K0IC

Ronald Erickson

I was first licensed as WNØGDA in November 1971 and received my Amateur Extra Class license in 1979. Previous call signs I have held include WNØGDA, WBØGDA, and AKØN. I joined ARMS around 2007.

I like a lot of activities in amateur radio--mainly ragchewing and keeping in touch with souls I have gotten acquainted with down through the years. I do some contests but not too much. I like QRP if I can make connections with other amateur radio operators. I like CW but I do not copy in my head as well as I would like to get the most out of CW. I have two meters and a 40-watt power brick for local QSOs.

I have a variety of amateur radio equipment, including E.F. Johnson, Hallicrafter, Central Electronics, Icom, and Kenwood radios. I mostly use a Kenwood TS-140S for communications. I hope to repair a Kenwood TS-520 as back-up. I also have a couple of E.F. Johnson Valiants with sideband adapters. I can operate from 160 meters to two meters except for 6 meters which I would operate if I could.

My significant awards are the Ragchewing award from the ARRL and my Extra Class Amateur Radio license. I am still working on the Worked All States award which may or many not happen. I am not active enough to get a DXCC.

My dad had a maternal first cousin, WAØQVS (SK), who got me started in Amateur Radio. I was tested for my Novice license by WAØGHQ (SK) as my dad's cousin was dying of terminal cancer. My grandmother had a first cousin in Kansas, whose call might have been WØGLC (SK), who I almost talked to on 75 meters after I became licensed. I am profoundly colorblind as I could not pass color charts even in grade school. I might have taken a different course in life if that had not been a factor. My family is in farming. Due to arthritis and debilitating back spasms caused by work in farming, I let a brother do the work as long as he can. I might be a farm manager/owner someday, Lord willing.

I worked in the grocery business--Hy-Vee Stores, Inc.--for about two years before I injured my hamstring muscle. I went to electronics school in Omaha, Nebraska, for a year after graduating from IWCC - Clarinda with an A.A. Degree. I got both my commercial and amateur radio licenses after my electronics school education. I worked in two-way radio for a couple of years. I did not like tower climbing. I worked part-time for the local telephone company as a comboman. I was hired in broadcasting at a radio station needing a commercially licensed person during personnel changes. Due to arthritis I lost out in my radio career during restructuring of the corporation. I did not want to go to the big city, so I went back to college for a B.G.S. Degree. I helped compile a family tree and history in the early 1990s.

My church involvement has been numerous. I was baptized and confirmed in the Evangelical Covenant Church and I went for a time to an Assembly of God fellowship in the 1970s. My favorite Bible verses are actually two chapters of Psalms--chapters 1 and 112. I like the King James Version to compare translations. I can read some Swedish so I like to check that translation too.

I want to believe my best years are ahead of me. I had a family of maternal great-aunts, except for one, who lived to 90 years old. My paternal grandfather lived to 97 and a paternal great-aunt lived to be 103. My paternal grandmother had cousins that did well in farming that did not marry. I am a life time member of the FGBMFI since around 1985 which makes me trans-denominational.

Updated 4 January 2024