I was first licenced in May of 1957 following 6 months of being Elmerized by VE4LD in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Due to a bit of a struggle with the morse code portion of my exam (10 wpm in those days) I was determined to master it and stayed on cw for the necessary full year prior to writing the advanced licence exam (with 15 wpm requirement). I chose to go after WAS on cw in order to hone the skill and managed to work a bit of dx with the random length of wire used as an antenna.I was hooked !

I held the call VE4SW for a year then changed to VE4XJ as a more flowing cw call and held that call for 20 years and VE5XJ for 3 years. VE7CT came to me following a move to the west coast in 1980.

I have 359 entities and am on the DXCC honour roll as well as the WAZ and WAS awards, also have DXCC QRP.

In 1990 I had the privilege to go on a dxpedition to Conway Reef with Martti Laine OH2BH and Wayne Mills N7NG, the organizers. In 2000 I went to Kingman Reef with the K5K group spearheaded by Garry NI6T and Tom N4XP, operating primarily cw. On the way we also operated from T32R and briefly from Palmyra.

Recently I sold my business and retired but have kept busy with a move to a new location and the associated labour (of love) putting up new antennas and planning the new station setup.