My interest in radio stems from sitting in front of an old Grundig tube console as a kid at night wondering “where are these people?” as I scanned around the SW dial. In particular, the sound of the OTH radars which I thought were some sort of atmospheric anomaly. Or perhaps aliens, as a kid might think, and the beeps and burbles of CW which were most certainly coded messages I was not intended to hear. That, and years of living in studios with microphones, consoles and tape machines making records.
During the 2020-21 ”long year of staying home,” friend and longtime recording studio associate KF4RX Jim suggested to me that I might enjoy radio, and encouraged me to study for a Tech license which I did, and didn’t stop. I was issued KO4MII in February 2021 and took the vanity KO4TCL when I got my General and Extra in April and June 2021,. In the time since I’ve taken to learning to build antennas suitable to my needs in an apartment QTH, sticking my hands into radios and amplifiers (safely, of course), building tiny kit radios and tuners, and generally wondering why I didn’t start doing this as a kid!
When I expressed interest in learning CW, musician/photographer/CW enthusiast and friend AA4GA Lee Hiers (#973) gave me his old Bencher BY-1 with the understanding that I either had to learn to use it or give it back. In the Fall of 2023 I enrolled in CWAcademy and under the tutelage of Gary N8LR (#1818), Chris KT9N, John AA5ND (#3248) and Mark K5GQ (#672), I have continued the journey. After operating a little doing SSTs and chasing DXpeditions, the good sense of a fast and easy send/copy call hit me and I was issued N4TTU (which may soon undergo a slight revision).
Many thanks to my sponsors K4BAI John, KO4VW Steve, K5GQ Mark, NM5D Jeremy, and K4PQC Phil – you are all so very much appreciated. You can find me attending SST, MST, and CWTs when I can, hunting POTA stations from home when I’m not out in them myself, and occasionally deciding I need all bands/modes for a DXpedition within my reach. I’m also the 15m band coordinator for OMISS as well as the Tuesday night 80m NCS, and Friday night 160m NCS. One of these days I’ll feel competent enough to rag chew CW. It’s a ride for sure, and I haven’t jumped off since it started rolling.
This biography is what appeared in Solid Copy when the member joined CWops.