Dave Mathews

Email: wd8mdi@qsl.net

Mobile Calling Frequencies:
10 Meter: 29.600
2 Meter: 146.520
73cm: 446.000

Hi.
My name is Dave Mathews.
I first became an Amature Radio Operator in 1974 as a Novice. My call was WA4FHH (nice huh? CW was fun. I got a lot of WA4? for a return.) About the same time I got my FCC Second Class Radio Telephone license. I went to the National School of Radio and Television Broadcasting in Atlanta Ga.
At first I wanted to be a disc jockey but I was told by the professors that with my voice and diction I could only get a job as an announcer on an NPR station playing high brow stuff like they do, so I went into engineering. Thank god since now I am an engineer for three radio stations in Columbus, Ohio and I have seen what jocks are like and what their jobs are. Not exactly the glamorous life I had invisioned.

In 1975 I got my Technician ticket and kept it until last year, 2002, when I upgraded to General.
After School in Atlanta I moved back home to Columbus and hence the WD8 call. I have had several jobs here but most of them have been in electronics of some sort. I started out as a techniciam for JC Penneys repair center working on CB radios then went to Heathkit as a sales/technician then to Radio Shack as lead two way communications technician signing off on repairs of marine and air craft two ways.
After running the Radio Shack repair center in Dayton for a year until they closed it I returned to Columbus and tried my hand at a TV shop. That was a disaster but in a way it led me to the position I now have with WMNI, WRMZ, WBZX.

I am currently Assistant Chief Engineer and IT Manager.

Below is a picture of my humble shack. The HF rig is a Kenwood 520. Antenna tuner is a MFJ 16010 ST Super Tuner (if anyone has any info on this thing please E-Mail me and let me know how it works exactly. Right now it is kinda hit and miss tuning up.) There is also a Drake watt meter. My antenna right now is a home brew 3 band inverted V with 40, 20 and 15 meter legs at 12 feet (outside my window. I want to put it in the attic as a straight dipole but I gotta get up there first.)

The Hts are a Kenwood TH215A VHF, Kenwood TK530 73cm.

The laptop is an old Winbook 266 that I use for CW and PSK31.

In my mobile I have a Icom IC25AT old VHF rig with no tones so it gets used mostly for .52 to and from work. I also have a Kenwood TK520 ? 73cm rig and a Radio Shack 10 meter mobile which has proven to be a lot of fun recently. I have 3 countries and a bunch of contacts on it with a ½ wave loaded dipole in the center of the van.


Now you know all about me how about you?

email me!

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