KC5LK Biographical Info

Greetings and welcome to my humble shack. I was first licensed in 1978 as KA5AFT. I kept that call until early 1981 when I requested a callsign change and received my current call KC5LK.

In the years that followed my activity level has covered the spectrum from being QRT for 7 years to very, very active. I have helped to establish one Amateur Radio Club and served as an officer in a another. I am currently a member of the American Radio Relay League, Jackson, MS Amateur Radio Club, Chiltern DX Club, and 599 DX Association. So that I can give something back to my hobby I am an ARRL VE, DXCC Card Checker and CQ Checkpoint and on January 1, 2015 I will be the CQ WAZ Award Manager.

Like most hams I have tried many of the exciting and a few of the not so exciting aspects of Amateur Radio. At the present my principal interest is DX on the HF bands. There are slowly developing ideas of 6 Meter DX, but those ideas are still rattling around in the brain. The DX bug was slow to bite, it was eighteen years after I received my first ticket that I finally made my first DXCC submission in Febuary 1996, it contained 103 Entities. Even with that it took another two years for me realize that I really enjoyed DXing. Since then as the saying goes, "The rest is history". My Brag Wall now proudly displays Plaques for DXCC Honor Roll (Mixed and Phone), 5 Band DXCC, and DXCC Challenge. I also have DXCC certificates for CW, RTTY, and for all bands 80 thru 10 Meters as well as CQ WAZ and 5 Band WAZ. An I have the following CQ Awards WPX, WAZ Mixed, Phone, CW, 20 Meter Phone and 5 Band WAZ.

My QTH is located in the central part of the state of Mississippi about 9 miles (15KM) SSE of Brandon. The gridsquare location is EM52ad. The station is equipted with a Icom IC-706MKIIG and a Kenwood TS-140S. The HF antennas are a Cushcraft A-3 at 68' (20 Meters). Dipoles are used for 80 and 40 Meters transmit and for 80 and 40 Meter receive I use a beverage pointed towards southern Europe. For the WARC bands I use a G5RV antenna that was designed for 40 Meter operation but has proven to be more than adequate thus far for WARC Band operation. For The digital modes I use a a notebook running Windows 7 Pro (64 bit) using HRD or WSJT-X and a RigBlaster Advantage.

If you are a DX station and would like to exchange QSL cards, send your card with QSO data and a SASE or SAE with $1.00 USD or 1 IRC to my CBA Address. All DX cards without an SAE or SASE will be returned via the buro very very slow. QSL requests from stations within the Contigious States MUST contain a SASE or they WILL NOT be answered. For all stations I upload my logs in real time or at the end of each operation session to eQSL, Clublog, and LoTW.

73
John, KC5LK

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