The picture above is me in my current basement shack. Yes, it is a bit messy, but the choice was clean the shack up or play on the radio.  Radio won, easily. My XYL (my 10 to give me the king high straight) since 1969 would like me to clean up a bit but has never had any interest in the radio world.

I upload all my log contacts from March 1965 to date to LOTW, eQSL and QRZ. All new contacts are uploaded daily and sometimes several times a day.  I like LOTW or QSL Cards for the ARRL awards I collect. I also get QRZ.com awards when they happen but not as enthusiastically. I answer all the cards I receive, direct or by the bureau.  Being at the bottom of the most wanted list makes me DX for no one, but I am in a semi-rare county(Marshall, IL). If you need a card or other upload please e-mail me at the above address and I will send or upload them. I live on 2 acres a mile and a half from Varna in the middle of corn/bean fields. My nearest  neighbor is ½ mile away and rarely home.

Currently I have an ICOM IC-7600, ICOM IC-9100, Yeasu FT8800, ICOM IC-T81A, Kenwood TH-D74A and a couple of SB-220 Amps.  I am still using a KLM KT-34XA Tri-band beam @ 75ft that I bought in 1981 for $389 from one of the local ham stores. The beam is still here but not the local ham stores or those prices. I am using dipoles on 30, 40, 80 and 160 meters. 

I was first licensed as WN9OHJ in March of 1965 which I did not upgrade before it expired, the University of Illinois got in the way. In January of 1978 I became WD9HZK with a 5wpm Novice License. To avoid another expired novice license, I quickly upgraded to Technician in May of 1978 at FCC Chicago and then in July of 1978 I went to Chicago again and I passed the 13wpm code, General and Advanced written exams. I passed the Extra written exam in April 2000 and became a 13wpm Extra. Early August 2016 I was issued the K9QJ vanity call and WD9HZK was retired. I chase DX and "sorta participate" in contests. I do mostly SSB, RTTY, JT65 and dabble with PK31, packet, CW, satellites and VHF/UHF. I am an ARRL VE and instructor.

I am a life member of ARRL, Diamond Club and 10-10 International (#24225). I belong to the Peoria Area Amateur Radio Club, the Starved Rock Radio Club, The Society of Midwest Contesters, AMSAT and QCWA. I also provide support to eQSL.com, QRZ.com, INDEXA, NCDXF, ClubLog.org, many DXpeditions and others as my petty cash allows.

I retired from Caterpillar after 42 years, where I started in gas turbine research, moved to facility support and then to component development and engineering. I spent most of my work life in control design and developing programmable controller programs to control transmission and driveline tests. I also was admin of the division's computers and servers.

As a novice I started with a barrowed 20w homebrew CW transmitter and a used HQ-110C receiver I bought. I finally bought and built a Heathkit DX-60 transmitter.  When I got the WD9HZK call I bought a brand new Kenwood TS-820S transceiver which was a great radio.  I also had a Kenwood TS-700SP 10w all-mode 2m transceiver.