NEWS:Visit the Station Activity Log to read about recent events at this station. You can click the link or enter Log.KR8L.us in your browser's address window.

LOCATION:Amateur Radio Station KR8L is located in the Ninth Call District in Grid EM57pe, just a few miles north of the Hometown of Superman.

CONTACT: Send mail to KR8L “at” KR8L.us.

INTERESTS: I would have to say that I am an Amateur Radio generalist rather than a specialist. I don't tend to pursue any one aspect of the hobby to a great degree (at least not for too long). Instead, I have tried to sample as many aspects as possible. So, in answering the question “What are my interests?” I might reply, “Well, I haven't tried EME yet....” (Come to think of it, that's not completely true. I have copied three stations off the moon: VE3ONT (CW), W5UN (CW), and W7FG (WSJT).)

So...In no particular order:

As far as frequency goes, you are likely to find me anywhere from Top Band to 432 MHz (including 222 MHz).

More than anything else I think I enjoy a good rag-chew best of all.

I enjoy experimenting with many of the digital sound card-based modes, with the latest being Frequency Division Multiplex Digital Voice (FDMDV). I have also worked with Olivia, MFSK-16, PSK-31, and RTTY, as well as with analog SSTV.

CW is a long-time favorite of mine, and a mode that I still enjoy tremendously.

I'm a casual DXer with just over 150 countries worked. My personal preference is to cruise the bands and work them when I find them, rather than monitoring the DX clusters and fighting my way through a big pileup.

I'm also a very casual contester, with two or three hours once or twice per day about the limit of my interest. It's fun to get on during a contest and try to find a new grid on VHF or a new country on Top Band. Once I get a couple of logbook pages full and can no longer keep track of the dupes in my head it's time to quit.

I have been a QRP enthusiast for a long time, ever since I built my HW-8 back in 1980. I have a few other kit-built and homebrew QRP CW rigs. I bought an FT-817 several years ago and figured that I would never use the microphone, but was pleasantly surprised to find that QRP SSB is not only possible but fun.

HFpacking is an offshoot of QRP that I enjoy (although HFpacking is not limited to QRP by any means). At one time I had a rather extensive set of web pages devoted to my HFpack activities, but I think they need to be updated before I put them up again.

I've done a lot of satellite operating over the years, although I am not currently on that mode.

VHF and UHF weak signal work is something I enjoy, with equipment for 50, 144, 222, and 432 MHz.

Meteor Scatter is a special area of VHF weak signal work that I have participated in for many years. WSJT is now the preferred mode, but I got my start back when SSB was the norm in North America.

I suppose that Top Band is not really a separate “thing,” but it is different enough from the HF bands that it presents its own particular challenges. I wanted to try 160m for a long time, and finally got my start with a 1.5 watt homebrew QRP transmitter (with VFO), homebrew receiving converter, and homebrew antenna tuner. I don't think I have ever felt more like a “real Ham”! (That experience did more than any other to convince me of the validity of what I like to call the “Ruby Slippers” principle: If you believe in yourself and your equipment, then you can accomplish what you desire.)

Many years ago I did some CW traffic handling and was a member of the Michigan Traffic Net.

I've done a bit of HF mobile operating over the years, and even a bit of weak-signal mobile work on 50 and 144 MHz using 6m and 2m halo antennas.

I have done a fair amount of building over the years, both kits and scratch-built projects, the latter including projects of my own design as well as circuits taken from various publications.

Computers are an unavoidable part of Amateur Radio these days. I take what I suppose is a peculiar approach: I don't use a computer for rig control and I don't use a computer log. I much prefer to interact with my equipment directly through buttons and knobs, and I enjoy writing my my ARRL Logbook. On the other hand, I am fascinated by the computer-based modes and enjoy using them. My computer is set up to run both Linux and Windows operating systems, and I prefer to use Linux applications when they are available, including WSJT and FLdigi. (Linux is neither a “political,” "ideological," nor “religious” choice. I just prefer the insight and control that it gives me with regard to the inner workings of the computer.  By the way, I have been using computers for over 40 years.)

HISTORY: I was first licensed as WN9PEQ back in the mid-1960s. That was the era of the one-year Novice license. I didn't upgrade and the license was not renewable, so I was out of Amateur Radio. I became interested again in the late 1970s and was licensed as a new Novice as KA8GMJ. I upgraded to General, then Advanced, then Amateur Extra over the course of the next couple of years. Around 1980 I applied for a callsign change to match my license class and was assigned KR8L.

ARTICLES: I enjoy writing about my Ham Radio projects and operating activities. You can read some of my articles here in portable document format (pdf). Most of them are from club newsletters or from postings to on-line discussion groups or club web pages.

Content updated 2009 February 28, Layout updated 2009 November 07