Bonjour, it’s an honor to be new CWops member #2144! I sincerely want to thank my advisors Ron VE3FXX and Jerry AC4BT for their time and dedication during my Level 2 and 3 CW Academy classes. The learning experience was excellent! As a CW newbie on the air waves, I also want to thank the very skilled CWops members that have been very supportive and welcoming during the weekly CWT contests. Listening to the more experienced operators is truly inspiring.
As a boy, I was always interested in science, technology and electronics. The idea that radio messages could be sent across the world with just a piece a wire strung between the trees was simply magical. It still amazes me even after all these years!
I got my ham radio license in 1993. Shortly after, I focused my time on my electrical engineering career and marriage which forced ham radio activities to hibernate for several years. About seven years ago I got back into the hobby much more seriously.
I’m interested in wire antenna design and modeling, station building and optimizing, propagation testing, digital communications, casual contesting and Field Day. I always had a desire to learn CW and it now has become my main focus thanks to CWops! One of my next goals is to be more comfortable making regular rag chew CW QSOs which will hopefully help improve my overall operating skills. I also want to try SOTA activities next summer. This will allow my wife, dog and I to enjoy the great outdoors together!
I have a modest home station consisting of an Elecraft K3 and P3 Panadapter. My wife is very loving and supportive of ham radio, but she is not letting me put up that huge antenna/tower in the middle of her beautiful garden, ha ha. As a compromise, I’m still trying to convince her to accept putting a Hexbeam antenna on the roof, but hmm, I have much more convincing to do. I ended up installing a home brew ladder-line fed multi-band horizontal loop antenna up at about 25ft. I also have an Elecraft KX3 and an End-fed full wave multi-band antenna for portable QRP operations.
From 2016-2018 I was on the Board of Directors at our local ham radio club. During that time, I created our club’s website www.crall.ca and organized both the 2017 and 2018 ARRL Field Day events.
I simply love the hobby and meeting great friends along the way. 73 À bientôt!
This biography is what appeared in Solid Copy when the member joined CWops.