Achieved Top of DXCC Honor Roll in December 1983 (took 29 years!)

Published in QST as 315 Countries on March 1984

Current countries confirmed in 2017 are 363 (including deleted)

9-Band JT65 WAS achieved January 2015

First 9-band JT65 & JT9 QSOs achieved with F8RZ January 2015

First 10-Band JT65 QSO KB0PPQ April 6, 2015

Second 10-band JT65 QSO KL7J April 12, 2017

​Third 10-band JT65 QSO NC6K May 26, 2017

First 10-band JT9 QSO NW5P February 25, 2016

Present JT65/JT9 DXCC (covering all bands) = 161/91

Mystery Band = 60 Meters (Not all countries have 60m capability)

​Need Oregon on 60 meters

 

Birds eye view of Falmouth, Massachusetts. Martha's Vineyard Island is at the upper left. Prime fishing areas are abundant.

Lower left is my "Cape Cod" style house. Middle is my 43' vertical on side of shed. Right is Nobska Lighthouse, a Falmouth landmark.

Falmouth, Massachusetts is located in the southwest area of Cape Cod. I live adjacent to the Falmouth Inner Harbor in an area called Falmouth Village. Falmouth has a population of 33,000 people that grows to over 100,000 people during the summer. Because of the area's natural beauty, great ocean beaches, lakes, and access to sailing, boating, and fishing, Falmouth has become a leisure destination and a high quality place to live year round.

The world renown Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Marine Biological Laboratories, NOAA Fisheries have attracted scientists from around the world to their first class facilities and reseach vessels. There is a Technical Park that supports high tech companies who provide a stable work environment and good jobs to our residents. The hospitality industry is vibrant and many restaurants with varied cuisine can be found. The Falmouth Hospital supports a substantial staff of physicians, nurses,and technicians and assisting in keeping us healthy and taken care of. Martha's Vineyard, shown in the upper left is a destination from one of the many ferries that serve the area, including the "Steamship Authority" that moves cars, bus, andtrucks. Several high speed ferries connect Falmouth to New Bedford, Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket Island. Peter has designed and installed Internet on the Hyline Cruises catamaran ferry system between Cape Cod, Nantucket, and Martha's Vineyard.

There are no shortage of things to do, year round, and it is a fantastic location for ham radio! Falmouth is a 1 1/2 hour drive from Boston on interstate highways until you cross the Cape Cod Canal! To the East is the Sagamore Bridge to Route 6 that takes you to Hyannis and to Provincetown at the tip of Cape Cod. To the West is the Bourne Bridge and Route 28 that takes you to Falmouth, where I live. Cape Cod style houses (I live in one!) abound and Cape Cod is known for its village environment throughout the region. There are many Irish and Portuguese people that live in this area.

The Wampanoag Indian tribe has a sigificant presence here. The Pilgrims who arrived in 1620 from England to America met members of this tribe at "First Encounter beach", making Cape Cod anarea of historical significance. The first permanent settlement by the Pilgrims was started in Plymouth, Massachusetts about 30 miles away. Earlier, in Jamestown, Virginia, a settlement was attempted, but the environment and disease was too much for those settlers, so the attempt was abandoned.

Did you know that the leader of the Wampanoag tribe, named Squanto, greeted the Pilgrims by speaking english? That is because Squanto was "captured" and brought back to England on earlier explorations. He learned to speak english during his confinement. While life was harsh during the first years of the Plymouth colony, an american tradition, Thanksgiving Day, was formed.

Much evidence exists that the Vikings and later the Portuguese explored this area in earlier times. Both fact and folklore abound in our area, making Cape Cod a place to be studied. Come visit us and see our area and enjoy our hospitality!

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Peter was first licensed in June, 1954 as a novice with WN1BPW and 9 months later received his general class license with the call W1BPW. In 1965 he obtained the extra class license. In 1975 he was assigned W1UU after meeting the revised FCC incentive licensing program.

The 1950s were formative years building amateur gear or modifying military transmitters for ham use. The first receiver was a Hallicrafters S-38B and a Heathkit AT-1, crystal controlled. After receiving the General class license, a VFO was added and he started chasing DX and contesting. The sunspots were active and peaked about 1957. DXpeditions to rare countries was the rage. This was a time to get ready to go to college, and ham radio pointed the way to study Electrical Engineering as it applied to radio technologies.

The 1960s pointed to changes to my professional career and my personal life. 1962 he was awarded a BSEE from Rutgers University majoring in microwave antenna technologies. The technology was applied to radar and communication systems. He also decided to become a competitive contest station, especially CW. In 1964 he was inducted into FOC (806) as a CW activist (http://www.g4foc.org) as all members are primarily CW operators. He married in 1968. K1NA was my best man at my wedding, too!

Biggest ham radio thrill was attaining #1 CW USA in ARRL DX competition in 1969. Peter was generally in the top-10 DX contests for about 8 years. My friend K1NA and I got to meet lots of contesters.

It is with great sadness that my long time friend Jim Power, K1NA passed away in 2014. He was a very kind person, one that will be missed but not forgotten for his inspiration to me and to our great hobby of amateur radio.

In the 1970s was the time to focus on his professional development. He moved to Merrimack, NH in 1970 to work for a major defense contractor. He had 2 towers at his QTH. A lot of work was spent designing wire phased arrays on 3.5 MHz. The best performer was a ZL-special with switched phasing lines.

In 1974 he moved to Falmouth, MA on Cape Cod. Living on a small lot in the downtown area, his antennas were far more modest and mounted on a 55' tower. Falmouth has excellent radio propagation conditions being close to the Atlantic Ocean. Another daughter was born in 1978. His travel to Europe and Asia allowed him to meet many contacts made over the years, and he enjoyed the first class hospitality! He also enjoyed the visitors that came to Cape Cod.

The 1980s was another period of change starting in 1983. He moved north of Boston and with 1 acre of land he was able to reconstruct new towers, including one 120' and he rebuilt his station to be a top gun single operator contest station. He also worked the last country (HK0 Malpelo Island) to achieve top of the DXCC honor roll in 1983. There were only 15 W1s on the top of the Honor Roll at the time.

In the mid-1980s, packet radio burst onto the scene and became an emerging technology, and Peter developed an extensive packet radio station and became one of the first few to put amateur radio onto the Internet. This was controversial because the technology threatened to "take the radio out of amateur radio". His interest was in VHF/UHF propagation and the development of antennas. He was able to develop technology solutions including one of the first to try an 88 mile path over land and water at almost unheard rates of 19,200 bps!

Thanks to the Northeast Digital Association and later the Northeast TCP Association did the nature of packet transmission evolve where the Internet became the Wide Area Network and amateur radio became the Local Area Network. Most of the work was designing various antenna systems to solve a problem of multi-path signal corruption at VHF/UHF. At one point, he was able to transmit at 1 Mbps data over 50 mile paths.

Professionally, Peter started his own company in 1989 as a wireless systems integrator under the name of Homeland Security Wireless, Inc. In addition to the packet modes, the wireless technology quickly developed in several areas: computerization of amateur radio technologies, modulation techniques competitive with fiber networks, and the rapid evolution of much lower cost radio chips. Rapid technology adoption in Public Safety and data communications was quickly underway.

In the 1990s, his business flourished and was growing strong and amateur radio continued to be a source of inspiration to try ideas. Many of the packet concepts became reality with the emergence of Wi-Fi and the challenge of microwave communications and propagation techniques. Many of the digital technologies deployed by the hams of the mid-1980s became very real! This was truly a case of allowing ham radio to be a gateway to his new professional career. Professionally, this technology was focused towards Public Safety and Wide Area communication networks.

Entering into the 2000s, digital signal processing and space diversity of antennas became important in the evolution of technology. Software defined radios started to appear, and much work was directed towards implementing this technology. Using Amateur Radio as a springboard, he was able to find professional satisfaction in digital radio networks and systems.

In 2005 he moved with his wife back to Falmouth, MA on Cape Cod. While he had to downsize the antenna farm, the house was renovated in 2007 and the 60' tower was moved about 7' from the earlier location. Many wire antenna designs were built and he decided to try QRP operations because the location again proved to be excellent with close proximity to the Atlantic Ocean. Professionally, he developed a marine communication system for Homeland Security shortly after 911, and focused his time dealing with "over-the-water" communications.

He also spent 2 years in studying the Portuguese culture and language and went to his wife's home town in Vale da Serra, Portugal for 5 weeks in the summer of 2009. He has also been active playing the saxophone and flute in various bands, and his favorite outdoor activity is digging clams in the shellfish abundant harbors of Falmouth.

Moving into the decade of the 2010s, ham activity centered around CW and to QRP techniques. As a charter member of CWOPS (http://www.cwops.org), he became heavily involved in the CWT activities of the group. There is renewed focus on antenna improvement. Attention has been directed towards phased verticals especially since the lot size is small. This also allows him to experiment with noise reduction technologies and loop antennas for receiving.

Weak signal detection using JT65 and JT9 technology (pioneered by K1JT), an interest in antenna technologies, and propagation coincided with both amateur and professional interests. In particular, the combination of computer DSP processing, radio technologies, and efficiency of communications is of significant interest. For example, JT9 usiing a 20 Hz bandwidth and 5 watts, a reliable QSO with VK6XT on 80 meters with a vertical antenna (5-6 hop reflections from F2 Ionosphere layer) was documented.

While a DXer and cw contester at heart, Peter completed 9-band LOTW WAS and also made his first dual mode JT-9/JT65 QSO with F8RZ on 9-bands!

He is presently using a Flex-6500 SDR, and 2 Genesis11 SDR with a 43' ground plane with 25 radials. Also used is a Wellbrook magnetic receiving antenna on a rotator, especially for low frequency work where ambient noise can be reduced.

The station is computerized mainly for QRP CW contests and for use for the JT65 & JT9 digital modes.

The 60' Rohn-25 tower has been reserved for commercial antennas since Peter is a Wireless ISP serving Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard, and Nantucket Island. A fiber optic circuit operating at 1 Gbps is used to support his customers.

His wife, Maria, and family of 3 adult children have grown and established careers of their own, and he now has 7 grandchildren, and 1 great grand-daughter.

Maybe some of the grandkids will get the ham radio bug like he did at the age of 13! It's never too late!