RAY SOIFER, W2RS

I reply direct to all direct QSLs received, and will QSL via LoTW if requested. I do not QSL via the bureau.

I have been licensed since 1955, originally as KN2QBW when I was 12, and have held W2RS since 1976. Extra Class since 1958. I have lived in seven US call areas (W1-W7), and my other callsigns have included K1WXC, K2QBW, WA4IJR and G5DDU. So far, I have operated from 44 US states and 23 DXCC entities.

My current ham interests include DX, satellites, antique radio, and CW operation generally. I can sometimes also be found on RTTY, as well as 50 MHz during the sporadic-E season, and occasionally even AM. At previous locations, I was active in weak-signal DXing on 144 MHz, EME, HF and VHF contesting, LF, and various other aspects of amateur radio. I may return to them someday. Over the years, I have written many articles for QST, RadCom, The AMSAT Journal, and other ham publications, mostly about satellites and EME.

Some of the operating awards I have received are:

Top of the DXCC Honor Roll

CW DXCC Honor Roll

5BDXCC No. 461 (1978)

160 Meter DXCC

Satellite DXCC No. 13

Satellite WAC No. 6

The satellite awards were earned entirely via LEO spacecraft. In addition, I am happy to have participated in the first two-way contact in any radio service via satellite-to-satellite relay, with W2BXA (SK) in 1975, as well as the first known contact via satellite ionization trail reflection, a propagation mode discovered by W8JK (SK), with K3JTE (now W3PK) in February 1960, a few months before Bell Laboratories' Project Echo. It doesn't seem like much in view of today's digital technology (JT65 etc.), but I am still delighted to have worked 37 stations via 144 MHz EME with 150 watts and a single CushCraft 3219 Yagi, all on CW, in 1985-95.

I have lived in Green Valley, Arizona, since 2004, after relocating from Glen Rock, New Jersey. Green Valley is in the Sonoran desert, about 25 miles (40 km) south of Tucson and 40 miles (64 km) north of the Mexican border. It is 3000 feet (900m) above sea level, and is called "Green" because of the many trees.

Member Green Valley ARC (http://gvarc.us), Arizona Outlaws Contest Club, A-1 Operator Club, ARRL, RSGB, AMSAT (past officer and director), AMSAT-UK, AWA, CCA, CDXC, CSVHFS, FISTS, OOTC, Norfolk (UK) ARC, PVRC, and QCWA, among others. Fellow, Radio Club of America. I have belonged to many other clubs at previous locations, including the Harvard Wireless Club (W1AF) and the MIT Radio Society (W1MX).

My main HF station presently includes a Ten-Tec Orion II transceiver and two amplifiers (Collins 30L-1 and Ameritron AL-811 with 572Bs). On 50 MHz, I am using a Ten-Tec 1208 transverter and a Mirage A1015G amp. Antennas are a Hy-Gain AV620 vertical for 6-20 meters and a 130-foot (40m) inverted-L for the lower bands. For information about my KISS satellite station and reconstructed 1950s Novice station, please go to the GVARC Web site and click on Technical Page. I am also a Collins collector.

I am married with two grown sons. Before retiring in 2000, I worked in investment banking in New York and London.

I support the DX Code of Conduct (http://dx-code.org).

Thank you for your interest, and CU on the air!

73, Ray