Marty Blaise - call sign AG5T

Although my given name is Martin, I have gone by Marty most of my life. I am a native Houstonian, born 1959, member of Beautiful Savior Lutheran church in Houston, married and have two children (one, my daughter, died in 2014). My other hobbies include photographing and research of abandoned roads and bridges, changing mono to true stereo recordings, playing bass guitar at church and watching tv shows about UFOs and the paranormal. The BLAISE family heritage comes from the Alsace-Lorraine part of France.

I got my start in radio when my parents bought me a shortwave radio in 1972. I then had police scanner radios and CBs. Back then, scanners were crystal controlled. I had a Radio Shack scanner that had 10 crystals and I listened to police and fire. In my high school days (1975 to 1978, coincidentally the same time period as That 70s Show) everyone was putting a CB radio in their car or truck. That was my first introduction to two-way radio. I listened for several years to hams on local repeaters on my scanners but did not yet have a license. First licensed as a novice class in 1989. Previous calls were KB5IQO, N5OHN and AB5NN. Changed to AG5T in the vanity program.

I do a lot of FT8 operating because I can use 25 watts and my small station to make lots of contacts. I also do some FT4 and FT2 and occasionally work other digital modes. At present my highest output power is 100 watts. Current antenna setup, "small pistol" station/antennas: Ham radio activities include:

My links