WHO AM I?

I was born in 1969 in Chicago Illinois. I spent most of my early years in Mt Prospect where I attended St. Emily's grade school. I graduated from Heresy High School in 1987. I spent most of my after school time working on cars, playing guitars, messing with computers and working as a cook. I earned my first radio license in 1986. My call was KA9YCA.

After High School I studied physics at Northern Illinois University in the cornfields of DeKalb. These were some of the best years of my life. Thanks Mom and Dad. I worked during the summers at a tool and die shop with my father, where I learned skills that I still use today. I also met a fellow ham and elmer, Robbie WA9INF. I also met Kirby, KA9UMJ about the same time.
I moved to Michigan in 1997 for work reasons. I lived in a large Detroit suburb called Livonia. As luck would have it, I moved next to KC8KJP, a then recently licensed ham.

I moved back to the Chicago area in April of 2001 and settled in Crystal Lake. Once settled, I was able to set up a decent radio shack in the basement. My call changed to AB9DO when I upgraded to an extra class. Now, I spend most of my free time working on the house, surfing the net, and talking on the radio. I am active in HF SSB and a few of the digital modes. I also enjoy playing with APRS.

I was first introduced to Amateur Radio from the older brother of one of my playmates in our old Chicago neighborhood back in the early 60’s. I grew up around Brach Candy Company (Cicero & Lake Street). His older brother was a HAM (WA9ELQ) and I still have his QSL card one of my first. He has let his license lapse since.

Electrical and mechanical things have always interested me from a young age. I remember getting a book from our local library on radio and finding an article on how to build a “Foxhole” radio. I found that to be my next science fair project for 7th grade. The radio was made of a pencil lead, a razor blade, a safety pin, and a bunch of wire wound around a paper towel tube. It worked great outdoors but it did not work indoors as a science fair project.

While in High School I attempted to get a HAM license. The main Allied Radio store at Western and Warren Blvd. in Chicago was offering Novice license classes with both Morse code and technical training. A neighborhood friend and I would take the CTA bus to and from the classes on a Monday night. My friend could not keep up with class and so we both dropped out.

I built an Allied radio R-55, Knight Kit receiver around this same time and started to collect code keys and Morse code practice boxes. My first ARRL books were 50 cents each, which I still have.

Like many, in the 70’s with the CB craze, I have a big full wave whip antenna mounted to my car bumper. I remember talking to a trucker with a handle of “Lucky7, on 7/7/77.

During college I studied electronic and TV repair. I made ends meet working as an Entertainment Technician (a bench tech/TV repair man) for Montgomery Wards in DeKalb, IL. between classes and after school. I was a big hit with the people in my dorm building because I was able to tap into the cable distribution system for the common area of the dorm and run cable down the hallway and into each dorm room that wanted it. You would not believe the amount of grass (marijuana) and joints I found up under the ceiling tiles in the hallways of the dorm.

Once out of college and into the business world, I worked with electronics and managed people but had no involvement in Amateur radio.

Kirby Giampa and I were talking one day and the subject of other hobbies and activates came up. I found out that Kirby was a HAM and that you no longer needed to have Morse code to get a technician license (element 2). Kirby inform me that a HAM Cram was being offered at Harper College. I signed up to take the 6 hour HAM Cram and test, which I passed and was awarded a Technician license. I was now a HAM. That was MAY 2001.

Since receiving my HAM ticket I have found the hobby to be very diverse and I have a much to learn. I have joined several local Radio Clubs, purchased some HAM gear, gotten QSL cards printed, and taken the General Class element 3 exam and passed. Many of you know that I have been the Net Control Operation for our SUHFARS Nothing Net. I am still studying to upgrade my Technician Amateur Radio license by learning the Morse code and passing the 5 word-per-minute exam. I am looking forward to gaining worldwide communication privileges on the high-frequency bands.

As stated, I have much to learn, but I am having FUN and HAM’s are very friendly people and always willing to share advice or a good story….

When I was about 6 years old, I used to go down to my grandfather's basement. It was filled with all sorts of cool stuff, oscilloscopes, voltmeters, signal generators, transformers, and lots of stuff with the NBC logo on it. He worked as an electrical engineer at WMAQ-TV. But the thing I was drawn to the most was the Allied Radio Knight Kit general coverage receiver. There were so many dials and buttons on it, and the best part was, that was one of the few things I was allowed to touch. I would sit listening across the bands for hours. Signals coming on from all over the world, end the ever present WWV (doesn't that guy ever take a vacation?). My grandfather's call was W9WRB. I knew one day I would probably become a ham.

Then when I was 12, our church offered a class in ham radio for beginners. It was taught by a United Airlines pilot with an extra class license. The theory was a little advanced but I began to pick it up quickly. I had no problem with the code since I had memorized the characters a few years ago via the dot and dash method. I got my license in 1971 as WN9HIG. My grandfather gave me a home brew transmitter with 2 crystals in the novice bands. He also gave me the Knight receiver that by now I was very familiar with.

It was a fun 2 years, but I was just starting high school and was too busy with sports and other things to think about going for a general. My license expired in 1973. I went on to college and graduated with a BS in engineering from the University of Illinois. Seventeen years went by before I decided to get back into ham radio. I dug out the old transmitter and Knight receiver from the attic. I wiped the dust off of everything, found a dummy load and plugged it in. The receiver worked as well as it did seventeen years earlier. The transmitter needed a new tube, but amazingly it worked quite well.

After studying for the general, I went over to the high school all prepared to take the exam. It was only then that I found out that I had to first take the novice and technician test. Despite the surprise, I walked out with a general. I think the electrical engineering classes I took in college got me through the first two.

I was on the air in the fall of 1990 after 17 years of QRT. The only mode I worked the first year was CW. One day I stopped into a ham store and found out there were some pretty cool HT's around for 2M and UHF. In the fall of 1991 I bought a Kenwood TH77A, and had my first non CW QSO soon after. A couple months later I found there was a repeater that could actually hear my HT full quieting from my aluminum sided townhouse in Hoffman Estates., it was on 443.25. I soon became a member of SUHFARS after that.

I work in specialty chemical sales for the polymer, catalyst and ceramic industry covering most of North America. Since I work out of the house I don't commute. With that in mind, I started looking for a more ham friendly property. I found a few acres on top of a hill out in Marengo. My wife and I moved to Marengo in 1994. The 48 foot tower went up in 1995.

I work HF once in a while, and usually monitor SUHFARS when in the car or around the house.

I was originally licensed in 1959 as KN8YZR, in Jackson Michigan. I was in High School. I only ever made one QSO as a novice, on 2 meter AM during Field Day of that year. A year later, I upgraded to Technician and bought a Heathkit 'Sixer' and a Halo to set up my first station. I later upgraded the station to an LW-51 transmitter (a single 6146 plate modulated) and a LW 6M converter feeding a general coverage receiver. At the end of High School, I went off to join the Navy and ended up at Great Lakes Naval Training Center for a year of Electronics School. While there, I upgraded to Conditional and passed a lot of traffic at the club station K9NBH.

The Navy took me to Hawaii where I spent some time operating KH6SP at the Submarine base at Pearl Harbor. After I was discharged, I attended the University of Hawaii and was active in Oahu County Civil Defense. Active in Army MARS I ran a lot of phone patches. To pay the bills, I tracked satellites for the Air Force and worked for the Phone Company. While in Hawaii, I upgraded to Advanced and held the callsign KH6GHC.

In 1969, I moved to Des Plaines, Ill with a job opportunity and spent 10 years in an apartment with no outside antennas. (At least none you could see <grin>). Even so, I managed to work about 20 states on 2M and made a bunch of satellite contacts on Oscar 7. I was also Radio Officer for Des Plaines ESDA and spent some time as Tech Chairman for NORA (147.69/09).

During that time I held the callsigns WB9CSP and W9MMB. I finally upgraded to Extra as a part of the FCCs first incentive licensing program. The 'incentive' was that as an Extra, you could pick from available calls, and I picked K9IJ.

In 1978, my employer sent me to Tampa, Florida to open a customer support office. I was finally able to afford to buy my first house and of course the tower went up soon afterwards. I spent most of the first 4 years working DX on the HF bands. When I wasn't doing that, I earned a Pilots License ASMEL-IA and built a repeater..... Then I got married.

The end of 1984, we moved back north and settled in Lake Zurich. Work and marriage kept me pretty well occupied. Ham radio was pretty much 2M & 220 mobile FM. Got 'unmaried', still kept in touch with old friends on NORA, but not much else. Got married again :-). Then in 1996 I did 3 rounds with a major medical problem which pretty much took me off the air entirely for the next 4 years.

After that, things looking up again, I started to get back in to the hobby. Put a radio back in the car and hooked up with some of the old gang but it just wasn't the same. So Robbie, WA9INF, said "Try SUHFARS", it's up near you and has a pretty good bunch of people.

Yeah, Robbie.... it's all his fault.... I had a UHF talkie, so I tried it. That led to a new mobile, which led to a new base station, which led to a new HF radio, which led to 6 Meters, which led to an antenna farm in the back yard and on the roof...... And then there's the club website at http://www.suhfars.org .

And so it goes. Now I'm very active on 6M. (45 states worked in the last 9 months). I'm working on increasing my country count on Low Bands (closing in on 300 countries confirmed). I'm an active VHF/UHF contester with KG9PF, working on more VHF/UHF antennas at the house and loving every minute of it. Current wife much more tolerant of the hobby than the first and things couldn't be better. It's all Robbies fault....

Thanks Robbie.

I first became interested in radio back in the late 70's. I can remember the wooden box which sat below my grandfather's television which made the wierd noises and the voices were in every language imaginable. My grandparent's lived right on the Mississippi River only 5 miles north of the confluence of the Mississippi and the Ohio. I enjoyed listening to the pilots operating their tugs and barges on the Mississippi through Dog Tooth Bend which is one of only a few places where the Mississippi flows northward. The pilots would have to wait for the other traffic to clear the bend and during this waiting period, the pilots would spin tales about everything imaginable.

As I became older, I was given a Radio Shack portable world band receiver. I took some speaker wire and strung it around my room and eventually to a tree in the rear of my parent's yard. With a trusty alligator clip, I had a DX listening antenna. However, I mostly listened to "The Rock-N-Roll Flight to Midnight" on WRNO from New Orleans. This was a local FM station which was rebroadcast from LA on 5.365 MHz. Every now and then my father and I would spin around and listen to Radio Moscow or Radio Beijing or whatever we could find. We had CB's in the house, however I never found much interest in the CB for chatting. Mostfor trips in the car and fox hunting. I was exposed to a scanner since I was a little tike and can remember listening to police and fire calls for all of that time. During my college years, I was the cool guy on the floor because everyone could come over and we would listen to all the girls in the dorm on their cordless phones. I wasn't technical enough to get video with the audio...BUMMER!!!!

I went through several world band receivers over the years and enjoyed having hours and hours of listening experience. My neighbor tried and tried to get me to get my ticket, however I was always afraid of the code. One day, he came over and was excited about a no code license. It took a few years, but I finally did it. I got excited about getting my ticket and I remember the call I received to tell me that I was now KB9LIO and a valid Technician class operator. I already had my HT and was ready to get on the air. I stayed up for hours and hours and finally got the nerve to make my first repeater Q. It was none other than my neighbor KB9JNO who I still keep in touch with today. We worked through a repeater 30 miles away for a 150' QSO. What a waste of machine time, but hey, I was new...what did I know????

I eventually got tired of FM and repeaters and would take any opportunity to work "band enhancements" and once worked OH on FM simplex from my parents back yard on a 5W talkie. THAT WAS COOL. Today, I am an active VHF/UHF SSB enthusiast with a touch of HF DX activity. I enjoy contesting and there are so many modes I have not experienced that I wish I could try them all..... I am happy to be associated with the SUHFARS group and have made some good friends over here in the last 6 years... Hope that we can have another good 6 years with our growing club....

I was asked to write the story of my trail into Ham-dom and something about myself. Knowing that there is often a fine line between interesting and boring, I'll try to stay towards the interesting side since nobody likes boring. This won't be easy.

I was born, raised and continue to live in the Chicago area. I spent my school years in the Des Plaines area. As a kid I was a tinkerer. Liked to take things apart, put things back together and throw them away. Why through them away? Because they didn't work any more. Not happy with this, I got interested in making the things that I took apart work again. I think that's what led me to become an Engineer in later life. I actually get paid to make other people's stuff "work right" or figure out why it didn't work right. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

I used to get in trouble a lot. Mostly for talking in class, getting in fights...etc. All minor stuff. I wasn't a hoodlum. Just a talkative, small kid, that people like to pick fights with. If you have kids in school - I don't recommend telling them that detention is a good thing. But it was for me. Generally I would get to spend time in the library and study. However, one time, I was deserving of a special detention. I got to spend some quality time in the Vice-Principal's office for an entire week and watch him. Just to make sure that he was doing his job I guess.

While in the principal's office he reached in his brief case and took out a portable radio. Turned out to be a Wilson 2-meter HT. He turned it on and put it on his desk. After a while it bleeped out some Morse code and I asked him what that was and he told me about it. Then one of his friends called CQ and he started talking to him. When he was done, I asked a ton of questions, and we talked about it until it was time to go. That was Monday. On Tuesday, he brought in a copy of one of the ARRL pubs and handed it to me. I looked it over and got pretty interested. Lots of pictures of boxes with knobs and lights. Stuff that you could take apart. We talked some more. On Wednesday he brought in a License manual and a code practice oscillator. In those days you took the novice test from any ham that you weren't related to that was over 21. By Friday I passed the code test. Kids can do that stuff. Adults can't! The written exam was another story.

Over the next two weeks I stayed after school, on my own. I think the tests were much harder back then. You didn't' know what was going to be on the test exactly. The license manual only had examples and they were not that close in the head of a 12-year-old. You had to understand electronics and radio. Anyway, he tried to teach me what I needed to know in order to pass the test. I didn't pass it. I was pretty disappointed. I didn't try again for quite a while. To this day I don't know why I didn't try again right away. But ever since that time, I never had another detention.

Although I flunked the test, my interest in electronics stuck. I got a short wave radio from my Grandfather and spent a lot of time listening. I was fortunate to go to a High School that had a 4-year electronics program. In High School, I joined the school radio station (WMTH) which satisfied my need for playing with transmitters, microphones and knobs. I graduated in 1976 around the time of the CB craze. I used to "hack" CB's quite a bit. I took one radio and built a varactor diode "slider" for it, and it was able to go all way from CB to the 10-meter band. Again I heard code. This time on a CB - sort of. It got me interested in Ham radio again.

I continued my education at University of Illinois - Chicago, pursuing a Electical Engineering Degree. I studied again and took the test from one of the teachers at the school that was trying to start a radio club. I was a novice. I got my Technician License a few days after my novice license came in the mail. During this time I was on 2 M and CB. One of my jobs during college was at CB center of America.

I got my feet wet on HF with a single crystal Novice transmitter, which I put on the air at my parent's house using a indoor antenna and my old short wave radio as a receiver. My first HF contact as a Tech was on 20 Meter CW. Techs can't operate on 20 Meters. I was on transmitting on 40 Meters. The person who answered me was on 20. He was 3 blocks away. From my shaky and slow CW he could tell that I wasn't a General. He asked me my phone number and we figured out what was going on. It was a harmonic and overload type of thing. I did get a QSL card though.

In 1980 I got my BSEE and began working for Commonwealth Edison. I started working in a department called "operational analysis". The department head "hired me" because he found over the years that engineers that were hams generally had some practical knowledge rather than just textbook. At least we would know which end of the soldering iron was hot. For the last 20 years I've worked on various types of communication equipment that is used to protect the power system. I've worked on everything from DC to daylight. Modulated 60 Hz, audio, two-way radio, microwave and Fiber Optics. Hobby and work tends to blur together. At one point, I was in a group with 12 people in which 6 of us were hams. I guess you could say that our group was "radio active". Maybe I've been in the Nuke Stations to many times.

I met my wife Lori during college and got married in 1981. She's not into the hobby as a hobby, but she has a Tech. license. She'll get on every now and then. Cell phones destroyed our quality radio time.

After moving out of the parental nest, getting the necessities like furniture, food and lowband equipment, I worked my way to Advanced Class around 1983. In 1987 I got transferred to downtown Chicago where I had a time wasting train ride in the morning and the evening. I got some code tapes and progressed to Extra Class. In 1990 I got transferred to ComEd's labs in Maywood. The drive stinks but it gives me time to play radio.

I've lived in Arlington Heights for the last 12 years with Lori, Jessica (14) and Kevin (10) and a dog. I'm trying to get the kids interested. I haven't given up yet. I've given up on the dog - although he is pretty smart.

All in all I managed to parlay detentions in Junior High school into a career and a hobby. It still amazes me when I look back.

I first got involved in the radio as a hobby back in 1971. A neighbor of mine had some radios for his business, but his son discovered how much fun it really was after business hours. I was mesmerized and bought my first radio from his dad for $30 © a 3 channel Globe 100. I stuck some 8 gauge insulated wire in the back, wired it to 5 coat hangers tied together, and I was on the air (kids...don't try this stunt at home). After some time, I upgraded the antenna to a 1/4 wave ground plane, then a 23ch Lafayette Telsat 23 , and eventually a Cobra 135 SSB rig (also upgrading antennas along the way). That's when I caught the dx bug, working Europe and South America between chs 15 and 16 and above ch 23.

Also during that time, I received an assignment from my history teacher.....a semester report on the current events of a particular country. While most of the kids were assigned countries like England and France, I was assigned Albania. Albania???....at that time, most people had never even heard of Albania. My dad had gotten me a National NC 125 shortwave receiver from who I now consider my elmer (W1FD) to entice me into ham radio and out of CB. Turns out Radio Tirana was a powerhouse on the international scene, spreading its propaganda along with the likes of Radio Moscow and Radio Peking. A weekly listen to Radio Tirana and I was able to put together a report that blew my teacher away. I got into swl qsl collecting and also started listening to the ham bands. Even took classes to get my ticket, but that damn code! In college, I was a member of the school's amateur radio club (even though I didn't have a license), and got to do a little contesting while there. I moved to the Chicago area where an acquaintance (a member of Suhfars.....can you guess who he is?), told me of the new no code requirements.

Most of you know the rest of the story. I've been a member of Suhfars for the past 6 years, previously held the illustrious position of Suhfars secretary for 3 - 4 years (time flies by when you're having fun) and even held the title of repeater slacker (wonder who that might belong to now). Though I do a little more hf, both contesting and hf mobiling, Suhfars is still my home when it comes to the 'high' bands, and I'm around more often than you think (try calling and find out for yourself).

My interest in two way communications began in 1972. After listening to shortwave recievers for a few years, my parents (oops, I mean Santa Claus for the Huntley gang)gave me a Radio Shack 40 channel sideband base station. Included in this package was a "Moonraker 6" directional beam antenna. I was on the air constantly, and my handle was "Big O". This satisfied my interests with two way radio for quite a few years, until cars and sports won out. When I began my own business in 1990, I purchased a Motorola Radius system on UHF. We shared a community repeater with several other companies. We then upgraded to a Motorola Trunked system, which offered us private conversations. The repeater then kicked us off for good when the frequencies were sold to a cellular provider. Needless to say, the Motorola system satisfied my desire for two way radio.

I began to miss the fun after a year or so, and I plugged in the old 11 meter set in February of this year. Wow, what a change! This was not going to work. So I studied for my ham ticket and entered as a Technician in June of this year.

My equipment is all dual band UHF/VHF. I have a Yaseu FT-90 in the truck. My base is a HT-50 Yaseu, with a dual band Mirage amp. The antenna is a Comet GP-9. At my office I have a Kenwood TM-V7A, with a Diamond X-50 on the roof. A Kenwood HT takes care of those moments when I am not near the other three places. I first joined a local repeater club near my home, The North Shore Radio Club. This is a VHF repeater. The conversations there sounded awfully close to what you might hear on 11 meters. "What is your antenna,how do I sound, what is your power supply.....and yada yada yada." So I surfed around and began to listen to Suhfars. What a difference! Snowmobiles, boats, waterskiing, hunting, a cool website, and yes.....Allan! It took me only a couple of weeks, and I joined Suhfars.

I currently am self employed and I do custom home building and renovating. The name of my business is "Design Build by Pasquesi, Inc." I am based in Lake Forest, Illinois. I have been married for six years to Kathy. She is not a ham, but I am sure you have heard her on the radio. Kathy is a professional jingle singer and voice over expert. She has done thousands of radio and tv spots, most notably she is the voice of "Meow-Meow-Meow-Meow", cat food. Also, she is the voice of "Oh, that pop and fresh dough" and many others.

My father, the person who got me started in two way radio, has also had an interesting life. He was an All American at the University of Notre Dame in football back in the fifties. He was then drafted in the third round by the then Chicago Cardinals.(Now the Arizona Cardinals) They played in the old Commisky Park, while the Bears played in Wrigley Field. During his career he played with some of the all time greats, like Jim Brown and Frank Gifford. Injuries eventually ended his career. Eventually, I would like to upgrade to the General Class. For now, the Suhfars gang has made the hobby very enjoyable.

I was first interested in Ham radio in the mid 70's. My elmer, my grandfather W8DCD was a big county hunter. He was the 25th ham to work all counties, most 20m mobile. I tried but just didn't have the perseverance back then to get my license. So for 20 years, I worked all my stations on 11 meters. They called me sidecar. After getting bored with that and needing more reliable communication, I tested for my novice license at Barrington High School in 1985. Just weeks later, I upgraded to Technician (now called Tech plus). In 1998 at radio expo, I upgraded again to General; where I currently stand.

My equipment is primarily UHF radios. I own several Handhelds and mobiles. All my vehicles have dual bands and I have a talkie for every finger on my hands. I also possess a Kenwood ts430 set up primarily for 80 meter operation to my grandfather in UP Michigan. Its barefoot with an 80 meter sloping ½ wave dipole with one end at 90'. I have 2 towers; a 52' aluminum crank up and a Rohn w series 100ft. My primary antenna is a Diamond x500r at 131' with 225 ft of 7/8 hard line. My base is a Motorola GM300 with 40 watts. I am only 5 miles from the SUHFARS repeater.

I have been associated with SUHFARS for about 10 years. I have been President for 5 and I am currently Treasurer.

I am one of the founders of the original Nothing Net and the primary net control operator of the Suhfars. The Nothing net started on 145.41 and then moved to 147.12. This is back when I used to run the low bands. Brian Wadsworth WB9MCW,George Flannagan KG9BG and Bob Pasqual WB9BBE are the others.

I currently work for Compaq/Digital equipment as a field engineer. I have been there for 15 years. I also am a Paid on Call Firefighter for The Wauconda Fire Department. I have been married for 3 ½ years and live in North Barrington. My wife is N9MUE, Jeanne and she has been a ham for about 7 years.