Biography

I was always interested in radio and electronics first building many variations of AM broadcast receivers on my trusty 160 in 1 Electronics Project kit from Radio Shack as a kid. Short Wave listening was a favorite activity as well. I didn't get into amateur radio until college when I met a friend who was an avid amateur. I was originally licensed KE4DZH and could only operate on 2 meters with a Kenwood HT, but enjoyed 2 meter repeater, simplex, building various 2 meter antennas, and packet radio back in the early 90's.
I let my license lapse when I got busy with work travel, but never quit going to a few hamfests here and there to scrounge for old tube audio gear to convert to guitar amps. I didn't quit SWL interest, but my trusty DX-390 eventually quit working as well as my old Kenwood HT.
Working in IT, I found a side interest in Arduino, Raspberry Pi, and other items and when I started playing with an RTL-SDR, I started listening to local 2 meter nets again and of course at the next hamfest, I came home with a Baofeng HT and studied for my license again for my current call. I upgraded to General a little while later and ordered a TAPR 20 meter Raspberry Pi GPIO transmitter board and was hooked when after just minutes, my first signal reports started coming back all over the country from a wire dipole lying on the floor cut for 20M. It took a while to get a proper HF rig and of course I have been through a few of them to get to my present setup with a Yaesu FT-891 as my primary shack rig.

I want to get more active in CW, SOTA, QRP, and other radio field activities. I took the first CWOps CW class and really enjoyed it.
Current radios I use:
FT-817
FT-857
FT-891
MTR3B
TYT-9800
TYT MD-380
DVMega DVstick 30 for DMR and DSTAR
Various experiments and HT's
Currently I work various 2 meter nets around my town and enjoy our 146.58 Sunday Simplex net at 7:30 each Sunday night in Birmingham, AL. I enjoy checking into the random net on HF SSB, digital modes, building various portable HF packable antennas, and trying to get better at CW. My SWL setup that I most enjoy is either my County Comm GP-5 SSB while walking at night, or a Tecsun PL-880. I am trying to get better with all things logging and try to keep EQSL and LOTW up to date.
I am in IT and have many other side interests including kayaking, mountain biking, backpacking, and all things guitar. I wish I had a motorcycle again and maybe something small to sail. My windsurfing gear has been collecting dust for a while, need to get it back to the lake.

Worked DXCCs:

Equipment

FT-891 and TYT-9800 in the shack.

FT-817, FT-857 and MTR3B in the field.

Sometimes experiments make it on the air when the soldering iron is hot!