I am originally from the Philadelphia area (Drexel Hill,PA).

I became hooked on ham radio back in the mid 70's when my dad (WA3ZRB, SK) brought home a Drake C-Line and placed it on a table in our basement. He strung a long wire out the basement window and to my amazement, we could hear people from Texas on 40 mtr SSB!

I received my ham ticket in 1975 at the age of 13 with the help of my Elmer, Joe Welch (K3CT,SK) and upgraded to Extra in 1977. After I passed my Extra, I wanted to choose a call that I thought would be nice and short on CW - thus K3IE. I was unaware that this call is very close to a well known contester and DXer, Jim Berger K3II, who I have had the priviledge of knowing through the years. I wish I had a quarter for every time a contest station would come back to me on CW with "K3II" instead of K3IE - if so, I could afford a Big Bertha.

I joined the Frankford Radio Club in the late 70's and operated contests from K3II prior to moving to Birmingham AL in 1994.

My antennas are a 5 band hexbeam on a 30ft telescoping mast, 30 and 80 meter dipoles, a 40 meterLPDA, and an Inverted L for 160 meters.

Rigs include an FT-1000, Flex 3000, and an Alpha 87A amplifier.

The Flex 3K has re-energized my ham radio interests.

Look for me in contests or chasing DX in the CW portion of the bands.

HPE TO CU in the log - Hunter, K3IE.

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