Biography

Having grown up in rural Arkansas, my first experience with Ham Radio was in Jr. High School. With K5KZT as my Elmer and music teacher, we built our first station in the basement of the school, with dipoles on the roof, and formed our first radio club, PHS ARC. Several of my classmates fell in love with the hobby and it wasn't long before we had 8 members.

I learned cw using a paper practice tape that used punched holes for dit's and dah's, detected by a photocell. I believe it was WWII military surplus.

We had a 40 meter sked everyday at lunch time with a station at a Kalamazoo, MI. High School, where we swapped wx, member and licensing info, all in cw mode, my first secret language.

I was first licensed in 1962 as WN5BIV. I left the hobby until the late 80's or early 90's, when I took my exams to become KD4MRC, KR4FC and my present call sign, N5BI. I am the inventor of THE RIGGER HT Stand and also hold 2nd Class Radiotelegraph License and GROL license.

I am a Member of A1 Operator Club, IEEE, BTS, AES SECC, CW FISTS, AR QRP, & CAROLINA CW OPS.

My ARES affiliations have been ADEC GEMA, DEC GA Red Cross, EC Clayton County, GA. EC Jones County, GA and I am currently AEC for Jones County, GA.

I operate predominately CW on QRP/QRO.

I'm a Retired RF Engineer, Owner and Chief Engineer of The Studioplex of Central Georgia,CrossChart Records and BranchRanch Publishing Company Worldwide. I own an independent record label as well as a Pro Audio Consulting Firm, all located in rural Jones County, Georgia.
I have a UHF repeater located in Gray, GA on 443.700 FM, 100 hz tone only.

Equipment

TEN TEC 564 OMNI VI+, AKG C3000B/MACKIE AUDIO COMPONENTS, HOME BREW DIGITAL INTERFACE, MIXW 3.01B REGISTERED, 38 SPECIAL (30M) QRP, SOLAR POWERED BATTERY BANK, TH3MK4 BEAM @55'and an inverted Vee wire at 65'.