UPDATE - I, and my wife Pat, are newly moved to Polk County (Sept. 2008) and am located west of Kathleen (northwest of Lakeland) in grid square EL88xc so the picture you see below is history.

I became a ham as a teenager, getting on the air with a donated homemade xmtr using a 807 final (7173 kc/s novice band), a gift from my "Elmer" K2CW, Gene Fry (long SK), and a Hammarlund Super-Pro 200-SX my dad bought for me for $50. From New Jersey, as KN2EUH I worked Puerto Rico twice, and my DX passion was set for life. Later I had a converted ARC-5 Command set. I fell in love with 20 meters, and exclusively using CW, earned DXCC #4,364 in June, 1959 while still in High School. College and then work (in NYC, in the radio broadcasting business for ABC and then CBS) took me away from hamming for 20+ years. With a DX-60, HG10B VFO and a NRD-515 receiver, I reactivated ham DXing in 1982 for several years, reaching over 230 then confirmed, all with wire antennas, on 80 through 10, mainly CW. During that time I also used a R4B and T4XB combo, and got to do some SSB DX as well, though CW remains my main passion. I've never had a beam. I've recently been able to QSL several "new ones" I had worked in the mid 1980-early 1990 era, from op's who kept their old logs and cards, a special thanks to The Yasme Foundation, Ron Wright, and the other op's who have found some of my old contacts in their logs.

During this time, I've also had a strong interest in DX listening on the MW broadcast band (540-1700 kHz). Most of my success was done before the 1980's when frequencies were clear at night and the noise level was lower. In addition, many stations that existed then were active on MW, and have either gone silent (in favor of FM/VHF) or have moved to "even" frequencies. For example, just two countries (of many) that used to be "easy" were ZBM-1 Bermuda on 1235 kc, and Radio Kelkboom, Aruba on 1435 kc, now on "even" channels and lost in QRM. Another, of many, Radio Montserrat, 885 kHz, has disappeared, in this case due to volcanic eruption, but usually just due to economics of broadcasting on AM. I have logged 49 US states and verified 48 of them (missing AK and ND), and heard about 85 countries, and verified about half of those, from north NJ or from Long Island, NY. This includes one Australian, 2NA Newcastle NSW (then 1510 kc) and 2 New Zealand (1YC 880 and 1ZD on 1000) all heard in NJ during the 1964 sunspot minima. My all time best MW QSL is from Tarawa (now T30) in the then Gilbert Islands heard in 1971 when they went to 10 kW on 844 kHz, heard in NY using a HQ-150 and a 4-foot indoor tuned loop. (they are presently 846 kHz, after the 1978 freq. shifts took place). Another exotic logging for me was "Radio Peking" Foreign Service in Russian, from Xinjiang A. R. in China, then on 1525 kc, heard sometimes at 2200Z in January on the ECNA, in the early 1970's beamed to Moscow. This was a 2 megawatt symbol of the geopolitics of that era.

Remarriage after being widowed led to another mostly continuous long layoff from radio, my second long ham sabbatical in my lifetime. Now I again am back in the chase, presently operating from near Lakeland FL.

I've had the same callsign all my life, fortunately I always kept ahead of the renewal dates. I am a former member of LIDXA and now am with TARC in Tampa and am with the Mid Florida DX Ass'n, founded by Dan, W2NDP (SK) whom I was fortunate to have known. C U on the low end, Bob k2euh-- (last edited 2008-10-02)