Ham radio's been my "thing" since I was 9 years old, although I wasn't licensed until I was twelve in 1952. My QRZ picture is from 1958. Although retired from IBM, I am known locally as "Dr. PC" for those who need to learn how to use IBM compatible computers or need software/hardware installation/debugging services. The other picture is from NY in 2004. The last shows my workbench-station here in florida. The AL-811 afterburner was added on 1-2-2012.

I have three children and six grandchildren, all in New York State, none of whom are hams. My wife of 43 years passed away in early 2006. I keep fit by playing cardio tennis, walking, running and bicycling.

I enjoy DXing, 160 though 10 meters, Field Day, occasional contesting, rag chewing on VHF and UHF repeaters, and working with digital modes, such as RTTY, MFSK, PSK31 and Pactor. I use LOTW, eQSL and the ARRL QSL bureau.

While living in New York, I achieved the DXCC Honor Roll (334 countries confirmed) and am still on it, although I have moved to Florida and no longer have my 60 foot tower, TH5DXX and SB-220 to add the few countries I don't have confirmed. I also hold DXCC certificates for CW(323), Phone(332) and RTTY(197). I have all 40 CQ-zones confirmed on all modes.

I am a proud Life Member of the ARRL, former President of the Rockland Repeater Association and Crystal Radio Club, and am presently the President of the Palms West Radio Club and vice-president of the AREC67 Repeater. I was the EC for Rockland County, NY for many years and am presently active in ARES and RACES through the Palm Beach County ARES organization. I serve as the team leader for the Laurel VEC in Palm Beach County.

I've integrated my ham radio gear with my computer with a RigBlaster Pro and can't figure out how I did it before computers! My superb logging program, DX4WIN, does most of it, including PSK31. I use MixW, FLDigi and MMTTY for other modes.

My home gear are a TS-870 and Timewave DSP-59, AL-811, Rigblaster Pro, Logikey K-1, Bencher paddle, MFJ-989C, KAM Plus and R6000 vertical for 6-20m. There is a fairly useless attic dipole fed with 450 Ω ladder line too for 30-80m. For mobile work I use an IC-706mk2g and Tarheel 200 antenna with a TurboTuner. For portable operation I use the IC-706, MFJ mini paddle and LDG Z-100 antenna tuner for a yo-yo dipole. My home station computer has an AMD Athlon dual-core processor at 2.4 GHz and Windows 7. For VHF/UHF I have an IC-910H, IC-551, TM-732a, FT-7800, IC-W32a, T90a and IC-228H. I also use the IC-W32A with an Arrow antenna for satellite work and fox hunts.

73, John