First licensed at the age of 15 in 1962 as WN5DTM. After passing the Technician license my callsign was WA5DTM. In 1976 I passed the Extra Exam and recieved N5TM which I’ve held ever since. Here’s my first logbook and my first contact in 1962.

As a novice, I built a 6L6 crystal oscillator which would make about 50W on 40m. As luck would have it, my first crystal was right in the middle of a foreign broadcast station. I finally got another crystall which was in a better location.

Through the years, I’ve experimented with various modes, but I still like cw. I’m a CWOps member, number 856, and often operate the weekly CWT contests. I have also been a CWOps Academy Advisor.

My favorite operating mode is CW, but I do dabble in the digital modes, MSK441 for meteor scatter and JT65 or Q65 for EME operation. Occasionally I’ll make an FT8 contact, but I may not even bother to log it, as I really hate FT8