I have been a ham since 1962 when I was 11 years old. I had lots of encouragement and support from my father. Back then, before transistors and ICs, we had radio dust - the dust that burns off vacuum tubes as they warm up. That dust was magic and got many people started in amateur radio. I loved building projects - still do. Now I am enjoying playing with antennas.

Right now, I operate mostly PSK. I like DX and I seems to get my far share using this mode.  I have lots to learn as I have been away from the hobby for a while.

From the home QTH in Chevy Chase Maryland (about 1 mile N of Washington DC), I am using Flex 3000 and about 50 watts - This machine has very nice filtering. I like being able to manuallyfilter just the signal that I want.

From the cottage overlooking the beautiful Chesapeake Bay in Prince Frederick MD, I am probably using Softrock RXTX and Pennywhistle amp - about 16 watts.

Other hobbies include sailing (I had a Bristol 32 for about 20 years and have chartered in the Caribbean several times), computer programming (I program mostly in PowerBasic), travel (I like walking city streets), and tennis (I was once good and keep thinking I will play more).

For work, I am a head of research at a educational testing company. We do many surveys and maintain the quality of our test. Our latest activity is data visualization using Flex to produce Flash files.