Amateur radio began for me in 1969 when I passed the exam for the General Class license. Four months later I upgraded to an Advanced Class. Those early years of amateur radio laid a foundation leading to a career choice of electrical engineering. My areas of specialization are RF/microwave, digital communications, and general systems engineering.
Having formal training in many of the areas of interest to amateurs has certainly made the hobby more enjoyable. Understanding the deeper theory behind what works and does not work has its rewards. This background can also be unforgiving when problems arise whose solution seems elusive!
As reported on qrz.com, I became reengaged in the hobby to a serious extent in 2006. I moved to a new rural location in 2009 where I am able to erect towers, have some room for antenna experimentation, and in general, enjoy the hobby to a much greater extent. The smaller population density with accompanying longer sight lines to neighbors affords some assurances of minimal RFI; a distinct advantage of living in the country.
I operate almost exclusively CW. I ventured into SO2R in November 2014 and find it most enjoyable. I operate only 160m – 10m.
As I add to this site I will provide some photographic evidence of my activities as well as provide some written documentation of some areas that may be of interest to other amateurs. During 2017-2018 I developed documentation on home-brewing KW band pass filters for SO2R operation.
I have authored a book, “High Power HF Filter Design”, outlining the design and construction of KW-level filters for the SO2R station. It is available on the Amazon.com website.
Earlier in 2020 I designed and constructed remotely controllable RF switches to enable rapid switching to the Caribbean-facing yagis.
After years of scrutinizing RBN (Reverse Beacon Network) results as well as monitoring contest results in real time with some of my nearest ham neighbors, analysis with HFTA conclusively identified that my QTH is handicapped for propagation into Europe. The slight elevation rise, only some 20 feet, over a distance of some 1,000 ft to the NE, hurts my low-angle takeoff performance by at least 5 dB. The only way to fix this is go to a 120 foot tower and stack another C31XR 30-40 feet below. Not wanting to see more guy lines I am relegated to keep the crank-up tower and just do my best operating. Stacking a 4-element 15m yagi ~ 20 ft below the C31XR helps 15m some, but 20m, the “money band”, cannot be improved short of going to the much taller tower.