K8D

The alumni of the St. Joseph High School Radio Club (Cleveland) will be celebrating 50 years of contiguous attendance at the Dayton Hamvention this year using special event callsign K8D from a station in the flea market. Most of us have been going to Hara Arena longer than we've been married. See the SJHSRC history and information about our amazing founder, Mike Stimac, W8KTZ, at http://sjhrc.org/.

Look for us on the bands from Dayton and drop by and see the gang at flea market spaces 2634 & 2635.

Recent photo of five past SJHSRC presidents and the club founder/mentor: (L to R):

Mike '71 WB8BZK - - - Jeff '73 KF8CQ (ex-WB8FMK) - - - "The Man" Mike Stimac W8KTZ,

Al '70 N8AGU (ex-WA8WGJ) - - - Mike '72 KM5QE(ex-WB8DDR) - - - Tony '69 WA8RJF.

The "Dayton Gang" in 2005: (L to R): Mike WB8BZK - - - Al N8AGU - - - John K9JK - - -

- - - Mike KM5QE - - - Tony WA8RJF - - - "Renaissance Man" Mike T. (SK)

Hello. Been a licensed radio amateur since 1967. Original calls were WN8WGJ and WA8WGJ. In 1975 passed the Extra and applied for N8AGU. Prefer the old 1x3 call format for nostalgic reasons.

Enjoy DXing, IOTA chasing and contests especially CW & RTTY. The QTH, South Euclid, is an suburb just east of Cleveland, Ohio in Cuyahoga County. Still need to snag QSOs with 3B6-3B7, FT5/Z and P5. It's fun here doing "city lot" DXing." Worked a lot of "rare ones" in my life, but probably the biggest thrill ever was working a WN6 in California as a Novice in 1967 on 40M CW. What a great hobby !

Station: Yaesu FT-2000 and Ten-Tec Omni VI Plus feed an Ameritron AL-1200 amp. Antennas: Force-12 C3SS beam at 40 feet, and a 40M delta loop & 80M doublet strung in the trees. Also a roof-mounted 3 element yagi on 6M. SignaLink USB on digital modes. Recently tried some Feld-Hell operating which was interesting.

Hope to free up some time to integrate the vintage station consisting of a Johnson Ranger & Viking Matchbox, Drake 2B+2BQ and Hallicrafters HA-1 TO Keyer.

Enjoy occasional SWL, BCB and LF beacon listening, although too many countries are going silent on SWBC.

Got interested in radio through my dad, Dave K8EXP (SK) who enjoyed 10M AM QSOs with W6-land with his Viking II, Hallicrafters SX-99 and home made beam, from downtown Cleveland during sunspot cycle 19. In 1964, dad setup the SX-99 at my bed when recovering from my tonsils being removed and a life-long DXer was born.

Also mentored by the St. Joseph High School Radio Club in Cleveland. Read about their early Sputik and moonbounce activities at sjhrc.org. And its amazing founder and guiding light, Mike W8KTZ. Our buddies from SJHSRC have done Dayton every year since the mid-60's. Look for us in the flea market, spaces 2634-2635. again this year.

Hope to meet you on the air. After years of QSLing neglect, I am now caught up with the backlog, and answer requests 100% via ARRL bureau or LOTW & eQSL.

Best of 73,

AL - N8AGU

My unsolicited endorsements:

* The DX Code of Ethics, see www.dx-code.org !

* "UCXlog" - logging software by DL7UCX

* N1MM - contest logging software

* "DX Monitor" - by VE3SUN

* QSLs by UX5UO