QSL: Direct or Bureau - No SASE required

The FCC knows me as "John", but I go by my middle name - Dave.

I was first introduced to ham radio by WB6LUJ, my junior high school English teacher. He set up a couple of radios and strung wire antennas in a tree at our school during a field day. Myself and a number of other students called CQ and answered CQs late into the night. At the time my step-father refused to put up any kind of antenna (even though we had a 40' tower with a TV antenna on it), and I didn’t pursue getting my license.

When I turned 18 I started studying CW. A friend and I worked together to write a program that would output random five character strings on my Atari 400 computer. I pretty much had the alphabet down and was starting on the numbers when the engine in my car died. My radio money went to a new car and I gave up on radio again.

Twenty-two years later I jumped back in and got the no-code tech license. The dropping of the code requirement allowed me to get my general ticket during a short break between classes.

At my home my radios are a Yaesu FT-847 and an FT-650. The antennas are a 6m dipole, and 70CM/2M magmount antenna on a cookie sheet. I live in a duplex, so my antenna options are limited, but at least I live upstairs. The antennas are on the front porch, and I've worked from Hawaii to Maine on the 6m dipole, and even managed to work Hawaii on 2m tropo two days in a row in 2006. I have an FT-857D in my car, and currently my antenna is a Yaesu ATAS-120.

If you hear me with a booming signal, or working some distant DX, I am probably operating out of the W6RDF club shack. I am a member of PLARC and consider myself fortunate to have access to the great gear at the club site.

Hope to meet you on the air.