N1MD Home Page

Welcome to the N1MD Web Site! I am Dr. Mike Therrien and presently am an active duty US Air Force medical officer practicing cardiology and critical care medicine. I entered the military WAY late in life (age 53). Some of you know I left my QTH in Connecticut with its wonderful contest station in 2008 to be stationed outside of Washington, DC (with a deployment to Iraq sandwiched in the middle!) My station is now much diminished in size and I have only recently been able to get back on the air in a serious way from the new QTH in Maryland.

I write this on Memorial Day, 2011 -- a poignant day for me. Read further for a description of my new (and temporary) station on the shores of the Chesapeake Bay!

I am a relatively new ham. Even though I am 56 years old, I only became an amateur radio operator in 1993. When I first licensed I believed that a non-Morse license class would suffice. But, as I spent time in the hobby I realized that I wanted to communicate across the globe. I learned "the code" and realized that I love Morse! Over the years, I have discovered DXing, contesting, APRS, Emcomm, Winlink, digital modes and software defined radio. These days I spend most of my on-air time with APRS, Winlink, and the digital modes (especially RTTY).

I dabble in contests, predominately RTTY contests. I still chase DX and am slowly adding to my DXCC list and working on WAS from my Maryland station. I have also taken the plunge into software defined radio (SDR). I am not much of a technophile or audiophile, but I find SDR fascinating and very innovative. I purchased a Flex-3000 from FlexRadio Systems about two years ago but the deployment, preparation and return issues limited my time on the air significantly. I have a computer dedicated to the radio and it works spectacularly! Every day I learn a little bit more about the Flex radio and SDR in general.

My location is very small and compact since we live in a beach community. I am limited to using a vertical antenna but it works quite well, especially with the water of the Bay only a few feet away.

I recently got back on APRS as well and you can find me on the map using FindU!

Finally, I also revived my Winlink capability and am using it regularly but no longer run a telpac node as I did in Connecticut for emergency communications. I use an Icom IC-7000 to send and retrieve messages via HF. This radio also "shares" the vertical antenna with the Flex-3000.

So, this is minimalist compared to my big Connecticut station of eons ago. One day we will return to the Connecticut location and who knows -- maybe ARS N1MD will rise again!