Biography
First licensed at 14 as W8SRK in Detroit, Michigan in 1954. Became W8KR in 1976 and moved to Edina, Minnesota (a suburb of Minneapolis) in 1977. I started as a traffic handler on the Michigan QMN net, but caught the DX bug at age 15 when I worked G2DPY on 40 meter CW. Over the years, I made it to the top of the mixed honor roll (mostly CW), but then became more interested in QRP and gardening.
I sold my 80 foot crank-up about 20 years ago and started building verticals for winter fun, after putting my rose gardens to bed for the year (it typically goes to -26 C here in the winter). After several iterations, I have learned that well-constructed verticals with lots of radials make very good DX antennas. My latest effort is "The Rose Garden Array", an elevated 4-square phased vertical array for 20 meters (see my February 2005 QST article). My other antenna is an elevated 40 meter ground plane with sloping radials, which is a very competitive antenna on 7 Mhz.
In 2018, I will have been on the air for 64 years. Look for me on 20 and 40 CW from November to April, and in my rose, perennial and vegetable gardens from May to October.
73,
Jack W8KR
Worked DXCCs:
My worked DXCCs (46): 005
015
029
052
054
072
080
085
094
108
110
120
130
144
146
159
165
202
212
223
224
230
239
248
256
269
272
281
284
285
294
296
318
339
348
376
387
391
402
446
462
464
497
499
503
520
Equipment
My station is an ICOM 781 and a much-modified Henry 2K Classic X (two 3-500s in parallel).
See antennas in biography.