Operating the NET portable sometimes from the St. Lawrence River

on the north end of Lake Ontario, near Cape Vincent, NY.

Spent most of 2009 setting up tower and beam antenna in back yard. I drove down to Ashland Virginia to 3Star inc. to pick up a Rohn 25G tower in March of 2009. Received my Force 12, C3 triband the first week in December and caught a break in the weather on 12/ 26/ 09 to raise the tower with help of close friends. The next day we received 6 inches of snow! My first contact was off the coast of Africa with just 100 watts.

Radio set up is a Kenwood TS-570D and a Gold line GM-5 mic with a MFJ 993B auto tuner. Rotor for tower is Yeasu G-1000DXA. In my truck I have a Icom 7000 mounted under the drivers seat with remote mounted on dash. Also an Ameritron ALS-500 amp mounted behind the back seat running @ 250 watts into a High Sierra Sidekick screw driver antenna. Icom used in portable operation shown above along with wireless internet logging.

I plan to add an 80 meter and 40 meter inverted V wire to the tower in 2010.

I am also a VE with W5YI and help with testing each month.

NCS for the Maritime Mobile Service net on 14.300MHz, " Where Emergency Communications Is A Commitment"

QTH is birth place of Frank Baum who wrote the Wizard of Oz. Each year the first weekend in June is the Oz fest weekend with parade and lot's of munchkins running around.

73's, De