Originally from West Virginia,worked 20 years in coal mines,company went out of business in early 1980's.

Moved to Florida and have been in the House Painting Business until present.

Received first ticket at 8 years old while in the  Scouts,at that time the novice lic. was only good for one year and than expired if you didn't upgrade.Of course none of us upgraded hi hi.

Re licensed in late 1970's and Upgraded to Extra in 1996 .

My wife Glenna is also a Ham kb8hsf and we spent many hours practicing CW together.

Hobbies beside Ham Radio are USPSA AND IDPA  ACTION PISTOL SHOOTING, I am a Master Class IDPA and A class USPSA SHOOTER.

Been a Lifelong Motorcycle Rider,first bike was a 1947 Harley Knucklehead in 1957 and now ride a Gold Wing.Try to ride every day.

Was a novice for a long time as work and family kept me busy,wife and I spent a lot of time on the Novice CW band especially 40m .There were so many stations on 40m novice  portion you could talk all night.became heavily involved in VHF-UHF in 1980's and early 90's.

Moon-bounce,Oscar 10 and 13 sat. and meteor scatter,lot of weak signal work on 2m and 70 c.

Built a couple of 500 watt vhf amps and had a ball.

Up graded to General and To Advance as N8LCH in early 90's and put up a 120 foot tower,had 3 elements on 10,15,20 and 2 on 40m worked the world on that ant.

Mid 1990's I finally was able to pass the Extra Class Code Test  and started working 40m cw and been there ever since,lot of cw dx and now am starting to work some phone on 40 meters.

 Moved to a semi deed restricted neighborhood so no big ant array's.

Use a 33 foot vertical with 60 radials and it works pretty well.

Present operating station includes a Ten-Tec Omni 7 and a Alpha 8100

Maybe one day I will buy some land and put up some big ant,but for now I enjoy the contacts I can make.