Biography

New QTH March 2022 Saginaw MI. Click detail and house is marked on the map. Hit Satelite view and you will note the great antenna hiding place in my back yard. Big reason we bought this place. 2.5 Acres is all the lot is, However Trees are great for hanging wires and also surround and hide the future tower area. Wilson 51 ft crank up purchased and waiting to be installed. Now installed 11-2023 with KLM KT34XA and Ham IV rotor at base. See pics below.

Upgraded to Extra Nov 2021 after 40+ years of being an Advance class op. Call for all those years was N8MUS That was FCC assigned when I upgraded to General back in the day.

Former calls WC8T N8MUS, WD8RZY.

My SKCC number is: 22789













Licensed 1978 as WD8RZY at age 14. First station was all military surplus. 400 Watt Navy ship transmitter, and Army receiver. My Dad WD8RZZ put that together and wired up the transmitter to work on AC 220V VS DC that the ships use. Dad SK June 21, 2020 age 88. Very missed.

Also wish I still had that first station today.

Then Hallicrafters HT37 SX111 combo

Next upgrade was to the TEN TEC 544 seen above. Dad got that about 1980 brand new and serves me well. Making CW contacts on it regularly.

Main pic is latest shack in my garage. Rigs are original owner Ten Tec 544, and my Ten Tec Orion with Rx366 2nd receiver and Loaded Omni VII. Great radios! Run CW about 75% and SSB the rest. So really like the QSK Ten Tec's

Main Rig now is my Orion purchased from W9SN in 2017 from his contest station. I upgraded the sub receiver to the rx-366 and have the 600hz Inrad in the 1k slot in the main and 2.4 KHZ 600 KHZ and 300 KHZ in the RX366 so set up top notch. Had a bunch of Orions as well as an Orion 2 to get the parts to make this a top notch Orion. I even had the N1EU beta Orion that also had the RX366 as well. Got familar with working on the Orion's and managed to update and sell them at profits to pay for the station here.

Antenna setup November 2023

Omni VII amazing radio very quiet receiver maybe best of any I have owned except the Orion! Loaded ATU and All the Collins filters as well.



I switched From Windows to Linux October 2019. Bit of a learning curve but had fun learing the new and IMO better OS.

I went with CQRLOG which is Free VS I paid for Ham Radio Deluxe. CQRLOG works much better! IMO

For CW / Data modes I use FLDIGI....which supports Linux and CQRLOG was designed to interface with it much like DM780 was with Ham Radio Deluxe Logbook. Again this combo works better IMO.

I have started to do some FT8 not my favorite but I found GridTracker/WSJTX combo.

CQRLOG also interfaces with WSJTX like it was built for it. Adding the GridTracker actually makes FT8 kinda fun. The instant logging to ALL LOGS LoTW, eQSL, Club Log and HRDLOG, makes for a great setup. Both GridTracker and WSJTX support LINUX!

Doing some Kayaking in Sault Sainte Marie Mi Lived there till March 2022.

This Pic my wife took of me in the wooden Kayak she is in her matching one that we built. This is on the St Marys river and the ship is the G3 Marquis about 800 foot long. Amazing to be paddling a few hundred yards away as it slowly passed us by. The other boat is the Coast Guard which seemed to be following the freighter.

Fall 2021 Amazing colors!!
Tahquamenon Falls State Park

Forrest Road near Mission Hill Cemetary east of Brimley Mi Below

https://www.michigan.org/property/point-iroquois-lighthouse

Link to information about Point Iroquois Lighthouse, this is about a 20 minute drive from the QTH on Lake Superior.



Some other Gear over the last few years was Several Ten Tec Orion/Orion 2's, Ten Tec Eagle, Kenwood Ts480, Ten Tec Jupiters, my SB-220 amp and 3 Flex 5000a's one with dual receivers as well as tuner and one with everything including the VU5K. Ten Tec Corsair II station as well with the matching remote VFO and Ten Tec Hercules II amp. For me the Ten Tec Orion does everything and more with greater ease and less complication compared to the Computer controlled rigs.

If you can't figure it out I am a Ten Tec fan or fanatic. ???

For work sold Insurance for AAA in Michigan.

Purchased the KOA campground in Muskegon 2001, sold it a few years later went back to insurance (UGH)

Bought Silver City KOA in NM 2013 and lived there untill 2019. Then back to Michigan for family reasons. (DAD)

We lived in a great area at 6000 ft in the base of the Rocky Mountains. We were in southern NM so we don't get nearly as cold there and not much snow VS the snow up in Denver about 6 inches per winter and it does not stay. Our summer temps Ran a High in June of 95's with NO humidity. People come here to cool off from El Paso Tucson ,Phoenix etc. July and August actually run cooler often mid 80's and feels like 70's from where we are from. We lived on the edge of the Gila National forest. Peaks up to 10K around us. We had over 3000 miles of forest roads and ATV Trails all around us. Once and a while we got time to go explore.



That's me in the Blue Detroit Lion's shirt looking at my Polaris Ranger. Yes it is KOA Yellow but no it is not a Yellow Submarine! Does not run well under water! Fortunately we were only 7 miles in at this point. I was not driving, My 4 wheeler is out of sight to the right in the Pic. Even with this it was still a fun day! Ended up making it in about 25 miles that day.

Latter on bought a 1991 Nissan hardbody great for offroading! Same spot as above stuck again! This time coming back out from a great ride up the "Frisco River" . Here is a link to a short Video we took of same spot going in. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOI_J1y3fkA

Your SKCC number for LIFE is: 22789

73

Worked DXCCs:

Equipment

Ten Tec Orion, Omni 7, 544 Ten Tec Titan III amp Ten Tec 238C Tuner Wilson 53 foot tower KLM KT34XA triband antenna. Home brew efhw 134ft at 30 feet.