KG8CX Edward L. 'Ed' Engleman Menominee, MI QCWA # 37038 Chapter 219

*Special Note* I am also the manager for the K8DAR callsign. Any qsl requests for that call go to my QRZ address.

Greetings... I am a retired elementary school teacher, and have been a ham since April 1991. I upgraded to amateur extra class in May 2000. I am a member of the Marinette & Menominee Amateur Radio Club, member of our two local VE teams and NC for our local 2 meter net. My other affiliations include; NEWDXA (Northeast Wisconsin DX Assn.); ARRL; Amateur Radio Lighthouse Society, and active in ARES/RACES,Skywarn activities, serving as Asst. Emergency Coordinator forSkywarn operations in Menominee Co. (MI), Marinette Co./Oconto Co.(WI).

My operating equipment consists of two Icoms: 756-Pro feeding into a Cushcraft R7000 vertical antenna and G5RV, using QRP power of 100 watts max. Topping off my "antenna farm" is a 160 meter sloper. I am also active on the VHF bands with a Yaesu FT-847 HF/vhf/6, and a Yaesu 7800 dual band, along with an Icom IC208H. Rounding out my collection of ham gear are four handi-talkies.

Several of my achievements in amateur radio are DXCC, both mixed and phone,the ARRL Millennium 2000 award. All of this was done with 100 watts, and minimum antennas. Current country count is 213 confirmed, and about a dozen more worked.

I am actively involved in promoting amateur radio in our area, and in working with the M&M Radio Club licensing classes, trying to interest new people, especially school age kids. I am the chief control operator for our local D.A.R. Boys & Girls club ham radio station. We started the station in Jan. of 2006, under the M&M ARC club call of W8PIF, and have licensed fifteen youngsters so far. Our callsign for that club is K8DAR, which is becoming very recognizable throughout the U.S. I received the local Boys & Girls Club "Volunteer of the Year" for 2007, and a 2011 state of Michigan volunteer appreciate certificate. I also received the volunteer "Educator of the Year" award in 2014 for my work with the youth of the DAR radio club. If you hear a youngster calling from the Menominee DAR Boys & Girls Club in Menominee, MI, answer us, and you will be rewarded with a contact that may go on to become the "future of our hobby/service." Check out our QRZ page http://www.qrz.com/db/k8dar

Along with KS8O, I organized, in 2007,a young ham group in the area. We call it Y.A.C.H.T. (Young Amateurs Communications Ham Team). It has expanded to where we currently have 132 members from 25 states, Canada, South Africa and New Zealand,ages 8 to 21. We also have 30 adult members. T The YACHT name was recently changed to read "communications" rather than "contest". An echolink youth net is currently active on the W8PIF-R repeater system...node #481872 at 7pm CST on Saturday. It is quite popular and regularly gets from 15 to 20 contacts a week, and occasionally more than that. I am the NC for that net. Check out our webpage http://yachthams.webstarts.com/index.html

I currently am the Assistant Section Manager for Youth ARRL Wisconsin Section. Here I am at the 2009 AES SUPERFEST with Don Michalski, W9IXG, the ARRL Section Manager for Wisconsin. I will be at the Dayton Hamvention this year, and giving a short presentation in the "Instructors Forum". Several of the YACHT members will be making presentations in the Youth Forum. Photo above shows the youngsters in the Youth Forum, 4 of which are YACHT members. They along with 8 other lucky young hams got a chance to meet and have lunch with Astronaut Mike Fincke

73 to all... de KG8CX

April 07, 2016