If you would like, please add yourself to my contacts log above.

Ag₂F, Silver subfluoride: this metalic halide (crystaline structure depicted in graphic, courtesy Ben Mills), is sometimes used in an amalgam for dental fillings, evidently because it precipitates pure Silver when exposed to water.  Not that this has any thing to do with me, but when I received my new call sign, AG2F, I did a search for `AG2F' on Google, and found that the majority of links were for this metal.

The interesting story about my call sign, is the story of its former owner, Garold L Armes, who passed away April 24, 2007 at the age of 87, having been born Aug 31, 1919, in Ohio, which is the same day in August that I was born.  The odds are, roughly, 365:1 that we would share the same birthday in August.  In addition to being the previous holder of AG2F, prior to that he held the call sign AE4SP, which he was granted by the FCC in 1997, a year in which he was residing in Florida.  I too held a call sign, KJ4JIQ, granted to me in Florida.  Mr. Armes was a WWII veteran, having enlisted in the Army in Kentucky, and rising to the rank of a Warrant Officer.  I, however, was never in the Army.  From the best records I have, Mr. Armes last resided in Antwerp, NY 13608-3120, at 155 Somerville Rd.  If you know something about the life of Garold L Armes, please get in touch with me.

I was first licensed as a `Novice' circa 1974, but never upgraded, so my first call sign is lost to my memory, and the sands of time.  Recently, in retirement, I became enthusiastic about joining the amateur radio community once again, and became relicensed in Februrary, 2009.

My interests in amateur radio are many, but I am perhaps most aligned with the community service and educational interests of the ARRL.  First I want to educate myself, and then I want to pass it on to my family and friends.  It's a fragile privilege to be able to communicate, freely with other people of all walks of life, and the only way to preserve this privilege is to educate our youth and serve our communities.  Oh yeah, and we get to meet people from all over the world, and generally have fun at the same time.

My rig, the FT-897D, doesn't have a lot of power, but it's versatile and mobile.  That along with the SGC SG-230 antenna coupler, make it possible for me to work HF-10m/VHF/UHF with two (2) sub-optimal antennas.  An inverted-V fed with 300 ohm twin lead at 35', and a two band J-pole at 30'.  A third beam is in the works for dx on 40-10m at 55'.

I'm a regular on FPTN, a phone traffic and training net with liaisons with the NTS, that meets daily at 6:55 AM Eastern on 3.940 MHz in the SouthEast USA. Currently using HRD + DM780 v5 beta on a Dell laptop dedicated to rig control and digital sound card modes.  Even when I'm not at my rig, it serves as a monitor station for the PSKReporter.info project; a great way to get access to near real time propagation information for your rig and antenna system. The interface to PSKReporter.info is built into DM780, and other popular sound card based digital programs. I typically monitor 14.070 MHz during daylight, and 7.035 MHz over night.