Born and raised in metro Detroit, Michigan, I have worked in the IT field since 1984 which has been interesting and exciting. I currently live in the Chicagoland area and have a cabin located in Northwest Lower Michigan in a small town called Reed City, about an hour north of Grand Rapids.
I have been interested in amateur radio for quite some time thanks to my best friend's dad, Walt Nalezyty (WB8GAO/sk), and Uncle, Bob Croaker (WB8YPG). Upon his dad's passing, John (KB8KVO) got his license and I followed along a few years later.
My daytime job is both demanding, yet flexible at the same time; as a result I work remotely two days a week. Because I travel around quite a bit between home in Chicago, the cabin in Northwest Lower Michigan, and a campground in Central Illinois, setting up of "The Hamshack" has been a bit of a challenge. The result has been to use the cabin as the main operating QTH, with plans to enable remote operations. As a result, I operate from the cabin mostly Thursday to Sunday.
I am the president of the Chicago Suburban Radio Association and can usually be found at many hamfests in northern and central Illinois and Western Michigan.
