HI all,

My main interest is 160-10 HF DXing, building equipment and contesting. I came in 12th for my call area for the 2008 CW WPX CW contest, which is probably my best achievement for contesting. I participated in the 2009 WPX CW and had 3 times as many contacts. Ragchewing on weekends on CW, mostly just to relax. SSB usually only during contesting and DXing. 56 years old, been hamming since 1973 when I was 15.

As a novice I was WN8QEZ then upgraded to WB8QEZ and finally got NS8O extra in the mid 80's. So I am a 20 wpm Extra Class. Actually I can operate at 35 wpm or greater. CW is my prefered mode, as that's real amateur radio to me.

Antennas at the moment? 2 ele Quad tribander FOR 20 -10 meters. Other antennas: 96' per leg dipole that I feed on all the lower bands through a tuner. Also I have a 30 meter vertical with the base at 42 feet. Elevation is 940 feet in Meigs county, southeastern Ohio. Nice and RF quiet at my QTH.

I used to power my station and a few lights via a homemade wind generator that fed a 330 AH battery pack at 12 VDC. The picture shows me working on the 1.8KW wind generator. A couple of years ago a storm caused the welds on the tower to fail and the 80 pound generator came crashing down. Now I still have the batteries and use it for standby power on the grid.

I was a Volunteer Examiner for about 10 years and helped many people get their ham licenses. It was a rewarding experience and I recommend it.

Also I am a member of Athens County Amateur Radio Club, homepage at http://www.ac-ara.org as I used to live in Athens county but I live in Meigs county now.

Mentor? For over 30 years, NC8V, John Cornwell. NC8V/ZF8/ZF2JC Now SK as of Feb 2008. His call has been reassigned to another ham in Ohio. If he only knew the history of John Cornwell and how much he contributed to ham radio in Athens, Ohio and Ohio University!!