Thrilled to join a new QRP group. We may not use much power, but we are powerful!
I was born and raised in Connecticut, went off to my military duty, and then lived in New Hampshire for close to thirty years. During most of my 50+ amateur years I've been a QRP advocate. Over that time there have been numerous homebrew rigs, along with an HW-7, HW-9 and Steve Weber's, KD1JV, ATS-3A. Many of the homebrewed rigs were Doug DeMaw designs. He was my hero.
In 2007, I set off on the Appalachian Trail with a homebrewed rig and got 600 miles (1000 km) into the hike, when I found I needed a six-artery heart bypass operation. I headed back to the home QTH in Sarasota, Florida, spent 300 days recovering, and then got back on the trail and finished all 2,176 miles. I managed to get on the air from all fourteen states and had a ball. The ATS-3A was flawless, and provided me hours of fantastic contacts, thanks to all you QRP ops. I wrote a book about the experience, Three Hundred Zeroes: Lessons of the Heart on the Appalachian Trail, and in it, I gave the public some idea of what it is like to be a ham and carry a small radio backpacking. I also commented that some of you folks have “Superhuman,” ears!
I enjoy writing about our avocation and have had a number of articles published in most of the leading and not so famous, journals of our hobby.
Recently, during the summer of 2013, Jane, KA1FUN, my XYL and I, traipsed around Europe, and once again the ATS-3A was called to duty. It was inspiring to work so many stations while in Europe, and even made a few stateside contacts. I'm a ragchewer, so I didn't work too many stations, and opted for long contacts instead.
My father, K1ZEO, was my radio inspiration. He was a radio operator with the 82nd Airborne Division in WW II and always loved radio. I grew up with it. He is now a silent key, and my daughter has his call. I'm currently working on a book about his adventures and hope to publish that in the summer of 2014, at the latest 2015.
My favorite QRP watering holes are 40 and 20 meters, mostly CW, with occasional PSK31 activity. See you there!
Dennis, K1YPP
Sarasota, Florida
Author of: Three Hundred Zeroes
http://tinyurl.com/2f74mdtPS: If links to the book are not allowed, let me know, and I'll gladly remove it.