W8IQ Kurt T. Meyers Toledo, OH QCWA # 28796 Chapter 142

Previous calls: W8IBX, W3DPR, WA2LDX, W8IQ/VE3, FP/W8IQ, FØEPT (never activated)

I am trustee for W8FO, club call for QCWA Chapter 142 covering northwestern Ohio.

I came on the air as WN8IBX, Columbus, Ohio, at the end of November, 1955, at age 13. My 'Elmers' were Glen, W8DWP, Barney, W8AAU, and my high school principal, Ed, W8BHE. My father became KN8ANX in January, 1956. Later he upgraded to K8ANX. We enjoyed ham radio together and hoped to use it back and forth after I grew up and moved out. Unfortunately Dad became a sudden SK in October of 1964 because of failing health.

I passed the General Class exam before Dick Cotton in Columbus, the Advanced Class exam before Dick Cotton at the FCC office in Detroit (while fire trucks blew their sirens down on the streets below), and the Extra Class exam in 1969 in New York City right while I was completing work on my Masters Degree.

Around 1980, I was a missionary in Cameroon where I was denied a license but visited the station of a TJ on several occasions. In my own home I was an active SWL. In contests I could hear the US well right down to 80 Meters. I sent many SWL reports via Bureaus.

Chief interests over the years have been DX and contests pursued with low power and wire antennas much of the time. In New Jersey around 1970, I had success with an unterminated "dog leg V-beam" visualized as half or one side of a rhombic. I used it on 1.8 Mhz and above.

I have lived in Toledo since 1984 and am a Lutheran pastor semi-retired. I have sung tenor with the David Carter Symphonic Choir and the Toledo Choral Society.

In December, 2012, I published a book: "Twelve Baskets of Scraps and Those Who Gather Them", for sale by mail order only, $13.95 plus $2.50 shipping where necessary.

October 8, 2014