Hello SECC,

I'm back.

The past few years have kept me off the radio except for very rare moments, as I've gotten married, moved to Salt Lake City, had a baby, moved back to the east coast, bought a house in Candler, NC, just minutes west of Asheville, among other things. Now that the dust is settling down, I've found myself to have at least a small amount of time to get back on the air, and, just as importantly, the real estate to put up some antennas.

So far, I've just got up a T vertical for 160m, close to 100 feet tall, with about 2000 feet of radials underneath it so far. I plan to add some more before this weekend's Stew Perry. RX antennas are on the to-do list, as are, of course, antennas for the other bands. I've been active on some other bands with temporary dipoles. A tower is out of the question for the forseeable future, but I have a lot of tall trees to play with, so I'm hoping to put up some wire beams and/or other gain antennas fixed on Europe and other areas of interest for the higher bands and have full size vertical for the low bands. The house is more-or-less on the top of a large hill, with a dropoff especially on the north side, so I think it is a location with good potential. Additionally, I was recently offered the amplifier from my elmer and recent silent key, Jack Jackson, N4JJ, for a very reasonable price, which I accepted. My parents are bringing it to me later this week when they come up to visit for Christmas. It has brand new tubes and is in pristine condition.

Hope to work many of you on 160m this weekend.

73 de Greg N3ZL