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Ham Radio History: I was first licensed as a Novice in 1961 as WV2YDG in my high school radio club in NYC. My first station consisted of a Heathkit DX-20 CW transmitter and a Hammarlund HQ-129X receiver. Novices could operate 2 meter AM then and I had a series of 2 meter rigs including a Heathkit Two'er, Gonset Communicator II and later a Gonset Communicator IV, I later upgraded to Technician, then General as WA2YDG. When Uncle Sam sent me to Fort Hood, Texas in 1966 I met my first wife and because she didn't like ham radio I let my ticket expire. Eight years later we were divorced and I retested in Dallas and again became a Novice as WN5RPU.

In 1976, the FCC permitted the use of special Bicentennial prefixes for ham calls and I operated as AK5RPU in many, many CW contests before upgrading in Dallas again in late 1976. I passed the 13 WPM code test and the General and Advanced written tests as well as the 20WPM code at the same time, but failed the Extra written test, so I left Dallas as an Advanced class, AB5RPU during 1976, then reverted to WB5RPU, which I held until I changed my callsign. About 1980, I joined Army MARS and worked my way up from just a member to Zone Coordinator, State Training Officer and finally North Texas State Director, holding that post for 3 years.

After that I let ham radio slide, but not my license, which I kept current. I became active again in 2004 following my stroke which left me in a wheelchair with my right side paralyzed.

At first I was only active on 2 Meters with an Icom 2200H, but I missed HF very much. My HF gear (which I still have) consisted of 2 pairs of Drake Twins (R4B/T4XB/MN4) and a Heatkit SB-200 amplifier hadn't been powered up in nearly 20 years. Because of that I decided to get a newer rig which included the WARC bands which were not available when I was active before. After considerable research, I decided the Icom IC-736 was the ideal rig for me. It puts out 100 watts on all bands 160 thru 6, has an internal CW keyer, internal antenna tuner, lots of other great features and isn't bogged down with 100 imbedded menus.

Current antennas include a G5RV at 45 feet for all HF bands, an A99 for 10M, 160M inverted V, two pairs of stacked 11 element VHF beams, horizontal for SSB and another pair vertical for FM, 14 elements on 440 and I just ordered a 6 element beam for 6M.

I recently started collecting classic Icom rigs, CW bugs, paddles and straight keys. They are all listed with photos on my website.

I'm active on all bands 160 thru 2 Meters. I can be found almost daily on the 3905 Century Club nets on 40 (7.178), 75 (3.902) and 160M (1.892) SSB. Although I used to be most active on CW at close to 40WPM, my stroke in 2003 has made it very difficult to manipulate a straight key, bug or keyer paddle left handed so I'm almost strictly on SSB. I occasionally enjoy chasing DX during contest weekends. When I was active before I confirmed 98 countries toward DXCC. I have since gotten several more, but haven't yet applied for the award.

On 29 July 2008 I had several glasses of wine to loosten up (without thinking of the consequences) and went ahead and filed with the FCC for a vanity callsign. I have wanted a "K" call since I was first licensed so while the "K5" callsign with my initials was available, I decided to go ahead and apply for it. The FCC granted it on 16 August 2008, when I became K5PRT. Now I'm left with lots of work (my website, other website user IDs and passwords, etc). Not to mention about 750 WB5RPU QSL cards, a baseball cap and several T-shirts with WB5RPU on them, Ham name tags, plus much more. But it was worth it.