The large photo above looks west toward the Santa Cruz Mountains and the Monterey Penninsula from a point about 30 miles inland. K9YC is on the far side of the most distant ridge, at an elevation of 2,000 ft, five miles from the Pacific Ocean. This gives me great propagation anywhere in the Pacific, but because the top of that nearby ridge ranges from 2,2000 to 2,650 ft, working to the north and east is a bit of a challenge!

I grew up in West Virginia. I was first licensed in 1955 as WN8FNI, W8FNI (General Class) in 1956, and Amateur Extra and First Class Radiotelephone in 1959. I received my BSEE at the University of Cincinnati in 1964, where I was trustee of W8YX, the club station, reactivating it after a long period of down time. UC's engineering was co-op; as part of that program, I worked for WLW, WSAZ, WCAW, and RL Drake, where I tuned up some of their first TR3 transceivers.

I moved to Chicago in 1964 and received W9NEC, where I was sporadically active from a small city lot between 1976 and 1986. During my first years in Chicago, I worked briefly for Motorola, then taught for five years at DeVry. I moved to a new QTH in 1987, and was inactive until 2003 when I erected a few trap dipoles on my city lot, acquired a used OmniV, and put an FT-100 D in my Volvo. In 2003, I received K9YC under the Vanity licensing program. My HF operation is primarily CW, but I'll pick up the mic to do contesting. I also enjoy VHF tropo, aurora, and Es, and I've been playing a bit with PSK31 and RTTY. I'm a member of the Northern Califronia Contest Club, and the Ridge Runners Radio Club, and trustee of the Ridge Runners Club Station, W6BX.

In April 2006, we moved 2,200 miles westward from Chicago to Santa Cruz. Our new QTH is a cottage nestled in an old growth redwood forest, 8.5 acres of which is our land. In addition to these magnificent trees, many of them nearly 100 years old and more than 100 ft tall, there are also pin oak, some beautiful madrones, and Douglas fir. The inset photo on the left shows our home and a few of those trees. The inset photo on the right shows me having fun at the North Shore Radio Club's annual QRP night in a Skokie, IL forest preserve before I moved from Chicago.

The K9YC antenna farm consists of wires suspended from these trees and two reversible Beverages to EU, VK, SA, and JA. The wires are up 100 ft, and there's an 86 ft top-loaded vertical for 160 with 60 radials. Inside the shack, I'm in the process of replacing a pair FT1000MPs with a pair of K3s. I use them with a Ten Tec Titan and Hercules II amps (for SO2R contesting), a TS850, and an Elecraft K2/100. I also work 6 meters, loading one of my HF dipoles. I've always liked VHF and UHF small signal work, but I'm on the wrong side of the ridge to do much of that from this QTH.

After moving more than 2,000 miles, I've started over on DXCC and WAS (not easy at this part of the solar cycle!). In about two years, I'm up to 208 countries (77 on 160). I still need 4 states on 15 and 7 on 10M

In my professional life, I'm a sound system design consultant, specializing in systems for public places -- theaters, churches, stadiums, arenas, etc. I'm also vice-chair of the EMC Working Group of the Standards Committee of the Audio Engineering Society (AES) and Chair of the Technical Committee on EMC. I find my ham and engineering background extremely helpful in understanding the issues associated with EMC, and have published several research papers and tutorials on the topic. They can be downloaded from my business website, http://audiosystemsgroup.com. Click on the "Publications" link. There are also various technical notes on sound system design, the technical issues associated with wireless microphones, and the effect of digital TV on wireless mics. I enjoy doing research and sharing it with others in the form of formal publications, tutorials, and applications notes. That's a major reason why I'm so lazy with QSLs.

I've also done some recording of live jazz for broadcast and my own personal enjoyment. One of those recordings, Carmen McRae live at Ratsos in 1976, was issued in 2003 by Hitchcock Media and received 4.5 stars from Downbeat. http://www.hitchcock-media.com