Thank you for visiting my ham radio page on www.QRZ.com! Yes. one of my other hobby is computergraphics. The QSL card you see in the upper right was my creation.

As of July 23, 2011, the FCC granted K4LYJ to me, trading my N6LYJ for the new call. While the N6 served me very well for the past 26 years, the K4 will better serve me as I now live in South Carolina, District 4.

The K4LYJ is not what you would term a "CW" call sign. But I love the CW mode. And because the "LYJ" is engrained in my fingertips when sending CW, I only need to remember that the prefix starts with K4 instead of N6!!

My interest with ham radio began when I was 14 years old. The "itch" started when I found a discarded 1935 Philco shortwave radio at the public dump. I took it home, plugged it in, and watched amazed as its 7 large tubes started to glow. Realizing after a few minutes nothing bad was going to happen - smoke, fire, or electrocution - I attached a piece of wire to the radio's antenna screw terminal. After a few seconds of loud static the unloved radio rewarded me. I was able to listen in on my first ham conversation on the 80 meter band, a.m. mode of course!

Two things happend during that year. Mike, a ham, moved across the street, and my father gave me a National NC 60 shortwave receiver for Christmas. Mike taught me the code and some basic radio. However, 24 years slipped by until I remembered ham radio and decided to earn my Novice license, KB6DNY, 1983. In 1985, I upgraded to General, receiving my previous call, N6LYJ. I passed my Extra exam, December 7, 2010 .

My current rig is a sweet-running Elecraft K2/100 (100 watt). The basic K2/10 (10 watts) took about 5 weeks to assemble and an additional 1 week to complete the 100 watt amplifier. Hey! Try one. You'll like it. Elecraft: www.elecraft.com

My newest "child", an Elecraft K3/100 (100 watts):

Thanks to www.dxblaster.com I am now using a new 40 meter cage dipole. It can be used all across the 40 meter band without an antenna tuner and with a tuner it works very nicely on 20, 15, 12, and 10 meters! Iinstalled it in 20 minutes, like the web site says, however it took me three and one halfdays to clear brush and trees for the installation. Hmm. They didn't mention the prep time. Nice thing about the cage dipole - The XYL loves it because the coax and antenna are up high in the trees! (NOTE: the picture below is to show what a cage dipole looks like when notcamouflagedby 70' trees, so this is NOT my actual dipole)

I QSL via mail or (Eqsl.cc) http://eqsl.cc

Ed - 73's

K4LYJ --

(KB6DNY - From 1981 to 1985)

(N6LYJ - From 1985 to 2011 - cancelled as of July 23, 2011)