First became interested in ham radio in 1976, during the CB craze in the USA. a ham noticed my CB antenna and we had a discussion about a ham class starting soon at a local high school. 3 other CBer's and I took the class and received our General tickets, (WD8EMB) in 1977. I soon went back to Chicago and took and passed the Advanced portion (N8ACA) After studying the code, 6 months later passed my Extra Class, (NF8J)

Within a year I had a 75' tower, TH6DX and a Alpha 374. A construction frontend loader hit one of the guy wires and down came everything. Thru the insurance I upgraded to a 100' tower, stacked monobanders for 10,15 & 20 meters. By 1985 I had 285 DXCC countries confirmed. We built a new log home in the country and I sold everything. Dumbest move of my lifeIn 2005 after running into a old ham friend at a concert and discussing old memories, my wife suggested getting back into hamming after being off the air for 20 years. I started out with a used IC756 Pro and a R-6000 vertical. Within a year I had a 90' tower, TH11DX and some wires for 30 and 40 meters. Back into contesting and chasing DX, current # 338 confirmed. Hope to see you in the next pileup or just have a QSO.

TH11DX antenna @ 30 meters, snow storm on 2-10-2013

www.nf8j.com is my website with info and antenna pictures, log book. Thanks for visiting.

NEW VIDEO OF WORKED ALL GERMANY CONTEST OCTOBER 2012 @Worked All Germany Contest 2012 - W8DA @ N8CC - YouTube

DXCC 338 MIXED, 316 SSB, 289 CW DXCC CHALLENGE-1133, DXCC ON 6 BANDS - 40-117, 20-230, 17-202 15-205. 12-116, 10-162

If you need my QSL card, please include SASE. I also use ARRL LOTW and upload regularly. 23,000+ qsos are uploaded from 1977 to present.

My former calls, WD8EMB and N8ACA

My Station:

Elecraft K3, 100w, ATU, 2.7 SSB, 500Hz CW, 250Hz CW, 2nd Receiver, DVR,

Elecraft P3 Panadapter, Elecraft W2 Wattmeter.

Elecraft KPA -500 Solid State Amplifier

Winkeyer USB. Ameritron Remote Coax Switch, Ham IV Rotator, Bencher BY2 Chrome Paddle

Yamaha CM-500 Headset

Hewlett Packard Laptop , HRD,  PSK, N1MM CONTEST LOGGING

IC-V8000 (2) 2 METER RIGS 

90' self supporting tower, Th11 DX , 11 elements, 5 bands

1/2 verticals, 1/2 slopers for 30 and 40 meters.