Hi, my name is Steve. My interest in amateur radio started in the early 1960's when my Dad bought me a Heathkit GR-64 SWL receiver (which I still have) for Christmas. It took me another 12 years but in 1975 I finally got my novice ticket as WN6JHD and operated with an old (not so old in the 1970's!) Heathkit SB300 and SB400 . I was mainly operating on CW so I got many years of use out of this rig. In the Mid 80's I got interested in RTTY and a few years later AMTOR  and  upgraded my rig to a Kenwood TS-530S.  I worked these modes for several years until life got in the way and I took a 25 year break. I am now retired (from Datacenter Engineering) and have plenty of time on my hands and after a couple other ham friends twisted my arm I'm back on the air again. Mainly on FT4 and FT8. Being an old computer geek these modes suite me well! And recently I upgraded my old Kenwood to a Yaesu FT-991A.

My biggest challenge has been the antenna because I live in an HOA restricted neighborhood. I have an end feed long wire that runs under the eaves of the house that works OK but has limited range. I recently purchased a SE HF-360 Vertical and I'm having much better luck with it. I have it mounted on a heavy duty speaker tripod which I setup in my driveway when I'm on the air. When it's not in use the tripod makes it easy to move the antenna to the rear of the house and out of site of the HOA goons.

Stay Safe 73's

Steve