July 11, 2012 was the 65th anniversary of my being licensed. I have always enjoyed challenges, especially those on CW. I guess that’s why I enjoy the FISTS CW Club so much. It was fun to go after the various Awards which FISTS offers including the “tough” ones like Diamond Century.

In 2006 the FISTS WARC Band Challenge was announced, I decided to see what I could accomplish operating on 30, 17 and 12 Meters. I really became engrossed in working the WARC bands. I ended up being the winner of the 2006 WARC Band Challenge and received "The G3ZQS Trophy" That's it in the picture in front of the K2.

I was first licensed in 1947 as W8AVT, and held that call sign until April 1956 when I moved to Roanoke, Virginia with the General Electric Company and was issued K4IKF. When two-letter calls became available to hams who had been licensed 25 years, I received my present call K4UK in August 1972.

I enjoy many aspects of amateur radio, including mobile, county hunting, contesting, and rag chewing. Even though my true love is CW, I do hold Geratol # 2044 for working all states on phone in the Extra Class portion of the 75 Meter Band. I have also earned DXCC, 6 Band WAS, WAC. I was honored to receive membership in the A-1 Operator Club.

I belong to ARRL, Franklin County ARC and Old Dominion Chapter #202 of QCWA.

My station consists of a TenTec Omni VI, an Elecraft K2, an Elecraft KX1 a Ten-Tec "6N2". Also I’ve got a couple Rock Mites, one for 40 Meters and one for 20 Meters. The antennas include a Cushcraft R7 vertical, an All-Band trap dipole, and a 160 Meter Inverted Vee. All three antennas were dropped by the "Derecho" on June 29, 2012. They are all back up now.

For HF mobile I use a TenTec Scout with a Hustler antenna. Also I’ve got a TenTec 1220 - 2 meter FM rig in my Chrysler van.

For 50 years I had used a "Telegraph Apparatus Co." bug - hardly a well known brand. Then Ray, AB4YZ shamed me into learning how to use the built in keyers in my rigs. So, I got a Bencher paddle and now hardly know how to use the bug.

Some years ago Hector, NP4FW sent me a straight key which he had made using a door hinge. I use it in all the straight key events

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My first visit to the Dayton HamVention was in 2001. I enjoyed visiting with many FISTS members. That’s where I decided to purchase an Elecraft K2 kit. I completed constructing it on October 8. My biggest thrill was when VK3DBD answered my "CQ" on 20 Meters. Since it's 9890 miles from Moneta, VA to Yackandandah, Australia the contact qualified for the "1000 miles per Watt" certificate. This new equipment is a far cry from the WWII surplus command sets and Hallicrafters S40 that I began with back in 1947. My first homebrew was a 6V6-6L6 rig running 25 watts input, then I built an All-Band rig with a "good old" 807 final. My first kit was the Heathkit DX100. In order to save money, I rebuilt my Hammarlund HQ129X to add the features of the HQ170 to it

( product detector, etc.). My first solid state rig was the Ten-Tec Argonaut.

I do enjoy contesting and QSO Parties -- not necessarily to win, but just to have fun. In 1996, I entered the Canada Day Contest on July 1, just seven days after having quadruple bypass surgery, and won first place, USA, single operator, 14 MHz. It's been one of favorite contests ever since.

I have really enjoyed the International Morse Preservation Society, better known as the FISTS CW Club. To date I have worked 2732 members of the Club and have earned the Century, Silver, Gold, Diamond, Platinum, Platinum-250, Platinum-500, Mobile Century, QRP Century, Two-way QRP Century, FISTS Rag Chewers, FISTS-WAS, 15th Anniversary-300 Award and the NANFA and the Millionaire with 17 Million sticker.

Back in the fall of 1997, with the help from members of the Franklin County ARC, I took on the duties of running the QSL bureau for the FISTS Club. We have handled 402,952 QSL cards to date. It's a task that had kept us all quite busy!

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