segments for the Voice of America in Washington. I hold an FAA commercial drone certificate and fly camera drones for work and FPV for pleasure. I’m a vegetable gardener. When I can, I do some fly fishing.
I am grateful for the work and resources CW ops has put into me. I hope to be able to pay that forward.
This biography is what appeared in Solid Copy when the member joined CWops.