Who Am I?
My name is John, QTH Kittanning, PA. I was first licensed as KN3WWP in April of 1963. I upgraded to General in the fall of 1963, and to Extra when incentive licensing came along in 1968.
From 1963 to 1973 I spent most of my hamming in county hunting, contesting, and rag chewing. In 1966 I co-founded the CW County Hunters Net with Dave WA8EOH. The story of the creation of the net is in my CTY HUNTING section.
I started work at WPIT in Pittsburgh in April 1969, and continued working there until early 1993. That cut down on my hamming, keeping me off the air entirely for several years.
I was able to get in some hamming from 1981 to 1983. I continued my county hunting, rag chewing, and contesting. It was during that time the 30 meter band first became available to amateurs. It quickly became one of my favorites and remains so today.
In the early part of 1993, WPIT was sold, and all the employees were released. I decided to semi-retire. About that time, my friend and then neighbor Eric (who is now KB3BFQ) wanted to know all about ham radio, and we put my station back together and I got on the air again. I have been very active since then, concentrating on contests, awards, rag chewing, and DXing. I've made at least one QRP/CW QSO each day starting August 5, 1994 when Eric suggested I see how many consecutive days I could make a QSO using QRP/CW. One of the QSOs for the current day is listed in a table on the main page in the HOME section with the number of days currently in the streak.
My total number of QSO's as K3WWP is over 70,000 (all CW with QRP and simple wire antennas) since I returned to the air in 1993, as K(N)3WWP over 90,000 since 1963 (all CW except for 3 SSB and 2 AM QSO's in 1969.), and including QSOs I've made using other calls (K3WWP/3, WA3IXO, WA3IXO/3, KB3LFC, N3AQC, NY3EC, and a couple others) makes the grand total over 100,000.
In the fall of 2004 at his request, I helped Tom Mitchell, KB3LFC (now WY3H) found the North American QRP CW Club. I served for ten years as vice-president of the NAQCC which exists to promote and preserve CW operation on the ham bands at QRP power levels. We do this by encouraging our members to just get on the air and use CW. One of the club mottoes is: "No Dues, Just DO" which refers to the fact that lifetime membership is completely free of charge. The club has monthly challenges and sprints which serve as other reasons to get on the air with CW.
I am very active in the two most prominent organizations that promote CW operation - NAQCC (#0002) and FISTS (#2002), and also belong to the following other organizations although I am mostly inactive in them: A-1 OP, ARS (#285), AK QRP (#010), ARRL, NJ QRP (#53), NorCal QRP, OTC, QRP ARCI (#1880), RCC, SOWP (#5686-TA), 10-10 (#66579), VA QRP. In May 2023 I was inducted into the QRP ARCI Hall of Fame.
I hold the following major awards and endorsements: WAS (QRP CW 40M), WAC (QRP CW), DXCC (CW), USA-CA 1500 (CW), WPX (CW 160M 80M 40M NA HONOR-ROLL). I hold the following code proficiency certificates: ARRL CP-35, SOWP-40 WPM.
For almost 20 years until retiring in 2014, I wrote the QRP column in the FISTS magazine KeyNote. All 101 columns are available here on my web site.
In addition to hamming, I like fishing, computing, astronomy, meteorology, and hiking.
