(Click the above image for a FULL SIZE picture of my operating desk...)

-This is me . . . -At my "computer desk." As you will see, I am an advocate of the Macintosh computer family. (Although I still have two Windows computers, and have Windows XP Pro, Ubuntu Linux and Windows 7 running on all of our current Macs in the house.)

I have now retired from Northwest Airlines, as of August, 2005. I was in electronics there. (-I had been with NWA for 37 years, in total...) It was a GREAT JOB!

NWA has been purchased by DELTA AIRLINES, so this is the newest link to use.

My email address is:

Minnesota SUMMERTIME!

(Click the above image for a FULL SIZE picture)

Peg took a picture of me on a bike outing, as Peg and I were camping in Southern Minnesota.

(I might add that this picture was just taken with my PDA!  It is the Sony NX-80V.)

HAM-CAMPING!

This is my typical camping setup in our little hard-side camper. The pictures below was taken at a camp site at a state park, somewhere in South-Eastern Minnesota. (Ahhh...! The GREAT OUTDOORS!)

Above: This is an overall picture of my "hamshack on wheels." The speakers for the two radios are on the bulkhead above the radio control heads. (-Headphones are hanging from one of the speakers, as you can see.) We normally do not use the AC-power sites when we camp, so the two deep-cycle batteries supply our DC power needs, even for the HF radio. The HF radio that I have suffers a small bit of transmitter power as a result, which means that I usually run at about 65 Watts of RF power. I have found that this is doing very well for me.


Above: This second picture shows the Icom IC-2720 (top) and the Icom IC-7000 (bottom) control heads, mounted on a small home-made panel. The Icom AH-4 auto-antenna tuner is in the bench seat; The two radios are also located in this same area.


Above: Overall view of the front end of the very small camper. It is just big enough for Peg and I. As Peg is a ham (K0JPG), we use the two VX-6 handheld radios or the "base station" to keep track of each other as we hike or bike our way through our camping outings.


Above: Overall view of a typical setup of our small hard-side camper. The mast (on the other side of the camper) is a home-made 18 foot adjustable mast that is velcro-tied to a fixture on the top edge of the camper. I have the mast painted dark green and a flat black, so it is very hard to spot! At the top of the mast is a home-made VHF-UHF antenna, which is also camouflaged. The wire for the dipole antenna is very small, and is covered with a dark green plastic. The 107 foot dipole's feed point is at 18 feet, and the ends are as-is, with one end hopefully in the clear. I use an old hockey puck to toss the fish line that is attached to the ends of the dipole up and over a tree branch; This seems to work quite well on all bands from 75 through 6 Meters, thanks to the fact that I am feeding the dipole with 450 Ohm window (ladder) line.


Peg's computer is a 24" (LCD screen size) iMac. It is the Dual-layer DVD (SUPERDRIVE) model, with four Gigabytes of memory and a 640 Gb hard drive. The iMac is in a nook in our kitchen. (Peg's email address is shown below....) Peg now has her Technician ham (amateur radio) license! Her call is K0JPG. She has the books for studying to advance to her GENERAL CLASS ham license, but she is way too busy to engage this in the warmer seasons. I might add that Peg and I live in a nice little hut with a VIEW in rural Hampton, Minnesota.
 

Our oldest son is Nick. He works for NWA (Northwest Airlines) as a computer programmer. (Nick and Ann's email address is just below....) He and his wife, Ann have a young daughter and a younger son, Jack. Therefore, Ann has two jobs: Running the household, and running after (or tending to) Miss Mara and Mister Jack! Nick and his family live in a mansion near Hastings, Minnesota. (They are only a 20 minute drive from our home.)

 

Our youngest son is Nate. He lives in ALLEN, TEXAS, with his wife Stacey. (Allen is about 40 Minutes North of Dallas, Texas.) (Nate and Stacey's email address is just below....) Nate and Stacey just built a mansion there, in Allen... Nate works for Raytheon in McKinney, Texas, which is just north of their home site. Nate has a ham license, also; His call is KB0LHA. Stacey is managing a day-care center that is fortunately quite close to their home! (Before, she had to drive to Ft. Worth.) Nate and Stacy have a young daughter named Rylie and they are expecting a new member of their family in mid-July, 2009. In the Summer of 2008, Nate and Stacey purchased a VERY NICE summer-home near Frazee, Minnesota! They have a 1.2 Ghz eMac as well as a 600 Mhz iMac in their home.