Amateur Radio Page
DX
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DX is my first love in hamming. I would say if anything can get me enthused it is working someone many miles away. I believe it is safe to say that the idea of hearing voices from afar with no apparent physical connection is what piqued my interest many years ago and this has served for many years of enjoyment. I have about 250 countries worked (without a beam and 100 watts). I often check into the DX nets just because I enjoyment but the vast majority of the places I have worked are in the pile ups. I dearly love a pileup with a well run cw operation. I do not fare so well in the phone ones but it is like fishing and hunting, the practicing is fun within itself. One of my favorite nets is the Family Hour on 14.245 MHz. It comes on every day and I check in often. During this time of low propagation it is about the only one that I can get into consistently.
I also enjoy searching out and using the DX tools that are available on the Web. I wonder how I ever got by without the Web.
I check Ham Radio Cluster Delux every morning, or evening if that happens to be the case to see who was recently on the air and who worked them. It gives me a good feel for propagation, about as well as the propogation predictions.
I got my ticket in the fall of 1960 and since then have loved every minute of it. It is not only a hobby, it is a way of life with me. You can see my vital statistics on the QRZ.com site. I also wrote a little bit about myself on that site to introduce myself and let them get to know me. I was off the air for a while after my wife Judith died in the fall of 1999 after a long illness. I only worked two meters for a while. However; I met Aaron and Kristin Shirah in the Geneva, Alabama ham club and they lit a fire for ham radio back under me. Since then for the last three years I have been having a ball working DX, Checking into nets and just rag chewing and meeting new friends. Of late I have gotten into PSK31 and RTTY heavily as well as working some SSTV. These are fascinating aspects of the hobby to me.
I have gotten interested in VHF work in the past few years. I have six and two meters and hope to get 432 up and working before long. I have quite a bit of work to do on my station before I become any sized gun at all. I do, however, live in a relatively rare grid square EM71 and that helps with getting people to work my station. I will QSL all the QSOs for anyone that needs my qsl. I also upload all my logs to LOTW and EQSL.
I have met many wonderful folks that I never would have known had I not got my ticket. I enjoy CW (Morse Code) the most of any of the modes. However, I love to operate in any of the modes. I like the whole gamut of operation from working dx to ragchewing. I have not been very big in handling traffic in the past. A picture of my QSL card is on QRZ.com My wife designed it. She worked as a graphic artist and did the cardas a birthday present for me.
I guess I like QSLs so much because I like pictures and photography. I really enjoy taking pictures and working with graphics and other media programs on my computer. I recently designed a couple of QSL cards to commemorate my 50 years of hamming.
I was the ARRL emergency coordinator (EC) for Dale County in the late 1980s and up until 1999 when I became somewhat inactive. We had a very good emergency operating center there in Ozark and could communicate by just about any mode that we desired. The callsign of the EOC station is K4OZK. The Dale County Emergency Management Agency hosts the operating center for the Dale County AREC.
I am also a member of Ten Ten International and my number is #4891. I also enjoy checking into the Geritol Net and the OM Net. I have referenced their URLs on my page of links.
I am a member of the Quarter Century Wireless Association (QCWA) Number: 20677. Additionally, I am a member of the Society of Wireless Pioneers, number: 4751M.
