After years and years of "thinking about" trying to get a ham radio ticket (dating back to the mid 1970's), I finally made the commitment in the summer of 2004, after an amateur friend of mine got my then 12 year old son interested in pursuing a license. I thought it would be neat if we worked on our licenses together. Sure enough, we both tested for and got our Technician licenses in August of 2004.

I upgraded to General in March of 2005, and then to Extra in April of 2006. In September of 2008, I changed my call from my sequentially issued KC9GLQ to KJ9B, representing my initials.

I am a member of the Indiana Dept. of Homeland Security Ham Team (Indiana State RACES), Feld Hell Club (no. 427), and Midwest Country Cousins (no. 1280). For QSLing, I participate in Logbook Of The World (LoTW), as well as bureau and, of course direct QSLs, with SASE appreciated.

My station consists of a Ten-Tec Eagle 6 meter/HF transceiver, Yaesu FT-897D 70 cm/2 meter/6 meter/HF All-Mode transceiver, Ameritron AL-811 amplifier, Ten-Tec Centurion amplifier, Kenwood TM-V7 2 meter/70 cm FM dual band transceiver, Alinco DR-235 1.25 meter FM transceiver. Antennas consist of SteppIR 3 element beam, 80 meter OCF dipole inverted "V", 5 element 6 meter beam, 12 element 2 meter beam, and tri-band vertical (70 cm, 1.25 meter, 2 meter).

The picture is from the Indianapolis Radio Club's "Hilltops on the Air" event, held April of 2007. Operating "tailgate portable" from the highest point in Hendricks County (just west of Indianapolis).

http://www.weatherlink.com/user/kj9b