First licensed at age thirteen in 1958 as KN3EPQ. Also held calls WA2EBR in 1959, then WA4JFY in 1962. I have always done CW exclusively. As a teen I handled a great deal of traffic. I was awarded Official Relay Station, both Section Net Certificate and Regional Net Certificate, and have been awarded the famous Brass Pounder League Award for traffic handling. I was also involved in contesting, and was inducted into the famous Potomac Valley Radio Club. I became the 20 meter operator for then super station, W4KXV where I set the record for most countries worked on one band (132) in the ARRL DX contest.
I moved to New Mexico in 1969 where my call was WA5YTX. I won New Mexico section awards in both the ARRL Sweepstakes and the ARRL DX Contest on numerous occasions, partial list below, including top ten finish.
In 1980 I hosted one of the first five exchange teachers from the USSR for a semester. In 1991 I arranged for his return for a semester. In 1992 (and again in 1993), my family and I traveled to Ukraine and Russia. I taught English at University of Zaparoshye. Vlad Lateshenko arranged for me to have the first Ukrainian call sign assigned to an American, US0Q, which we used together in the WPX contest that year. I also visited in Nikopol where I operated as UR5E.
In June of 1992 I traveled to Russia, first to St. Petersburg. Victor Stragonov arranged for me to operate the club station, UZ1AWT as UA1A. the same station that had been used by the Harvard Amateur radio club previously as US1A, possibly the first individual American to operate from Russia. In 1996, following the WRTC in San Francisco, four members of the St. Petersburg Club came to my home to operate to complete the remarkable exchange.
In April of 1994 I became FOC, First Class Operator Club, member number 1,636. I was awarded the A-1 Operator Club 8 October 1996. In 1998 I became a member of the Old Old Timers Club, # 3,757.
In 2000 I began 19 years of organizing an entry in the US Field Day competition. I operated as W5YA, initially in the two-man team competition. The first year, we placed third overall.
In 2001 and 2003, we took first place in the category. In 2002 and 2004 we were second. In 2003, 2004, and 2005, we were second. We finished first in 2006, 2007, and 2008. We moved up to the 1A category, and won in 2009, 2010. Then we moved up to the 3A (three transmitter) category. We won every year from 2011 to 2018, in 2012 we set the all time record for the category. See the QRZ dot com website under club call, W5YA for more detail.
In the ARRL 160 meter contest in year 2000, and using the call sign W5YA, I worked all states in one night, QRP..
On February 12, 2007, I completed the first (and still only known) WAC (Worked All Continents) on 160 meters using QRP power level. See the ARRL Low Power Communication, by Rich Arland, 2007 edition, page 5-11.
In late summer of 2010 New Mexico established a Summits On the Air association, and I made my first mountain peak activation. By 2012 I had devised an activation set-up that weighed only about one kilogram and started seriously activating peaks. Mountain peaks in this area are mostly 3,000 meters and higher, most have no trails.
On 14 September, 2012 I became the first operator in the western hemisphere to achieve Mountain Goat status with over 100 mountain peak activations. Some peaks as high as 4,000 meters.
I pioneered ultra-light SOTA activation equipment. I was the first in north America to use an end fed halfwave wire, first to use #28 wire, first to use linked lengths to achieve multi-band, the first to experiment with tiny traps for multi-band. This approach has been copied by several commercial vendors, but none produce a version like my trap which weighs only 2.5 grams.
By 2015 my SOTA activation set-up weighs under one-half kilogram. My backpack is made of gauze, and it weighs only 100 grams. My 5 meter pole weighs only 175 grams.
Now I am approaching 700 SOTA peak activations. I have made about 15,000 QRP contacts from SOTA peaks. My best QRP DX from a SOTA peak, and using my end fed halfwave wire supported by a fishing pole was UR5FA/MM on 20 November, 2012. Oleg was also operating QRP. He was in grid square LG-42 at a distance of 10,859 miles!
Publications include:
“Mystery in the Park,” QST, December 1998, page 54.
“Getting High with Ham Radio,” CQ Magazine, June 2013, page 20.
“Bagging the Field Day QRP Multiplier,” QST, June 2013, page 66.
ARRL Sweepstakes Clean Sweep Award (worked ALL possible multipliers) 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2006, 2007 only QRP station to do it, 2010.
While it is “unofficial,” I have made contact with over 290 countries, QRP. I say, life is too long for QRO.