Ham Radio

What I like to do:

Years ago when tubes were a common place in amateur equipment  I would love building homebrew transmitters. I had many failures as well as successful builds. My home brewing equipment pretty much stopped with the advent solid state gear and aging eyesight.

Another passion I have always had and find great pleasure in experimenting with is antennas. I have had just about every conceivable amateur antenna. Towers, beams, every kind of wire antenna you can think of and a few I thought of myself.

For the life of me I never understood why anyone would purchase a commercially made wire antenna.

My Operating Favorites

My favorite mode is CW. It always has been and always will. I think my ratio of CW vs Phone operating is about 300 to 1. Perhaps even greater. Having mastered CW at the young age of 12, it has been a pleasure to operate and make friends. I can recognize a buddy on the air without hearing his call, just by the way he is sending. This is especially true if they are using a bug or straight key. Now that I am in my "Golden Years" ( I haven't  seen any of that gold yet) I can still copy 40 wpm in my head easily but the old fingers can't move as quickly on the keyer or bug as they once did. I appreciate those that can carry a conversation, rather than the name is.. qth is.. good bye types.

 I do like the digital modes as well. A relatively  new digital mode is JT65.  I really like this mode for it's low power and very good decoding capabilities.  I have managed to get WAS on it in short period of time.  I just hope it does not become like PSK did and high power op's sneaking into it.

In the last 50 years I have managed WAS several times, DXCC and WAC. Perhaps more but never sat down to start adding things up and applying for them. My attitude is I know what I have accomplished and I don't need to pay some organization 30 bucks to send me a piece of paper saying I did.

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