I was first licensed in 1959 as KØUJJ. I held that callsign until 1977 when I received KØCF. 2009 marked my 50th year of ham radio, and my 40th as an extra-class licensee.

In January 2004, I retired as Director of Bioengineering for the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine after a 35-year career as an electronics & biomedical design engineer. Medical research equipment that I designed is in use in research labs in 38 countries and 42 of the 50 states. I am also a veteran of the US Air Force (1964-1968) and served with the 5th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron (5 FIS) at Minot AFB, North Dakota.

My operating activities are primarily chasing DX on CW, with some SSB and RTTY as well. I especially enjoy CW and RTTY contesting. Although I make no claim to being a great CW operator, I enjoy that mode the most.

Memberships: Senior Member IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers), ARRL (Diamond Club), Quarter-Century Wireless Association (QCWA #17935), Eastern Iowa DX Association (EIDXA) and the Iowa City Amateur Radio Club (ICARC - see our web site at www.icarc.org).

Awards: DXCC (341 confirmed), DXCC Challenge (1093 band-entities), WAZ, WAS, WPX Honor Roll and Geratol #692.

Station Equipment: Icom IC-7600, Ameritron ALS-600S Solid-State Linear Amplifier, Idiom Press LogiKit CMOS-4 Keyer, Begali Signature Edition paddles, Heil PR-781 microphone, and a Heil Pro-Set 6 headset. I am also on 2-meter FM using an Icom IC-V8000 and a Kenwood TH-K2AT 5-watt HT.

Antennas: K4KIO HexBeam at about 37 feet (12 meters) for 20, 17, 15, 12 and 10 meters; GAP Titan DX all-band vertical for 80, 40 and 30 meters.

Computers:  HP Pavilion HPE h8-1260t with an Intel Core i7-2600 CPU at 3.4 GHz, 16 GB of RAM and a 2 Terabyte main hard drive, running Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit. The PC is interfaced to the Icom IC-7600 with a US Interface Navigator. I also have a Dell XPS-M1330 notebook computer. Software includes DX4Win v8.05 for general logging, QSLing and award tracking, and W5XD's WriteLog v10.77 for contesting.

QSL: I reply promptly via the same route to all QSLs received, no return postage required (although an SASE is always welcome). I also use ARRL's Logbook of the World (LotW), and upload my log every few weeks.

Other hobbies: I have had a life-long fascination with astronomy, and I own a Meade LX90 8 inch computer-controlled Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope. Since retiring, I haven't been able to get engineering out of my system and have a fully-equipped electronics lab in the basement. Recently, I have rekindled my interest in photography and have acquired a Canon EOS 60D digital SLR camera with 18-135mm and 55-250mm zoom lenses and an external flash. I also do a little woodworking, and have a fairly well-equipped wood shop.