I have been interested in radios and electronics as far back as I can remember, and like many hams I was first licensed as a CB operator around 1965 with the callsign KNP-2656. After graduating from Electronic Institute in Pittsburgh in 1969, I became interested in ham radio and got my Technician licence in 1978 at the Federal building in downtown Pittsburgh. In 1979 I upgraded to Advanced, taking the exam at the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall in the Oakland district. In 1989 I upgraded to Extra Class taking the exam (20 WPM) at the Penn State campus in McKeesport. I have retained the same callsign WB3LHD since the beginning.

My main interest is working DX using SSB, CW, RTTY, PSK31, JT65A and some SSTV. My favorite modes are CW and RTTY. I was a member and the Webmaster for the Western PA DX Association. I have been a member of the ARRL since 1978 and was an Official Observer "OO" for the ARRL Amateur Auxiliary. I was the QSL Manager for the USS Requin Submarine-W3XX docked in the Ohio River at the Carnegie Science Center. I am presently the President and QSL manager for the GigaHertz Radio Club-K3ITS located in Upper St. Clair, where I work as an RF Engineering Technician (www.gigahertzllc.com).

Some of my most memorable events were visiting ARRL HQ-W1AW in 1994, building my first CW transmitter (35-watts) and working Bouvet Island-3Y5X through my first mega pile-up. My final goal is to achieve DXCC #1.Visit my web site www.wb3lhd.com for more info.

My DX achievements are:

• DXCC-Honor Roll (345/336)
• DXCC-Mixed
• DXCC-CW
• DXCC-Phone
• DXCC-Digital (RTTY)
• DXCC-10 Meters
• DXCC-12 Meters
• DXCC-15 Meters
• DXCC-17 Meters
• DXCC-20 Meters
• DXCC-40 Meters
• DXCC-80 Meters
• DXCC-Challenge
• 5BDXCC
• WAS-CW
• WAS-RTTY
• WAZ-Mixed
• WAC-CW
• WAC-Phone
• WAC-RTTY
• IOTA-100
• WPX-Mixed
• WPX-CW
• WPX-SSB
• WPX-15 Meters

The main operating equipment in my shack is:

• Icom IC-756 Pro II transceiver w/ INRAD 4KHz Roofing Filter
• BetterRF I-Mate
• Ameritron AL-1500 amplifier w/ ARB-074 Interface Buffer
• Cubex MK II 5-band 2-element cubical quad antenna
• DX-Engineering DXE-FCC50-H05-A feedline current balun
• DX-Engineering RR8A-HP remote antenna switch w/ CC-8A Controller
• TigerTronics SignaLink USB w/ FSKit (FSK RTTY)
• ViewSonic VP100 computer 1.6 GHz XP/SP3
• Yaesu G-800SA rotator
• Autek Research WM-1 computing wattmeter
• Icom SP-20 external speaker
• Heil Proset Elite 6
• K8RA P-4 Iambic paddle
• Heathkit SA-2040 antenna tuner (30 Meters)
• Win-EQF logging software www.win-eqf.com