I go by "JIM", even though my given first name is Aubrey. The nurses in the hospital when I was born decided that I should be called Jim from my middle name as they thought Aubrey was a "Heck of a name to tack on a kid". That was 75 years ago this coming April and I've been "Jim" all my life.

Anyone needing a QSL card from me for Kansas, PLEASE, either use LOTW or SASE for domestic USA stations. DX stations use LOTW or send a Self Addressed Envelope with $2 US, NO BURO CARDS!  SWL's send SAE & $2 US.  No SWL BURO CARDS - they will NOT be answered -- Postage just costs too much any more.  If you want a card, please, you pay the postage.  Also, I put absolutely NO stock in QSL's from eQSL.  I do upload my log information periodically, but I could care less for any of their awards.  I can no longer accept IRC's either.

I've been licensed since 1963 and have held the following callsigns: WA0GSA(original), KA9AS(US Army stationed in Japan), WA1KOH, DA1GS and finally W0EB.  I was also the custodian for a time of the club station (KA9MF) on the base in Japan back in 1963-1964.

Did a short stint as a Special Event Station in the 2012 KS QSO Party as N0W and again as K0K in the 2013 KSQP.

I hold DXCC (CW), QRP DXCC, WAS, WAC and am a member of the A1-OP club, SKCC (#5731), Flying Pigs (FP#-616) and Chicken Fat Operators - CFO (#586). Oh yeah, I almost forgot, I'm also a member of SOC, #603.  I operate 99 percent CW, mostly sending with a bug these days.

Current station equipment consists of an Elecraft K3S/P3 and the KPA500 amplifier along with the KAT500 high power auto antenna tuner, various wire antennas and a Cushcraft A3S at 40 feet for HF with a 5 element Cushcraft @ about 50 feet for 6 meters. The K3S is by far the best transceiver I've ever owned. Even with simple wire antennas it hears signals I would never have heard with any other radio I've had.  I do have a 500 watt amplifier, but many of my QSO's are done with the amp off and the K3 set to 5 watts.

I have gone somewhat "retro" though and taken up sending with and lightly collecting semi-auto "bug" keys.  I'm hoping I don't get suckered into this collecting though and am trying to keep things to ones that I actually like to use.

Many years ago, I trained myself to automatically switch between a Bug and Keyer depending on which one I grabbed. Took better than 3 years of heavy practice (more like 5 years) to achieve this comfortably (mostly). Surprisingly, the ability came back quickly with only a few hours of sending garbage (off line, of course - LOL).

Keys currently in use on the desk as of 1/12/2017:  left to right, a Canadian made bug that had been rebuilt with parts from several other bugs.  It's a well made bug along the lines of an early Vibroplex "Number 4" Blue Racer.  I nicknamed it "Frankenbug" due to the hybrid repairs. It had a Buffalo horn fingerpiece that I made but I accidentally dropped something on it which cracked the material so I used a bit of that Orange Kirinite I had leftover and made a new one.  Also, the base was recently refinished and the pin striping redone.  Next is a completely home made bug from Canada that I got from WA4AR, polished up and repainted the base.  I made It's paddle and knob from Buffalo horn. Third one is new acquisition from a recent estate sale.  It's a Begali "Stradivarius" iambic paddle with fingerpieces that I made from Black Kirinite and the last one is a J.H. Bunnell J-36 that had it's label missing so I made it into a U.S. Army Signal Corps commemorative bug.  The base has been repainted in WWII "Flat Olive Drab", the paddles are some I made using a material called Kirinite and the color scheme is "Pearl Sunburst" Orange since the Signal Corps unit color is Orange.  There is a Signal Corps "Crossed Flags" Army Officer's Uniform insignia in place of the missing data plate (a little hard to see in this picture).  The semi-auto keys all have "dot stabilizers" on them that almost completely eliminate the "scratchy dot" problem that many bugs are plagued with.

The "Dot Stabilizer" device was invented back in the 1920's-1930's by world champion telegrapher T.R. "Ted" McElroy.  I've actually re-designed it slightly to allow it to be retrofitted to just about any bug without requiring an irreversable modification and I've come up with a new design of my own that can be installed on the flat pendulum bugs such as the Vibroplex "Lightning Bug", "Champion" and both the Vibroplex and Lionel "J-36" WW2 military bugs. 

I've started making and selling the "Dot Stabilizer".  If you're interested, send me an email and I'll tell you how you can get one or more to make your bug(s) sound better on the air without having to resort to a large value capacitor across the terminals. If the rig has de-bounced solid state keying, it may actually sound better with the mechanical stabilizer on a bug rather than a capacitor as the stabilizer doesn't change the de-bouncing time constant and doesn't alter the resulting keying waveform like a capacitor does.

Not shown in this older shack picture is the new HP 6300 SFF (small form factor) computer (3.6 GHz, Intel core i5 Quad Core processor, 16 gigabytes of RAM with 2 one terrabyte hard drives running Windows 7 Professional 64 bit.  It also has a video capture card so I can now run Tom, VA2FSQ's Win4K3 suite and display the P3's image in a window on one of the two main monitors.  Win4K3 also allows me to easily remote control the station from my iPad using it and free TaamViewer software on both ends.

The left hand screen is connected to the Elecraft P3 and displays the panadapter's spectrum information plus the information from the K3's internal CW, RTTY or PSK decoder. When this picture was taken it was displaying random characters from the CW decoder caused by atmospheric noise.  Since I've gotten older and no longer do much portable operation, the Elecraft KX3 has been sold to someone who gets much more use out of it.  I've replaced the K3 in the picture with the newer K3S and am very happy that I did.  The K3 was a fantastic radio and the newer K3S is even better with a few more features.

I currently hold WAS, WAC, QRP DXCC, DXCC and DXCC Millennium awards. DXCC is at 297 worked, 296 confirmed and climbing slowly, so I'm always looking for more - (Lost one when they deleted Midway got it back when they re-instated it and I got 5U5R's card this morning!)

I QSL 100 percent via ARRL's LOTW. Those US stations who do not use LOTW, have worked me and need Kansas for their WAS, an SASE would be very much appreciated .

DX stations who have worked me and need a QSL CARD from Kansas - please QSL direct with an SAE and at least $2.00 US or via the ARRL's Logbook of the World. I DO NOT answer Bureau Cards or SWL cards through the bureau. SWL's needing a card MUST sent an SAE and $2.00 US or 1 IRC or you will not receive a return card.

Any DX QSL's without an SAE and at least $2.00 US will not be returned as I do not use any of the bureaus and postage has become just too high for me to send cards to everyone. Repeat, I DO NOT answer bureau cards at all.

ARRL's Logbook of the world is preferred, and though I occasionally upload my log to eQSL now, I really don't use eQSL for awards. My entire log from the year 2000 on has been uploaded to both eQSL and LOTW and I always load all QSO's from a session immediately to LOTW, sometimes each QSO as I make it so my LOTW entries will always be up to date within a few minutes of any QSO depending on how much processing delay ARRL has on LOTW.

I'm reasonably active on 6 meters, usually beaming to Europe or South America. So far I've worked most of the active stations in the Caribbean and I have heard stations from EU, Africa and JA last summer (2012) but had not been able to bust the pileups with my 100 watts. However, I now have an Elecraft KAT500 auto-tuner on line which will allow me to use the KPA500 even on 6 meters, so with 500+ watts output I may have a chance into EU if the band ever opens up again.

I'm also the Membership Chairman for the Flying Pigs QRP Club, International. If you're into QRP (even occasionally) and want to join the FPQRP club, go to fpqrp.org and click on the word "membership" near the bottom of the page.

73/72/OO (Oink Oink)

Jim