Hello, and thanks for stopping by my page!

I am a life-long (well, at least since the early 1960's) radio enthusiast and Short Wave DXer/SWL who finally, at age 58, decided to take the plunge and get invloved with Amateur Radio. I was awarded my Technician license (KD2BSW) in mid-March, 2012, and the General Class ticket followed about 3 weeks later. The Amateur Extra license is, hopefully, just down the road.

My passion is chasing DX as well as QSOing with old friends (guys I knew 40+ years ago as a teenager on Long Island, NY, USA on 11 meters, known here In the States as C.B., or Citizens Band). I also very much enjoy a good ragchew with new friends from time to time, especially on 60 meters.

When I'm not in front of my rig, trimming the garden ("mowing the lawn" for you stateside ops) or cooking in the kitchen, you can find me at the controls of an Airbus A330 (a picture of the aircraft is at the top of the page) as a commercial airline pilot in the service of US Airways/American Airlines. I enjoy working Aeronautical Mobile contacts on the trans-Atlantic routes to Europe and the Middle East as well as flights to the Caribbean and South America.

The station here at the QTH consists of a Yaesu FT-950 transceiver used in conjunction with an MFJ-993B transmatch and a 130 foot (40 meter) long dipole at an average height of 30 feet (9 meters) above the ground. The wire is oriented roughly East/West and has a low take-off angle towards the North Pole, Europe and the Middle East. The antenna is directly fed, via the tuner, with 300 ohm balanced feedline. A dedicated, coax-fed horizontal dipole for 6 meters is mounted in the loft ("attic", again for you stateside ops HI HI!) for Es, F-layer and scatter openings. An outdoor array (Yagi or loop) for 6m is pending. The microphone here is a Yaesu MD-200AX, the headphones: Koss Pro/4AA. I operate 80 through 6 meters, barefoot, with only around 100 Watts maximum output, so just about anyone, anywhere and at anytime is DX! I also use a Watkins-Johnson HF-1000 (by far the finest, most remarkable receiver I've ever used) for LW/MW/SW DXing, and an ICOM IC-R7000 for monitoring VHF/UHF comms.

A sincere "Thank You" to all the wonderful Hams with whom I've been in contact, and to those of you with whom I haven't yet worked: I look forward to our QSO's!

From the Capital District here in the State of New York, U.S.A., (and in the air!) I wish you all the best of band conditions and great DX!

73! de

Steve, K2STB

100% QSL via QRZ.com, no paper at this time.