Greetings to all CWops members. I’m based near the central coast of NJ, and am honored to have been invited to join CWops.
I’ve had a long fascination with telegraphy since early childhood, both landline (American Morse) and radio (International Morse). I became a ham at age 15, some 50 years ago, and learned international code at 5 WPM from LP records (sadly, no Farnsworth) during Novice classes conducted by the Cascade Radio Club (W7EK) in the basement of the Snohomish County courthouse, in the state of Washington. I wish the training methods of CWA were available back then!
I’m very grateful to CWops for their CW Academy program, my CWA Advanced Class advisor Phil Schechter, W0OJ, and my CWA classmates. CWA has been instrumental in getting me back on CW and to get my speed up. It’s wonderful to hear the band jump to life at the start of a CWT.
I’m trained as a small signal electrical engineer, having spent most of my career as a circuit designer at Bell Laboratories. I had the good fortune to work on a wide range of gear over the years – computers, radio systems, telephone systems. I was also able to function for several years as one of the Bell Labs engineers assigned to AT&T’s three maritime HF shore stations, which was primarily an “HF SSB phone patches for hire” service, as well as sending CW and SITOR-B broadcasts. It’s “interesting” to deal with intermod created by many co-located HF 10 KW PEP transmitters!
After I left the AT&T world I spent about 10 years photographing fashion shows and other things in New York City for several photo agencies. The pandemic made it a logical time to wrap that effort. You can see a few of my photos from those activities on my Instagram page: @SolvaraMedia.
Most of my hobby time is now spent designing circuit boards and writing programs for small microcontrollers: the little computer chips that control things like an electric toothbrush or a coffee maker. I still get on the air when I can, usually for CWT and SSN, and enjoy CW ragchews when I find them.
I look forward to working you on the air!
This biography is what appeared in Solid Copy when the member joined CWops.