I was first licensed back in 1975 while a senior in high school. Originally was WB9SIV as a Technician. Within two years I upgraded to General and Advanced. In 1981 I took the shortened KB9XU call, but never liked it. In 2000, with the reductions in morse code testing, I upgraded to Extra and got the current N6VL call. I achieved my childhood dream in 2003 . I bought a house and put up an antenna farm. As a kid I had my parent's 3/4 acre lot to play with in rural Illinois. There was even a full length 160 dipole at one point. I have spent the past 20 years in California. So I had to wait to buy a house in Orange County and get my antenna farm.

I have seen many changes in ham radio. There are many new modes. The past six years have been mostly spent on the new HF digital modes such as PSK31, MFSK16, and Olivia. Very recently I am scratching an itch to try CW. It used to be a necessary evil to get HF privileges. Now I am trying it for QSOs and getting my speed up. My rigs are the ICOM 756 Pro 2, ICOM 746PRO, the Flex Radio SDR-1000, ICOM 706 MKIIG, Yaesu FT-857, Yaesu FT-897, Yaesu FT-817, Kenwood TM-D700A, & the Kenwood 742. It is time to sell some.

My HF antennas are a GAP Titan DX vertical for 40 10 and a delta loop for 80, 60, & 40. On VHF I have an M2 2M9SSB beam for 2 meter weak signal work, a J-Pole for 2m & 70 cm, and a Ringo for 222 Mhz. I hope to have a homebrew Hex-Beam for the upper HF bands up soon.

If you hear me on any band or mode, feel free to give a call. I prefer relaxed HF QSOs rather than chasing DX.

73 de Steve N6VL

FISTS #12707 SKCC #2383