My first exposure to contesting was with the high school amateur radio club during field day activities. Later, Eric, W8IRO (now K8LV), and I operated DX contests from the QTH of Larry Mueller - W8RLT. After college, I bought a house in Royal Oak, Michigan and had my first contesting station. (See photo on this page) Also, at this time, I met Steve, K8LX (formerly WA8LYF) and got more serious about contesting. After Steve moved out of his parent's house, we shared an apartment (I went through a divorce at the time). Together we started planning a multi-multi station, not knowing where that would be located. Joe, N8EA (formerly W8HBK) offered his country location as a place to set up all of our downed towers. Eventually, when Joe moved from this QTH, Steve moved in to the rental property.

In 1976, I moved to my current location in Central Lake and bought family property and built a new house, which is located on 7 acres. With a great deal of help from N4AR, K8FX, G4UDU, G4BUE and AA8YI the results are described in the section of these WebPages titled - STATION TOUR.

My professional career includes BS, MEd and MA degrees from Wayne Sate University in art and graphic design. I taught for ten years at Rochester Senior High School, four years at Northwestern Michigan College and fourteen years at Boyne City High School. I retired in 2001 from Boyne City High School.

I have been married to my wonderful wife, Nancy, for the past 23 years. Together we have four sons, Jimmy, Jeff, Kurt and Bryan. We added a great daughter-in-law when Jeff married Karen. They blessed us with a grandson in December 2001.

E-mail: w8wa@yahoo.com