I had taken my Novice test in December of 1979 and after waiting almost 6 weeks back then for the FCC to process and mail your ticket to you by snail mail HI HI. I receive my Novice call (KB4HQJ) in January of 1980. I held that call until I moved to Maryland and upgraded to Technician class in 1982 with the call of (N3FRG). I held that call for many years, moving back to the wonderful hills of Virginia I upgraded to General Class in Bluefield, Va. in 1986 (taken my 13wpm & 20wpm code). Raising 4 kids and working all the time my Ham Radio hobby fell low on the priority list, But I still managed to work CW on the weekends and field day most of the time. When I got around to taking my advanced test I found out that it was no longer a class. In 2000 I upgraded to Extra class and applied for a vanity call and received the WK4W call.

The qrp bug bit me hard and bad abt.12 years ago! I have 14 qrp rig's that I have built, from a K3 Elecraft (sn 5514), Elecraft K2 (sn.6989) K1 (sn.2289) all the way down to a Pixie @ 125mw QRPp. 15 and 40 are my favorite bands! I have completed my WAS/cw/qrp @ 3 watts, and working on my DXCC/cw/qrp (186)countries worked so far, (168 confirmed) With the K1/K2 Elecraft.

Latest addition to the lineup is the Elecraft KX3 sn 2979 .all i can say is WOW!

DXCC(292wrkd) DXCC/cw(193wrkd) WPX(673wrkd) WAC WAZ

No towers or beams here all my antennas are homebrew wire except for a Cushcraft AP8 Vertical I use on the higher bands(10m, 15M, 20m) I have a 20m full wave loop and a 40/15m dipole up @ 40 ft.

Looking forward to the sun spots coming back up. HI HI

Keeping in the spirit of ham radio. If we work on the bands (USA) I will send you a qsl post card @ .32 cents if you can’t afford to return a simple .32 cent card to me please don’t ask for a SASE and a Dollar! I don’t need a SASE nor will I send one!

I use LoTW (uploads weekly) and The BURO (monthly) for all DX Contacts

For any county hunters out there I will be glad to pass out (SMYTH Co.) 70 hams in the county with 2 of them working HF HI

After 30+ years of Ham Radio I still love CW! and have hung up the microphones!

I stay in the lower end of 40, 20, 15, 10 on CW 100% of the time and 99% of that is QRP always looking for a new one HI HI.

73/72 es God Bless de WK4W Jim

hpe 2 wrk u sn dit dit

CW is not a Mode it's a (Art) !