I have been a ham since 1978. I am moderately active on CW, RTTY and to a lesser extent on other digital modes such as PSK31 and MFSK16. I enjoy contesting, although with 100 watts to what are usually considered compromise antennas, I am no threat to the big guns.

Like many amateur radio operators, I started out as an SWL during my youth. In the early 1960s I built a general-purpose shortwave receiver (a TRIO 9R-59) from a kit, and spent many happy hours SWLing from my parents' home in what was then Fort William (now Thunder Bay), Ontario. While I was interested in ham radio, I didn't learn the code and get my ticket at that time. Nevertheless, I still have my 1963 edition of the ARRL "The Radio Amateur's Handbook" (price: $3.50).

In fact, it wasn't until 1977, when I was living and working in Pinawa, Manitoba, that my interest was rekindled by Jim Barrie, VE4FK. Jim organized an amateur radio class during the winter of 1977-78, and after studying the code and theory during the winter, I was one of three graduates who passed the test and I got my first call sign, VE4AEO, in the spring of 1978. Jim donated his old Yaesu FT-DX400. At first, I had a wire dipole for 15m taped to the inside wall of my apartment, but it was not long before I had bought a house and run an end-fed wire from the roof peak to a tree in the back yard. After the then-mandatory year of CW-only operation on HF, I was ready for my Advanced test in 1979, which gave me full HF privileges.

In January 1980, I moved to Ottawa, Ontario, and took the call sign VE3IAY. Within a month I had a roof-mounted dipole up. I was not very happy with the old radio, though, and in April I bought a new Kenwood TS-180S, one of the first all-solid-state transceivers. I hooked it up to a roof-mounted triband vertical ground plane antenna, soon supplemented by an 80/40 trap inverted vee, and was off and running. By the end of 1980 I had 576 QSOs and had logged 102 DXCC countries, 93 on CW and 25 on phone.

My amateur radio activity slowed down a lot in 1981: my wife Jane and I were married in early 1982, and we had a daughter Betty in 1984 and a son Tom in 1987. Up until 1984, I managed a bit of continued ham activity, and got my DXCC and WAS awards in 1983, but by the end of 1985 I was off the air for an extended absence.

In the spring of 1992, I took up the hobby again, and I have been fairly active since then. The TS-180S was supplemented in the fall of 1992 by a 2-watt radio (a kit from Oak Hills Research) for 30m. I found QRP to be hard work, but I did manage to work a few DX stations with this radio, including LZ, OK and OM. By the spring of 1996, I was finding the rather poor dynamic range of the TS-180S to be a problem, since there are several other hams in the neighborhood, and I decided to get a new Kenwood TS-850S. I am very happy with this radio, and wouldn't trade it for a newer rig.

My antennas have varied over the years, but have never been world-beaters. Right now I have a ground-mounted AV5 (5-band trap vertical) on one side of the yard, and an R7 on a 10 foot mast on the other side. I also had a G5RV mounted above the roof for a few years, until the big ice storm of January 1998 destroyed it.

In addition to CW, I also operate various digital modes. I got an MFJ-1278B multi-mode TNC in the spring of 1994, and used it for RTTY contesting and occasional DXing and ragchewing until fairly recently. Now that software is available for RTTY and other digital modes using a computer sound card, the TNC no longer gets used as much. In addition to RTTY, I am set up to operate on PSK31, MFSK16 and other digital modes. The majority of my operating time is still spent on CW, however, and the majority of my contacts are made during contests.

I first became interested in contesting in 1993. To begin with, I used contests as a way to make DX contacts, but before long the contests became ends in themselves. Regardless of mode, my contest operation from my home station is dominated by search & pounce, as I don't have the kind of signal that can establish and keep a run frequency for any length of time. From 1996 to 1998 I was the Ontario leader in the single operator low power class in the CW Sweepstakes, each time missing a clean sweep by two sections (a different two each time). In the 2000 CW SS, I finally made a clean sweep, sacrificing some QSOs in order to ensure I got the last two sections. In December 1999, together with Jun, JH4RHF, I was an operator at 4U1VIC in the ARRL 10 meter contest (CW and SSB), and then again in the CQ WW RTTY in 2003.  I was 10 meter digital mode band captain in VA3RAC's 35A effort in Field Day 2000 More recently, I have been one of the crew at Don, VE3RM's multi-two station (ARRL DX CW 2004, CQ WW SSB 2005, CQ WW CW 2005, CQ WPX RTTY 2006), as well as in the VE2OJ multi-single efforts in the ARRL 160 and CQ 160 CW for several years, the most successful of which was the 2005 ARRL 160. In addition to CW (SS, NAQP, IARU, WPX and other contests), I also enter quite a few RTTY and PSK31 contests (I am a member of the PODXS 070 Club).  I am a member of Contest Club Ontario, and try to operate in contests where I can add to the club score.

Although contesting is an activity I enjoy for its own sake, I often have a secondary goal, such as filling out my WAS or DXCC total on a particular band. For this, it is important to be able to get the contacts from the contest log into my general station log, where they can contribute to my tallies towards awards such as 5BDXCC, 5BWAZ and 5BWAS. That has led to my interest in file formats for interchange among amateur radio programs, and to the development of the CBR2ADIF program. If this program would be useful to you, please feel free to download it.

News flash - on September 14 2006 I was issued a new call sign - VE3KI. Look for it in upcoming CW and RTTY contests.

73, Rich