New to the whole radio thing—something else atop my already-extensive list of hobbies.

Places I’m active

Depending on my QTH, I’m often monitoring either HamTalk, the Appalachian Repeater Association System or the WVU ARC repeater.  You might occasionally hear me on the two-meter call frequency in Clarksburg as well.

DXing and simplex in general is gonna be kinda hard from my home QTH without some kind of preparation, as my house is in a valley right by a river.  Soon, I’ll get my General and/or AE and be able to try out HF phone, though!

Clubs

General, regional organizations of which I’m a member:

• Central West Virginia Wireless Association (CWVWA)
• West Virginia State Amateur Radio Council (WVSARC)
• American Radio Relay League (ARRL)

International organizations of which I’m a member:

• Straight Key Century Club (SKCC), no. 30920
• FISTS (the International Morse Preservation Society), no. 23281
• League of Furry Amateur Radio (LoFAR)

Equipment

• Yaesu FT-60T, 2m/70cm FM HT
  • Signal Stuff Super-Elastic Signal Stick, 2m/70cm 19″ whip
    • Signal Stuff SMA-M to BNC-F adapter
  • Signal Stuff magnetic BNC mount
  • Yaesu SSM-17A speaker microphone
• Baofeng AR-5RM, 2m/1.25m/70cm FM HT
  • Signal Stuff Super-Elastic Signal Stick, 2m/70cm 19″ whip
• Homemade transmitter based on SV3ORA’s EMTX, 40m base
  • Random wire antenna, currently

Furry

Firstly, if your first reaction to that word is stuff you can't say on the air, check out this website, What Are Furries?, for a good overview on how we’re not… whatever you think we are.

Anyway, especially if you’re a ham furry, you might have seen me in various circles as Sterling, the red-bellied woodpecker.  I even run a statewide furmeet group, Mountain State Furries, and you might have picked me up on some simplex frequencies talking to fellow local furs during camping meets and such.

Outside ham radio

I’m a jack of all trades and a master of maybe one-and-a-half.  I teach music as a profession, but I dabble a lot in a whole bunch of other stuff: avian ecology and rehabilitation; wildlife and nature photography; low-level computer programming; trail and urban cycling… yeah, I keep myself occupied.

I occasionally pop up on GMRS as WSLR222, though that call sign is also used by my wife, Myrtle.

More general info about me can be found on my website.  73, and thanks for checking me out.