Hello and welcome to my Ham Radio Website. I have been around Ham Radio all of my life thanks to my Grandfather and #1 Elmer Jess WD9GGS. He had me sitting in his radio room with a key practicing code out of a Navy Handbook at age 7, and I still can't read or send it. I didn't get interested in the hobby until I heard Slow Scan "noise" on a scanner one evening, I heard Jess check into the net and had to find out more. That was October of 2008 and I got my Technician ticket in December of the same year. I did get the DX bug though since then and recently upgraded to General Class. Some of the most appealing things about this hobby to me at least is the people you talk to and meet and, as my friend Jimmy WX9DX said, "This is a license to learn, so keep broadening your knowledge." Well here's a little personal history on me. I was born in Springfield, IL in 1981 and lived in the area most of my life. Graduated from Williamsville High School in 1999, Robert Morris College in 2002 with AAS Computer Aided Drafting major, LLCC in 2003 with AAS CNS major, and LLCC again in 2006 for Truck Driver Training. Had our son in 2001 and got married to my "off and on" childhood sweetheart in 2003 and have been enjoying them ever since. Don't want to add to much here so we have something to talk about on the airwaves so i will quit there, ha ha ha. I am only active on 2m as a rule but I am setup to TX on 10m as well. I usually monitor 146.430 FM Simplex whenever I am home and I try to check into every net my ears can hear. Equipment wise I have: Yaesu FT-2800M, Kenwood TS-700SP, Kenwood TR-7400A, and a President HR2510. Antenna's are: an ancient Cushcraft Ringo Ranger, WD9GGS homebrew 4 element Yagi, and a homebrew 10m rigid dipole. Well thank you for visiting and please take a look at my recent EasyPal and MMSSTV pics. 73, KC9OUB Nate Harris