I'm 40-odd years old (some say emphasis on "odd" heheeh). Originally interested in ham radio while listening to a TV interview (Ba-ba Wa-wa I assume) with Barry Goldwater as a kid. They briefly mentioned the cool looking radio gear built into his wall, and he mentioned it was ham radio. I was hooked!

Then they mentioned it was $30,000 of equipment!

Spat the hook! Figured I'd get around to ham radio sometime after becoming a US Senator. Over the years I'd occasionally run into a ham, or ask one of the guys at RadioShack if they were a ham, and if "Morse code" was still required (I doubt I knew the term "CW"). But not having 10's of thousands of dollars I wasn't particularly interested. Then a friend became a ham a few years ago and they informed me I was way-off on the financial needs of becoming a ham.

So I listened to him for a year or so and then jumped in and got my licenses. Bought a few thousand dollars of ham radio equipment -- far better than the $30,000 I feared as a 6 or 7 year old -- and tried to operate some HF out of the half-buried underground apartment I lived in at that time. Not much luck with that! Tried a small coil-loaded whip out the window; tried a fan dipole fed at the window and spreading back along the ceiling into the depths of the apartment. None really worked very well. But the highest one as fed about 4-feet off the ground and under three stories of apartments.

Along the way I got involved with a pretty good ARES group. I still enjoy that and have since also gotten involved with the local RACES group after ARES / RACES merged for the most part locally (a good move when it is possible). I also really enjoy supporting public events such as the MS-150 and the Ozarks Greenways Adventure Race. Fun stuff! Highly recommended!

Then I bought a house with 2 acres, big trees, and no restrictions or covenents, so I could put up antennas and play with them! Ouch! Now that $30,000 entry costs looks cheap! Hehehe!

That' me in a nut-shell (emphasis on "nuts"!). Fat and somewhat happy in the mid-west.

Sans ice storms, Missouri isn't such a bad place to live. I like the change of seasons, and the relatively mild weather. And it's nice being on the edge of the Ozarks Mountains. I wasn't born a Hillbilly, but I took to it well enough! Heheh.

Oh ya, my web site: http://www.n0ew.org/

My favorite ham radio thing to do? The "Strange Antenna Challenge" that my friend and I have been doing since 2002. Documented on my web site at http://www.n0ew.org/k0s/

Politically? I believe in the US Constitution. I hope saying that isn't considered an Evil Thing. (Guess I'll find out once the QRZ editors review this for posting.) Federalzation of the States is very wrong. I carry a copy of the US Constitution with me most of the time, and highly recommend doing so to everyone, as well as reading it periodically. It's a good read while waiting in line for groceries and the like! The US Founding Fathers were really amazing people, and it is a facinating period of history, although I'm not too much of a history buff. I guess Rome, and the founding of America are the parts of history I like the best. The American Civil War is in there too. It is near enough in time to appreciate, yet far enough away in time to see some amazing differences. Especially in terms of communcations and how radically communications affects historical events.

Guess that's about it. Now I'll smoke a nice pipe filled with an aromatic natural tobacco (as opposed to that poison laiden cigarette smoke, laced with up-teen thousands of chemicals!)

73-Erik n0ew