I am very grateful to have been accepted into this awesome organization and many thanks to my sponsors, in particular my local colleague Bill, W2CQ.
I have been a ham radio operator since the age of 12. My father and I built a 75 watt CW crystal-controlled transmitter right out of the ARRL handbook from scratch. I used an RME 4300 receiver, and I was on the air! My first call in Peoria, IL was WA9JAC. I subsequently obtained a call just after graduating from college of WA4IPS where I secured my first job as an electrical engineer in Raleigh, NC for the Westinghouse Electric Company. My current call of WC3W was secured while in Chadds Ford, PA (Philadelphia area) where I secured my Advanced and Extra tickets. I thoroughly enjoy the hobby, the people, and friendships that I have made over the years.
I now live in Palm Beach Gardens, FL with my wife of 49 years (who also is a ham but not active). I have two adult children (both hams but not active) in Boston and Denver, CO. My daughter has blessed us with three beautiful harmonics.
Like so many communities in Florida, there are HOA antenna restrictions. Therefore, a friend and I decided to look for land to build a remote station.
We built a remote station on a plat of land about 80 miles from my home QTH. We are using a Flexradio 6500, an Expert amp 2K, and we have a 5 band JK Navassa antenna up about 80 feet with a JK 30/40 about ten feet below the Navassa. The tower is a sky needle that we purchased from a ham up in the Chicago area. We recently installed a 1/4 wave vertical on 80 m. We have a 160 end fed long wire that traverses from the ground up a pole, and then over to our tower. We obtained a SAL 20 which is now installed. Lastly, we put up a 60 m inverted V centered fed antenna. The station is world class and amazing!
Besides amateur radio, I fly single-engine airplanes. I have been flying since I was 18 years old and hold private, instrument, and commercial ratings. I have flown in about every GA airport south of a line from Tampa to Jacksonville including Key West. I made my sixth motorcycle trip to the Alps riding BMW’s a few years ago. I have sailed all my life making two trips in the past couple years to the British Virgin Islands where I was pilot in command of a 45-foot catamaran sailboat. I am a musician playing in a rock group down here in Florida and love making other people happy through music. Life is good!
I retired about 6 years ago from an Executive VP position involved in the power generation business. Retirement is wonderful. I took over the DX Marathon program in January of 2022 and we have doubled in size twice over the last two years. It is a wonderful program and lots of fun (and lots of work). I have four dedicated volunteers that support the program, and our vision is to continue to grow as we engage more and more hams around the world. My further vision is to expand CW participation in the program from the current 15% level.
We all participate in a wonderful hobby. Many of my interest have come and gone all my life but ham radio has been with me through thick and thin. I hope through serving as Program Administer of the DX Marathon Program that I can give back to others the blessing of enjoyment this hobby has provided to me.
Gud DX’ing and May We Continue to Promote the wonderful world of CW!
This biography is what appeared in Solid Copy when the member joined CWops.