I am operating from Grid FN02

Erie County, New York until 3/27/2012

Then will operate from  Florida Again

QTH is Safety Harbor, FL

Grid EL87px

Pinnellas County

QSL via PO Box 1225, Safety Harbor, FL 34695 or LoTW

My original novice callsign was WV2MJW. My first QSO was with K2QDT about a mile away on May 22, 1960. I was using a Heathkit AT-1 and the receiver was an Hallicrafters S-76. My first WA2MJW phone QSO was on Nov. 5, 1960 with WA2JWZ. I was using a DX-40 which I had just finished building, I was 13 years old.

I bought a Globe King 500A and made my first QSO with Valery UA2KAW in Russia on 9/20/1962. My father had no idea that I was fooling around with thousands of volts. I was 15 years old. I did manage to miswire the power supply and my father and I took it to another ham with military electronic experience to find my error. That is when my father found out that I was playing with 2500 volts to the 4-250A amplifier tube. Ooooops!

I passed my advanced and extra exams at the FCC office on December 19, 1973. I passed the Morse Code test for my Commercial Radiotelegraph license the same day ( 25 WPM Cipher Groups) so the Amateur Extra Code exam was waived for me.

I enjoy operating QRP. I won the PA QSO Party out-of-state plaque twice (1988 and 1991) using QRP. I have worked over 100 countries with QRP and wire antennas. I have worked 68 countries (A.K.A. ARRL entities) using less than 1 watt -QRPp while using wire antennas. Also, 22 countries have been worked using less than 100 milliwatts (QRPpp?) with only wire antennas. Good fun.

I spend the winter (over 6 months) at the Florida QTH (EL87px , 27.98 and -82.71). WNY QTH in the summer/Fall (FN02pu , 42.8 and -78.7 degrees). CQ zone 5, ITU Zone 8.

The photo is a pair of 3-500Zs in an SB-221 which I converted to a SB-220. It has been completely rebuilt. I need to add soft start, soft key, QSK and 160 Meters to finish it.

I have 5BDXCC and WAS. About 220 entities have been confirmed mixed mode.