My mother named me Roland and proceeded to call me Ron. While I will answer to either, I prefer Ron.
First licensed in 1961 as KN3PID with two high school buddies, KN3SFD and KN3SEG. Our “Elmer” was Cecil Kahn W3BFF (SK) a consummate CW operator and traffic handler. When I observed Cecil participating in a CW round table while simultaneously trying to teach the essentials to me, I decided that CW was for me.
Then came college, a career, marriage and children. CW was the preferred mode because it is silent! With headphones, the only “noise” was the clicking of the key. Many ham shacks later (one was even on a front porch) and the children started moving out, so I took over about half of the ground floor (ok it’s the basement).
I am on either 40 or 80 CW nearly every evening. Participating in both the WI and MN section nets and always on the lookout for a good armchair copy ragchew. Never been much of a contester save a few local club Field Day events but I have recently enjoyed a few CWTs.
My primary station is a Yaesu FT1000MP that my wife bought me for my 55th birthday (long ago). I love designing and building homebrew equipment and restoring vintage and military surplus. My “other” station(s) are a vintage CE20A with a homebrew BC-458 VFO and a homebrew 5 Band Linear (1966 handbook) with a restored HQ-180. Then there is the T-368 with the R-390 for AM and CW with a kick! The headset/boom mic and three keys (straight, iambic, and bug) are connected to through an HP-3488A programmable switching rack. At the click of an icon on my desktop I can switch between stations.
I firmly believe in the FISTS moto “Accuracy Transcends Speed” however it does not preclude speed! It just takes practice!
This biography is what appeared in Solid Copy when the member joined CWops.