I first became interested in amateur radio on the mid 1950’s. My brother and I were both paperboys, and our distributor had this neat mobile rig in his car. Both my brother and I, as well as our father became interested in the hobby. However, there was never enough $$$’s, and then later, with family and job, never enough time. I did build a Heathkit receiver in the ‘70s, but still never pursued getting licensed. Then, in 1991 I bought a Radio Shack scientific kit for VHF radio for my children for Christmas. They completely ignored this until I opened it up and started putting it together. Then they wanted to know what this was, what that did, how does it all work and what can you hear. So, I took them to the local library to get some information about electronics and came upon a copy of the ARRL Handbook, which I promptly checked out. In that book was an advertisement for an amateur radio dealer located not 5 miles from our house. After a visit to the store, I was hooked again. I purchased a copy of “Now You’re Talking” and my amateur radio avocation was off and running. My interest carried over to my brother and dad, and it wasn’t long before they, too, were licensed!

I became licensed in 1992. I was first licensed in Kansas City, MO as NØRFG. Later, while living in Omaha, NE I upgraded to Advanced and my call became KGØQI. After falling in love with Corvettes, my natural reaction was to get a vanity call sign as, what else, KØRVT!

My station consists of a Kenwood TS-570S transceiver with an Astron RS-35A power supply. I operate almost exclusively digital, with PSK-31 being my favorite mode. I operate on all bands when they are open, but usually hang out on 20 meters at 14.070 MHz.

For digital operation I use an Apple iMac 2.8 GHz with an Intel Core 2 Duo processor, OS X Leopard. The interface is a Tigertronics SignaLink USB, which is a FABULOUS piece of equipment. The program I prefer is cocoaModem 2.0, and the antenna is a G5RV up 30’.

My XYL, Judy, is licensed also as KBØPEL.