After joining the Civil Air Patrol in 1989, I was told about ham classes at the local radio club. Remembering the stories my Dad (N9FD) told me about his youth and ham radio, I decided to join the club and start learning the code and theory.

I received my first ticket as KB9EIC in 1990, at the age of 12. Promptly upgraded to Technician N9JRZ, and then to General in 1991. I was mostly into CW, but my interest in radio faded for a number of years.

Worked in the Silicon Valley (San Francisco Bay Area) from early 1998 until mid-2002, mostly as a Unix Systems Administrator. When the smoke cleared from the tech market crash, I moved to Ocala, Florida.

Bought my first house in 2004, and recently (April 2006) started getting back into ham radio. It was challenging working my first CW contact here - the logbook reflected no contacts for 16 years!

With the help of Dad, worked my first contest in May of 2006 (CQ-M worldwide dx contest). Looking forward to learning more about contesting while I work on improving my code speed.

Currently running an Icom IC-756PROII, antenna is about 100' of wire strung between the house and a 2x4 drove into the ground in the back yard - height is about 8 feet above the ground. The Icom AH-4 tuner works wonders on almost every band with this setup, although I'm still waiting to get a tower installed. Every little bit helps!

(Update May 20, 2006 - just passed my Extra written, finally have all privileges!)

Look forward to hearing from you on CW --- 73, N9JRZ