Ham Radio

Amateur Radio

Background

I have been an amateur radio operator for over 23 years. My first license was as a Novice (KA2UGJ) and was dated February 14, 1984. That spring, I upgraded to General at the Rochester (NY) Hamfest. Upgrading provided the opportunity to get a better call. And that is what happened when I received N2EZY dated June 30,1984. Since then, I have upgraded to Advanced on March 6, 1999 and Amateur Extra on March 9, 2000. I take pride in being one of the last to get Extra under the 20 WPM CW requirement. I feel a great deal of accomplishment in getting my CW speed up to 20 WPM.

I feel that the date of my first license is very appropriate since I was at the time a member of the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) Amateur Radio Club (K2GXT). For the four years that I was a member, we did an annual "Valentine's Day Message Service." For this, we utilized the Amateur Radio National Traffic System to send messages for students and staff to anywhere in the United States for free. This might not seem like a big deal now with the Internet, but it was back in the mid 80's. Our best year was in 1985 where over 1500 messages were sent.

I have completed the Worked All States Award and am a Life Member of ARRL. I operate both CW and Phone on the amateur bands. I am also a member of FISTS (#7543). FISTS is the Morse Code Preservation Society. It's main purpose is to promote CW operation and help others become more proficient. I try to work the quarterly FISTS Sprints. My other interests are QRP (low power) operating, "home brewing", and contesting. At the moment my contesting is VERY casual. I have done some Field Day operating and a couple of other small contests.

Ham Radio Equipment

Radio Equipment

Antenna

Kenwood TS-440S/AT - All Mode HF

Kenwood TM-255A - All Mode 2m

Kenwood TM-241A - 2m FM

Homebrew NN1G 40-40 QRP 40m 1.5W transceiver

Elecraft K-1 QRP transceiver

80m Dipole

40m/30m Dipole

G5RV Dipole

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