I’m Mike. I’m 42 years old. I currently work as a network/systems administrator for a web hosting company. From 1998 to mid-2006 I worked as a Network Administrator, then moved up to NetOps Manager, and then VP of NetOps for a regional ISP that provided DSL/leased line service and dialup to customers in Ohio and West Virginia. Since 2006 I’ve worked as a Systems Administrator for a web hosting company.
I have been a licensed amateur radio operator since 1991. I was first licensed as a novice with the call KB8MAZ. Shortly thereafter I upgraded to general and kept the call. Within about a year I obtained amateur extra and got the new call of AA8IA. I actually passed 20 wpm CW at the same time that I passed my novice test. I operate mostly CW on 80/40/20 but can be found on bands from 80 to 440 in various modes at various times.
I remember my first QSO on 10m with XE1MMJ. I remember how excited I was when I talked to Maria. I was definitely hooked! I loved working 10/12/15 meters in my early days of being licensed, both SSB and CW. The solar cycle was at or near its peak around that time and it was very easy to work various continents without a really good antenna system.
For quite a while I enjoyed building all kinds of antennas from for 20 meters to 1.2 ghz, mostly from the ARRL Antenna Handbook. I then got into packet radio and along with N8SJS and WB8FPN ran both 1200 and 9600 packet nodes in Eastern Ohio. We did quite a bit of experimenting with TCPIP – this is before TCPIP was a big word (ya know, back before AOL caught on that people wanted real internet access via TCPIP).
My interest in amateur radio is sporadic. When I’m active, I prefer to work the state QSO parties and Field Day.
I belong to the Mad River Radio Club ( http://www.madriverradioclub.org/ ). I hope to hear from you all in an upcoming QSO Party!