I am KF4OOP, and as such I completely enjoy the opportunity to make new friends and contacts all over the world. Both of my parents were radio operators in both the USCG and USN during WW2 and I guess that just followed the genes. My first real encounter with Amateur Radio was thru a good friend in Vero Beach, FL, K4TFY and Byron impressed me with what a small HT could do, that was it, I was hooked and away I went chasing radio deals. I operated from the seat of a semi for years and now off the road, both my wife, KJ4OJJ, and I enjoy a station shack that does not lack much. We enjoy D-Star and HF as well as analog and the local repeaters.

I have so enjoyed making contacts and new friends via Amateur radio I feel everyone should at least try it for a while. This past March, 2010, I was in the hospital with colon cancer and two hams came at sat with me for two days while my wife had to work, you don't find this kind of friendship very many places anymore and my heartfelt appreciation goes out to both KJ4G and WQ4M for their endless support and mentorship.

Today we run a shack that is equiped with an Icom 746, along with an Icom IC- 2KL amplifier, (500Watt) and a Yaesu FT847 as well as D-Star Icom 880 and a FT 8900 for local repeater use. The mobil shack is equiped with a Kenwood TM-D700 for APRS, (kf4oop-9) a Icom IC2820 D-Star, and a Icom 7000 for HF along with a Scorpian HF Antenna into a SGC 500 amplifier. The other mobile antennas are Diamond 700 series. The home tower is at 78 feet with A diamond HGX 510 on top along with a 10 element both horizontally and vertically polorized beam, a 10 element Cushcraft UHF beam. The second tower is at 50 feet, It has a 10 -15 - 20 mtr Thunderbolt beam, an Arrow 6 meter beam and a Diamond 2 , 440, and 6 meter omni on top. I have added an APRS digi, ( KF4OOP-1 )

Thanks for reading my story and hope to catch you in the DX, 73's

John