About

Greetings from EM98 (when working from home) in Boone County West Virginia, USA!

WV0CQ

I have been involved with HF most of my life. From the time I was around 8 years old, I’ve been on the airwaves in some form or fashion. My dad encouraged my electronics fascination and obtained kits and toys to keep me entertained, then when I was 9 or so, my very first C.B. radio (with license KBMZ-7246, on the side, reading the mail with the sunny side up and the rainy side down)! After learning the ways of CB land, I became more and more interested in computers, getting my first Commodore Vic 20 from one of the “Ham” uncles in 1982. I spent the next couple of years learning to program the Vic-20, then on to an Apple at school, and eventually, I worked my way through “Basic” on IBM PC and PCjr machines. In 1990, I entered the U.S. Navy where I went on to become a Cryptologic Technician Maintenance (Electronics Tech with a specialty in the calibration of test equipment).

Some of you may be interested in the elephant cage antenna array on this page; that friends, is a “Wullenweber” antenna, used for radio direction finding (per Wikipedia). This particular array is from NSGA (Naval Security Group Activity) Skagg’s Island, my last duty station in the U.S. Navy (1990’s). During my time in the Navy, I did a lot of SSB in my personal life on the CB freqs (well, maybe a few channels above/below “classic” 11 meter :-). Over the course of the next 10 or so years, I spent time on SSB 11 meters and “wanted” to get my ticket, but never took the time to take the test. Honestly, it was more about “how much I would spend” rather than having the gumption to take the test. Thousands of contacts were made over the years where I used the designation of “173” from either the Golden Shores of the Pacific Rim or the Hills of West Virginia. I’ve also been known as “Bounty Hunter, White Lightning, The Colonel and The Chief”.

Wullenweber Antenna Array, NSGA Skaggs Island California

Currently, I primarily operate on FT8 and SSB, through the HF bands and I monitor 146.52 simplex when on the road, along with local repeaters in whatever area I happen to be in. I enjoy working QRP portable. I have a “backpack” setup that I take on my enduro motorcycle, hit some local trails and setup a SuperAntenna or dipole back in the hills. Sometimes I work FT8 portable and sometimes I work SSB portable.

I am not into the “QSL Card” thing. I don’t send out the cards, so if you send one to me, don’t expect one in return. I do however use LoTW and QRZ.com for confirmations.

73 to ya’ll, hear ya soon!

N8GB