Although I had always been interested in radio, I was convinced I could never begin to master Morse Code. That all changed when the resort business in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania began looking for bands with less musicians. Since our drummer wanted to retire anyway, I decided to buy a drum machine and program it to take the place of a drummer. Somehow the rhythm of the drums opened up my mind to the rhythm of the code.

In early March of 1992, I saw an article in our local newspaper that a local radio club (PARK) was looking for people who were interested in becoming hams. I called the number, and three weeks later I earned my first amateur (Novice) call, KB3AAM. In August I upgraded to General, in October to Advanced (now becoming KE3EX), and in January of 1993, I passed elements 4B and 1C. My current call, W3SJ, came along in March of 1997 with the advent of the Vanity Call program. My wife, Judy, now holds my original Novice callsign, KB3AAM.

In July, 2001, I retired from teaching second grade after 30 rewarding years.

For the following three years we were Florida "snowbirds," splitting our time between Pennsylvania and Florida. In October of 2004, we became permanent Florida residents, first in Holiday and now in Spring Hill.

Other interests are music (still playing guitar and singing in a duo called Double Play . (See website www.doubleplayband.net ), DJing (still doing that, too !) golfing, bowling, surfing the Net, serving as an officer and Board member in our local ARC, publishing Web Pages, and cruising around in our '04 Corvette.

Thank God for my beautiful and patient wife Judy, who has given me two daughters and much more understanding than any man deserves.

Our favorite mutual hobby is doting over four grandsons, Christopher, born in May of '95, Ryan, born in November of '99, the twins, Garrett and Joshua, born October 20,2000, and our beautiful grand-daughters Amber,born in 1993, and Jessica, born in 1997.