Updated:10/29/2010 - Greetings from Benton, Kentucky.

I received my first Amateur Radio license at the age of 19 while living on my parents farm near Belle, Missouri (Maries County). With the help of my elmer Larry (K0LA), I received my novice license in December 1970 and was assigned the call signWN0DDG..I have been an active ham ever since. I have also held the following call signs: WB0DDG, WB5UTQ, KB0DZ, KR5E, W0RH.

My XYL Joanne (K4JRN)is a general class licensee. My daughter April (K4AJH) and her husband Jason (KF4TOV) are also hams and both are General class licensees as well. My identical twin brother Jonnie (W4AW)and his XYL Gail (W4ETJ) are also both hams. At last count, including in-laws and cousins, we had about 16 hams in the family. My grandson Anthony is also interested in ham radio. I hope that he will be licensed soon.

My first station was a Drake 1A receiver which I bought from "Yogi" (a CBer who lived in Vichy, Missouri) for $85.00 and a Heathkit DX-40 transmitter that I bought from my elmer Larry K0JWN (now K0LA)for $40.00. Both were great rigs for a novice. I also purchased a brand new 275 watt Joh.nson matchbox tuner from Henry Radio in Bulter, Missouri. I forgot how much I paid for it (I earned the money to buy this equipment by working in the local Kingsford charocol plant near Belle, Missouri stacking 50 pound bags of charocol). I also used a homebrew windom antenna for 80 and 40 meters and later my brother and I built a homebrew two element beam for 15 meters to work DX. We used a Gotham V80 vertical for the reflector and 1/4 inch conduit pipe for the driven element. We worked a lot of DX as novices with that homebrew beam.

The above picture shows my station as of 10/23/2010. It shows the following equipment:Icom IC-756pro and IC-740transceivers; Ameritron ALS-600 Amplifier; Drake MN-2000 tuner; Icom SM-6, Heil Classic, and Icom HM-36 microphones; Icom SP-20 and Yaesu speakers; MFJ MightyLite switching power supply; 1.8 ghz desktop computer with Ham Radio Deluxe for the digital modes and to log my QSO's. HF antennas: inverted vee's for 80, 40, and 20 meters. I use the 40 meter antenna on 15 meters and 30 meters (with a tuner) as well as 6 meters (with a flat SWR on 50.125). The 40 meter vee works quite well on 6 meters. I also usethe 20 meter vee on 17 meters (with a tuner).

I also have a Drake station. It consists of R4B and R4A receivers, a T4X transmitter and matching speakers/power supply.

Most of my radio time is spent on PSK-31,RTTYand CW..My favorite mode is RTTY.. My favorite band is 40 meters.

If you are visiting as a result ofa QSO with me, thanks for the contact and I hope to talk with you again. If you are just visiting, thanks for visiting and I hope we can chat on the air some day.

Thanks. 73 DE Ron -W4ET

Rev: W4ET - Thu Feb 4 17:28:07 1999