Although my given name is Martin, I have gone by Marty most of my life. I am a native Houstonian, born 1959, member of Beautiful Savior Lutheran church, married and have two children. Other hobbies includes photographing abandoned highways and bridges, true stereo recordings, playing guitar and watching tv shows about UFOs and the paranormal.

I have a 40 meter dipole, 80 meter dipole and Swiss dipole for 20-10 meters. I am what you would call a "little pistol" station, although I do have some plans for the future to upgrade. Took a big hit from Hurricane Ike when it basically destroyed my 36-foot two-section tower and five-band gemquad antenna. I hope to be able to replace it someday, but for now I am still operating with the antennas mentioned above. Really does limit the dxing, although I did work  7O, JX9 and ZL9

First licensed in 1989. Previous calls KB5IQO, N5OHN and AB5NN. I changed to AG5T in the vanity program. (Can you imagine what it was like sending AB5NN 5NN on code?) Some of my other ham radio activities are:

• President of the Houston ECHO Society Amateur Radio Club for about 10 years and have organized many field day events for that group
• Member of the 3905 Century Club where I was a qsl manager for several years and get on when I get a chance, also served as ssb NSC for their 40 meter nets
• Aproximately 322 dx entities confirmed.  Here are the ones I still need - 3Y Bouvet, BS7H Scarborough Reef, A5 Bhutan, A9 Bahrain, EP Iran, FT Crozet, FT New Amsterdam, FT Kergulen, VU4 Andamans, VU7 Lakshadweep, S2 Bangladesh, XX9 Macao, ZS8 Marion Island, VK0H Heard Island, VP8SS South Sandwich, Z8 Southern Sudan, XZ Myanmar, FG Glorioso, ZD9 Tristan de Cunha, 9N Nepal and P5 North Korea.
• Worked All States on 80 and 40 meters, now working on 20-15-10 to aim towards 5BWAS
• Use LOTW, eqsl as well as qsl cards by regular mail

I became interested in radio from dxing am radio stations in the car, then shortwave, then police/fire/etc. scanners. Learned the Morse code in Boy Scouts (Eagle Scout 1974). Played a lot on CB radios in my high school days when we were all listening to Convoy by C.W. McCall.

I still enjoy listening to AM stations at night on 530-1700 and keep a log. Trying to learn more about SSS and SRS (skip patterns). FM Dxing is a bit tougher, because Houston has so many 24-hour FM stations on the dial, but I recently heard a Wisconsin station on FM through Eskip, so I am eager to hear more.

If you are in the Houston area, give me a call on 147.000 (tone 103.5) or 147.080 (no tone). ECHO meets the second Monday of the month at the American Red Cross and you are certainly welcome to attend as a visitor. Email me for details and repeater tones or visit the Houston ECHO Society website at www.w5eco.org.

73 and good DX