Biography

Age: 63
Ham since May 1979
First Licensed as: KA9EPO
Changed call after upgrading to Extra in March 1997.
Primary ham interests: any kind of digital mode except JT65. Don't care for it. I also work SSB from home and in my mobile. I don't do CW. Never liked the mode anyway. Too many hotshot operators come back to me at the speed of light expecting me to copy when I send at 12 wpm on a good day. My concentration is not the best anymore.
I also enjoy helping new hams get started in the digital modes or whatever other modes they enjoy. I have Elmered at least 12 people and have helped dozens of others on the air and via e-mail. It is very gratifying to hear of their success after communicating with me.
I have a blog at the following address: www.aa9uf-radio.blogspot.com. I have several articles about ham radio that may be of interest to you.
Other interests include reading about the history of the Old West, weather monitoring, target shooting with small arms, coyote hunting, creative writing.
I have been married to the same woman for 33 years. She was a 6th grade teacher and she retired at the end of May 3 years ago. We have one giant economy-sized son, Scott, KB9LCD, age 31, who stands 6 ft. 10" tall. He is a gifted musician and band director. He is married and has 3 lovely daughters, Julianna, age 6, Marilyn age 2 and Charlotte age 1. As of August 1, 2015, he and his family moved to the Chicago area where he has a position with a Lutheran Church and school as music director/teacher. They are living in Berwyn.
I am currently employed at Charles Industries in Rantoul, IL, 22 miles east of my QTH. I am a Quality Control Inspector and have been there 1 1/2 years. I spent the previous 18 1/2 years as a welder/fabricator for Design & Mfg. in Fisher, IL until the business was bought out by a rival company. As of today (1-14-16) I have 994 working days left until I can retire at 66 years old. I anxiously await October 12, 2018.

Worked DXCCs:

Equipment

I have two stations in my ham shack/den in the basement.
Station 1:
Rig: Icom 718 (2 of them - one setup for digital, one set up for voice.)
Tuner: Palstar AT-500
Amplifier: Tokyo Hy-Power HL-450B with matching power supply
Antenna: MFJ-2990 Vertical 43 ft. tall.
TX monitoring: Heathkit SB-610
DSP: MFJ-784B Tunable DSP Filter (Band pass filter works great on PSK31).
Contest Voice Keyer: MFJ-434B
Digital Interface: SignaLink USB
6 Meters: Ranger RCI-5054DX-100
6 Meter tuner: MFJ-945E
6 Meter antenna: inverted V dipole at 30 ft.
Computer: Homebrew desktop running Windows 8.1.
Weather station: Meade Intstruments TE923W-M
This station is equipped with automatic 12VDC deep-cycle battery backup system and emergency lighting.
Station 2:
Rig: Yaesu FT-897D with LDG FTL Meter
Inherited Kenwood TS-830S with SM-220 monitor scope and MC-50 mic.
Antenna: MFJ-2990 Vertical
Tuner: Palstar AT-500
TX Monitoring: Heathkit HO-10
DSP: MFJ-784B Tunable DSP Filter
Interface: SignaLink USB
Computer: Dell Precision 390 desktop running XP.