I am an FCC licensed amateur radio operator. My call sign is W9MHZ. I mainly operate on the 2 meter, 70 centimeter, 1.25 meter, 40 meter and 17 meter bands. My most distant contact was with an operator with the call sign PJ2/PA1CC in the former Netherlands Antilles (Curacao Island), near Santa Martha Bay, using the 17 meter band, single sideband, October 31st, 2016. That's a distance of 2325 miles, with the same power that lights up a household lightbulb (around 70 watts). Amateur radio operators are required to keep a detailed log of all the contacts that they make on the air. They then can, if they wish, compare each others logs using a central online database (or post cards via the mail if you want to go old school) to verify that the contacts actually occured. A contact is only official if both stations have it in their respective logs.

If you would like to learn more about amateur radio, and how to get started, click here.


My equipment includes:


  • Yaesu FT-840 HF (10m through 160m) base CW, AM, and SSB transceiver

  • Kenwood TH-F6A 2m, 1.25m, and 70cm handheld FM transceiver

  • Alinco DR-135T 2m mobile FM transceiver

  • MFJ hamstick dipole antenna system with interchangable elements for individual HF bands (40m and 17m), vertically oriented

  • Various test equipment, software, etc