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15:08:58 UTC 22 May 2012
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Stan - formerly KD0IDQ
I send a direct QSL card for most (non-sprint) first-time contacts. I am good in the SKCC and 3905 CC Bureaus.
I had a ticket many years ago, but I only returned to the hobby in 2009 after 45 years off the air. I got my new general license on July 11, 2009 and my extra on March 13, 2010. I spend most of my time on the 20-m and 17-meter bands, but I work every band from 10-m to 160-m.
My main rig is a Yaesu FT-950 running at 100 watts SSB, 75 watts CW, or 25 watts digital. The antenna is a 195-foot inverted vee center-fed Zepp. The antenna was cut to match the available space rather than for resonance at a particular frequency. The Palstar tuner delivers a 1:1 SWR on all bands.
Here are my CW club numbers:
Straight Key Century Club (SKCC) = 7764T.
North American QRP CW Club (NAQCC) = 5625.
Flying Pigs QRP Club = 2679.
Polar Bear QRP Club = 315, Grrrr
If I worked you on CW, I want to thank you. I took a 45+ year break in my CW work, and my code is slowly improving. I am having a lot more fun with code this time around. The groups above include some of the friendliest, most supportive hams around. I left the hobby in the 60s because I simply could NOT pass the 13-wpm test at the FCC office. After I came back to ham radio in 2009, I decided to try to relearn morse and make a few CW contacts beginning in April of 2011. Something went wrong with my plan and I became a 99.9% CW operator. Go figure!
I have been bitten by the portable QRP CW bug and have been using a Hendricks PFR-3 kit running on AA batteries in some local parks. It is really a great little rig. I throw an end-fed Zepp into the trees and call CQ. If you hear me operating portable, give me a shout. Here is my mighty 5-watt QRP rig.
Here is another recent addition to my shack.
 This is the beautiful Vizkey 90 degree bug available from
This is the smoothest, quietest, most beautiful bug that I have seen, and IMHO it is worth every penny that K4VIZ charges. I know that I do not need a bug with my slow code, but I really like it, and I thought I needed a gift to celebrate getting my SKCC "C" award. I am convinced that it has improved my CW sending already.
I was a computer software engineer for a defense contractor beginning in 1968, until I retired at the end of 2009. I had been working for the same company for over 41 years. The company name changed through the normal joining and splitting of corporations, but it was still the same company to me.
I am married to a lovely, supportive woman who tolerates my ham radio addiction. I have three grown children, four grandchildren, and two dogs. I grew up in a small town in southern Iowa, but I have lived in the Twin Cities since 1968.
Here is a picture of my immediate family at my youngest daughter's wedding.
Here are fairly current pictures of my four granddaughters.
I am old fashioned, so I send QSL cards for (nearly) all first-time all contacts and I like to receive paper QSL cards in return. I enjoy meeting new people on the bands, and I have found that the hams I meet are some of the friendliest people on the planet.
Thanks for visiting my site. Goodbye!
(Notice all of the bubbles below. I have become quite an air hog in my old age.)
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