I have been involved with radios since I was quite young. I can remember my Grandfather in Kent who used to repair radios for a living. I watched him as he swapped tubes out of the radio and tested them with his big tube-tester. That is probably what sparked my interest in radio and electronics.

     I first got started as a Ham around 1975, when I passed my Novice test. In those days another Ham with a General class or better could administer the test anywhere you wanted. The Ham that helped me test was Ray, K1CSB. I still manage to talk with him on 80 meters, although rarely. After I received my first license, which was the call sign WN1WLJ, I began to work a lot of CW on 80 and 40 with an occasional contact on 15. My station at that time was a Multi-Elmac 50 Watt transmitter with a Hammurland HQ170 for a receiver and a long wire antenna with a homebrew tuner. I also made the power supply for the transmitter. I had a lot of fun with that and collected quite a few QSL cards. After a couple of years, I began to get interested in who was to become my wife, Lynn. Since that time until about 4 years ago I was busy being a husband and father. Although I am still busy being a husband and father, I have had more time to devote to Ham radio this time around. I am now an Advanced class and active with many different aspects of the hobby.

     I now run packet (including APRS) on 2 meters, SSB and CW on the HF bands, and of course 2m and 70 cm voice both at home and in the car. So far I have managed to receive an ARRL WAS award with an endorsement for 40 M SSB. I am currently working on the 80 M endorsement. I only need Hawaii and that will be done. I hope to work Hawaii sometime this winter. I have also had a TCP/IP packet running in the past, which I hope to get running again in the near future. I have also done some Volunteer Examiner work for about 2 years now. I really enjoy helping new Hams get their first ticket, as I had help getting my first ticket.

     As Club Historian, I hope to build a nice scrapbook with pictures and newspaper clipping to record the happenings of the Club. I am not too sure of what the history of the club has been, but I should be able to get a better handle on that as time goes by. I am really looking forward to a positive effect on the Club through doing this job.

     I hope I didn't bore anyone with all of this, but I could go on write a lot more about Ham Radio, since it is my favorite hobby. Please check out my home page for up to date happenings around the K1EC radio shack. The address is http://www.qsl.net/k1ec and my email address is [email protected]