Celebrating 30 years in amateur radio (1980-2010)

Greetings all,

My QTH is Franklin Lakes, New Jersey, a distant suburb (35 km NW) of New York City, with a population of about 10,000 people.

I was first licensed as a Novice at age 13 in 1980 (KA2MWW), and I upgraded to General shortly after (N2DCO).  In high school and college, I focused on other things and left ham radio temporarily behind.  After discovering (unexpectedly!) in 1992 that my license had expired, I re-tested and earned my General again (N2PQA).  In 1996, I decided to get to Extra to work those little 25 kHz segments where all the DX lives!  With a brief stop at Advanced (KG2IV), I finally became KA2Z.  After a brief period of enthusiasm, I became inactive in ham radio for over 10 years as life took me elsewhere.  How time flies.

In October 2009 I got the bug again.  And a new callsign, K2ER.  Maybe I'm done?  I hope so.  Maybe this will last a while?  I hope so!!

I am running the following equipment:

• Ten-Tec Orion 565AT
• Ten-Tec Omni VI+
  
• Ameritron AL-811 amplifier
• MFJ IntelliTuner 998
  
• Keys:  K8RA P2, 1962 Vibroplex Vibrokeyer, American Morse KK-1, Bencher BY-1, homebrew straight key
  
• Ten-Tec 707 mic
  

Backup station:

• Kenwood TS-450S
• MFJ 986 tuner
  
• Logikey K-5
• Kenwood MC-80 mic
  

My main antenna is a 135' vee doublet (legs at 90 degrees) fed with 300 ohm line via a 4:1 balun.  The feedpoint is at 32' (9.75m) and the ends are at 50' (15.25m). I use balanced feedline and a tuner to make this antenna work on 80, 40, 30, 17, 15, and 12 meters.

For some reason, the doublet does not do well on 20 and 10 meters.  So I also have a traditional fan dipole for these two bands at 35'.  I also have a full wave loop for 15 meters, hung vertically in a diamond shape.

With the loop, I finally exceeded the XYL's wire antenna tolerance threshold.  As a result, I am in the early stages of bargaining to replace the smaller ones with a 5 band Hex Beam on a 30' mast.  You see, there is a method to the madness!  ;-)

I operate CW about 90% of the time (maybe more!), then SSB, but no digital stuff.  I work with computers and already communicate with them far too much!  So I stick to old fashioned radio modes.  Works for me.  Here's the key I built for Straight Key Night, 2010:

In addition to radio, I'm a very enthusiastic guitarist with a collection of 30+ instruments (electric, acoustic, nylon, steel, bass, etc.).  I play some jazz, Brazilian, a little Flamenco, and eclectic acoustic music that's hard to stick a label on.  I have recorded 3 albums which can be found on iTunes by searching for my name.

Hope to catch you on the air!

73 de K2ER

Straight Key Century Club #6190