I was first licensed as N5VLZ in 1991 as a No-Code Technician. Shortly thereafter, I began running various traffic nets and hamfest talk-ins around the central Arkansas area. Burnout in the late 1990's led to a 6 month hiatus from the hobby; and another burnout in late 2010 and early 2011 led to reduced involvement with central Arkansas amateur radio activities. I started using packet radio in 1998, and Echolink in 2006. I did use CQ 100 for a short time, but no longer use it. While CQ100 and Hamsphere are non-RF VoIP modes of ham radio, as you'll note below, I have more than enough in amateur radio right now to keep me busy.

In July, 2007, 5 months after the FCC dropped the Morse Code requirement for amateur radio licenses, I used HamTestOnline to go from Technician to General in 14 days, and to Amateur Extra 13 days later; making it the best money that I ever spent in amateur radio.

In June, 2009, I changed to the AE5WX vanity callsign, AE for Amateur Extra, 5 for the 5th Call District, and WX for Weather, mainly Skywarn severe weather operations, which got me interested in ham radio in the first place. I've been indirectly struck by lightning twice (although I carry no electrical charge, and can be handled safely (hi hi)), been under 2 tornadic funnel clouds, been within a mile of an EF4 rain wrapped tornado, been within a half mile of an EF1 tornado, and been in swirling floodwaters. So, while I respect the weather, I admit I get rather nervous when severe weather threatens the area. It would be nice if severe weather was out in the middle of nowhere, not bothering anyone. Tragically, many are injured, and lose property, or their lives, during severe weather.

My current amateur radio activities include the following (all times U.S. Central):

1) One of the Net Controls for the Skywarn Hurricane Prep Net, on the *WX_TALK* Echolink Conference Server (7203). The net meets at 0000 UTC Sunday (1st Sunday only December through May, and weekly otherwise)(http://www.voipwx.net). The net is also available on IRLP Node 9219. Net times equate to 6pm Saturday when Arkansas is on Standard Time, and 7pm Saturday when Arkansas is on Daylight Savings Time. My main net involvement is during hurricane season, weekly from June through November -- with optional checkin from December through May, when the net meets only once a month.

2) Webmaster for the Arkansas Radio Emergency Services (ARES) Club, Little Rock, Arkansas (http://tinyurl.com/arw9q4). At present, the club just communicates via email. However, later in 2012, the nets may resume, with moving of the N5AT Club Repeater to a different location in the Little Rock, Arkansas, area.

3) Webmaster, and at times, Guest Net Control for the Cabot Nightflyers Net, in Cabot, Arkansas, Sunday, 9pm (http://www.cabotnightflyers.net). The net has reduced its on the air presence, due to various issues.and is active only for selected Special Format Nets every few months. You can also search for Cabot Nightflyers on Facebook.

4) Member of the Central Arkansas Radio Emergency Net Club, Little Rock, Arkansas (http://www.carenclub.com). The club has a weekly training net on Tuesday at 7pm, and a weekly traffic net on Thursday at 7pm; except the 1st Thursday, which is the night of their face to face meeting. A link to the live audio feed from the W5DI Repeater (146.940 Mhz in Little Rock) is available on their website.

5) One of the Net Controls, and member of the Small Town Amateur Radio Services (STARS) Club, Cabot, Arkansas. The club has a weekly net on Sunday night at 8pm on the W5STR 147.150 repeater with a 114.8 PL tone. It is also available on Echolink via the W5STR-R node (507018). Prior to their weekly traffic net, Amateur Radio Newsline is transmitted, at 7pm Sunday. You can also search for Wfivestr Cabotstarsclub on Facebook.

6) Packet Via Telnet to the N0KFQ BBS in Branson, Missouri, using a telnet client for their Digital Net, Monday nights at 7pm; and the Outpost message program for message traffic. I can be reached via packet mail message to AE5WX@N0KFQ.MO.USA.NA -- that address will work ONLY with an amateur radio packet program, such as Outpost. Trying to use it with an email program will have it bounce as undeliverable. You must be a valid user on QRZ, and logged in, to view my email address. I no longer have a TNC or radio for RF packet operations.

7) D-Star via the DV Dongle. I mainly access various reflectors or nodes for selected nets. For more details, please see item 15 below.

8) Echolink via a single user setup (node 51800), for selected nets. At other times, please leave a message with EchoAnswer. If neither EchoAnswer or my node are online, please try again later. For more details, please see item 15 below. Note that If I am on D-Star, via the DV Dongle, Echolink will not be available, to avoid sound card conflicts.

9) Net Control (Conductor) for the Trains/Railroads Net in Cedarburg, Wisconsin, on the N9LLT-L Echolink Node (2356), Mondays at 8pm. If the N9LLT-L node is down at net time, the net will be on the AB9ON-R node (517774). As a side note, the triangular signal lamp in the shack shot above is a prototype of one of the signal types along many rail lines across the United States. A Lionel Railroad Crossing Signal Bank was previously in the shack, but it broke when I accidentally knocked it over; unfortunately, the product is no longer available for purchase. As a side note, there is a video on YouTube of yours truly in his "railroad garb" operating 20 meters HF on the Arkansas and Missouri Railroad 2011 Memorial Day Troop Train (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1aEtSbHX7pw).

10) Life Member, and a Diamond Club Member of the American Radio Relay League (http://www.arrl.org)

11) Life Member of Courage Handi-Hams (http://www.handiham.org)

12) Member of the Handi-Hams Radio Club.

13) Member of the University Of Arkansas At Little Rock (UALR) Amateur Radio Club, Little Rock, Arkansas (http://callsign.ualr.edu/index.html). I have a Bachelor of Arts in Radio, Television, and Film from UALR. However, I never dreamed that my "radio" would be "amateur radio".

14) ARRL/VEC VE Team Liasion in the central Arkansas area. I've been accredited since October, 2007; and help with VE Testing at selected hamfests, and at VE Test sessions, in and around central Arkansas. As of May, 2012, I've done over 80 sessions, and usually administer, or take part in at least one or two sessions per month.

15) Checkin to selected other Echolink and D-Star Nets during the week, when weather and schedule permits -- plus, I maintain a list of Echolink Nets (http://tinyurl.com/cl439r). Note that all nets listed there may not be operational. A link to a PDF file to Echolink and D-Star Nets that I'm usually on is on that page.

16) Run a "Weather Watch Net", when severe weather threatens the central Arkansas area around Little Rock, on the W5DI Repeater system. Live audio is available by going to http://www.arkskywarn.org -- clicking on the LISTEN icon link takes you to the feed from RadioReference.Com -- other links on that site include the Arkansas Skywarn page on Facebook, and you can also follow Arkansas Skywarn on Twitter.

The Weather Watch Net is done when the severe weather threat in Arkansas isn't that widespread or significant. The net will either be informal and non-directed, where stations can call other stations on frequency.or it will be formal and directed, with links to other repeaters in the W5DI Repeater System, at the discretion of Net Control, usually yours truly.

However, if severe weather coverage and intensity increases, a formal "Arkansas Skywarn Net activation" may be requested by the National Weather Service in Little Rock (at which time, I will leave the frequency, and just monitor).

Other activities (ham radio and otherwise) are suspended during any type of Skywarn severe weather operations, or when thunderstorm activity is in the central Arkansas area. Go to http://www.srh.noaa.gov/lzk for detailed Arkansas weather information, forecasts, etc. If severe weather is active at net time (in Arkansas or elsewhere), the regular net is likely suspended, for severe weather operations.

My hope is that both The Weather Watch Net, and Arkansas Skywarn nets help get the word out, for people to take shelter when severe weather threatens, and hopefully, save their lives. Activation times for both The Weather Watch Net, and Arkansas Skywarn vary greatly; but, I've been known to run The Weather Watch Net for as long as 12 to 15 hours at a stretch. Many times, this is during the evening and overnight hours, to sometime after sunrise the next day.

Unfortunately, since the apartment complex where I live does NOT allow outside antennas, I have to use indoor antennas. This means that coverage and range is very limited,; and indoor dipole setups are not allowed, either. While it may not be the ideal shack location, for now, it serves me well.

Because of numerous health issues (I won't bore you with the gory details), it is very difficult for me to be in the chair at the computer in the shack for long periods of time. While extended operations may occur during The Weather Watch Net, as noted above, other operations are usually under 2 hours. Besides, ''contesting'' never did appeal to me, and there is so much to do with the hobby of amateur radio, and I doubt that one could "do it all". Also, because of health and scheduling issues, I may not be able to make all club meetings, ham radio functions, etc. that are noted above.

My shack setup consists of the following items; you'll see these in the shack picture noted above. Throat losenges and cough drops are a necessity for extended on air operations (or ''Loyal Order Of The Long Winded'' (hi hi)). You can see one of the Hamstick antennas (noted below) seemingly next to my head in the photo, but it's really not that close to me. Besides, I run the station with ''the minimum power needed to carry out communications'', and stay well below the RF safety levels when operating. I mainly operate with 20 watts of power, or less. My main on the air operation is limited to nets and severe weather operations; it's rare when I'm "just ragchewing".

a) Icom IC-718 HF rig. I use Hamstick antennas on 10, 15, 20, and 80 meters, with a Hustler MBM magmount (with a metal skillet as a groundplane), as an indoor antenna setup; mainly for digital operations (JT65, PSK31, etc.) on 20 meters. I am looking for HF digital nets that I can check into, and participate in. Because of the indoor antenna setup, it's impractical for me to do voice on HF.

b) Yaesu FT-8800R 2 meter/70 centimeter rig, although I mainly use it for item 16 above. The other channel is set to NOAA Weather Radio, to monitor weather data from the National Weather Service, Little Rock.The antenna is a combination 2 meter/70 centimeter antenna on a filing cabinent -- the cabinent as a groundplane. This radio may also soon be used for local area digital communications as well.

c) Two Tigertronics SignaLink USB units -- one each for items a and b above.

For item a, it's used for JT65, and PSK31, mainly on 20 meters. I am logging QSO's from my page on QRZ, but will expand to eqsl.cc and LOTW (Logbook Of The World) as soon as possible. However, scheduling and health issues keep me from doing as much with ham radio as I'd like to.

And, as item 16 above notes, all other ham radio activities, including Echolink, are suspended during any type of Skywarn activation or thunderstorm activity in the central Arkansas area.

d) Astron RS-20M power supply for items a and b above.

e) Three Black and Decker Electromate 400 Portable Power Supplies -- used to power item b above, during Skywarn operations (item 16 above), when there are thunderstorms in my area; allowing me to stay on the air for at least 6 hours, and I can go back to commercial power after the storms leave the area. During thunderstorms, when I'm not getting weather data from the Comcast High Speed Internet, I use a Verizon Mi-Fi wireless utility, or my Nokia E71 Smartphone to obtain weather data.

f) Dell 610 laptop computer. Software includes MixW and DigiPan for PSK31; JT65-HF for JT-65, plus both OutPost and the Mtel Telnet client for packet via telnet (items 1, 3, 5, and 6 above). The laptop is also used for email, internet surfing, and website updating; and for a FAX line via MagicJack Plus(tm).

h) Two other desktop computers are in the shack. One is used for games (the Railroads Net Conductor enjoys playing Microsoft Train Simulator).

The other is for several things, including Echolink (Single User Setup and EchoAnswer), D-Star, via a DV Dongle, the MagicJack (tm) Voicemail, and for my ham radio and weather oriented computer bulletin board system, The Thunderbolt BBS. The BBS features ham radio, weather, Christian material (for those wanting it), and much more. Unfortunately, dial-up access to the BBS is no longer available, due to poor quality analog phone lines in the area.

Note that the BBS is TEMPORARILY OFFLINE, while I prepare the system for GT Power 20 for telnet. Once the BBS is back online, users will be able to logon via a regular telnet client, such as MTel or PuTTY. I eventually hope to add FTelnet access.watch this space for updates.

To protect from lightning damage, the BBS is offline whenever thunderstorms are in the central Arkansas area.

Lastly, all of the computers have Windows XP, Service Pack 3. Because of numerous legacy applications, I can NOT run any operating system beyond Windows XP.including Windows Vista, Windows 7, or later.

73,

Daryl, AE5WX