My interest in radio started at age 12 when I saw someone operate a CB radio so I asked "Santa" for a CB radio. Later I met a CBer who knew a Ham operator that lived nearby. We visited his ham shack one day and was given a demonstration by the owner, Tex, WAØOMB--"Old Man Baker", who ran the Central States Traffic Net for many years. I was hooked! So Tex gave me some old license manuals to study.

After studying the manuals I determined it was a little tougher than I thought. Then while attending a CB Jamboree at Peony Park in 1977, I met Scott, WBØWOT at the AK-SAR-BEN Amateur Radio Club's booth. Scott was only 12 or 13 at the time. Maybe I could get my license after all! So I signed up for the club's novice class. I became WDØGHA in January, 1978, at 15 years old making it to General class at 16. I didn't upgrade again until I was bit hard by the DX bug in 1990. Finally I upgraded to Advance in 1991 and Extra in 1992 to work more DX. In 1996 I changed my call sign to KØiL when the vanity program came along.

Being inactive during college in the 1980's, I decided to get active again. I put a 10-meter rig in my car to use while commuting. My first 2 mobile QSOs where with CO2PX and CX9DH. Two new ones! Bit by the DX bug I was! As I became a more active DXer, I started reading anything I could find on DXing. Early on I read W9KNI's book "The Complete DXer" which is "the book" on DXing in my opinion.

One tip in "The Complete DXer" is to get active in DX contests. It's a great way to pick up new mode and band countries so I started out contesting just to work DX. Didn't care about mults, runs, or Qs totals. Just DX! At first I didn't send in any logs to actually enter the contests, but pretty soon I found myself sending in logs for more and more contests. I'm now active in contests like Sweepstakes and the Nebraska QSO Party and a complete Field Day fanatic! In July 1998, my dream of operating in a big multi-multi station came true when Todd, KKØDX and I operated at K4VX's super station as W1AW/Ø with the likes of WØAIH, K9PG, W9QA, AG9A, K9BGL, and many more class contest operators. It was a terrific learning experience.

As an electronics engineer for the local power company, I'm the system engineer on their 2-way radio systems (800 MHz trunked ASTRO 7.X system), VHF paging, and UHF conventioinal systems. I'm married to Diane--KCØDXi and have 2 kids, Jason and Nicole. My other interests are bicycling, music--especially Jazz (I play the drums), Boy Scouts with my son, and I also like to shoot some pool on occasion.

Ed Edwards, P.E. --KØiL

http://www.qsl.net/k0il

Rev: K0IL - Thu Mar 05 20:00:00 2009