I've been meaning to put a placeholder in teh intarwebs for some time now. Luckily, I found Freewebs! Luckily, you found me.
This site is all about me. My name is Bob, and I have too little free time, thanks to numerous hobbies. That's why this site is here: to tell you, gentle reader, all about me and my hobbies.
So let's get started. First up is amateur - or "ham" - radio.
I got my first ham radio license from the FCC round about 1992, back when I was in the US Army at Fort Bragg, NC. American tax dollars had already trained me to be a communicator - I was trained in all manner of tactical communications techniques - but my CO decided to give a bunch of his signallers a theoretical background in RF technology. He had read about a class at the on-post campus of Fayetteville Technical Community College which purported to be a "Basic RF Communications" class, so he signed up most of a platoon of GIs.
It turns out the class was a ham radio Novice license course. (That license has been discontinued by the FCC, but that's another story.) Our instructor, Chuck Ward KJ4RV, taught us the basics of using radio to communicate, like antenna theory, radio-wave propagation, modes of transmission, ad nauseum.
At the conclusion of the course, he offered us an option - he could administer FCC exams for ham radio licenses. Most of us said, "What the hell!" and took the test. So far as I know, I'm the only one still active, but for me at least the hook was set good and hard. Eventually I went on to upgrade my license to the highest class of license the FCC allows - Amateur Extra. I'm now active in contesting and DXing, as well as antenna design (fiddling?) and serving my local ham radio club - The Delaware-Lehigh Amateur Radio Club - as Secretary.
Ham radio is a fun and endlessly exciting hobby. If you're interested, click here for more information.
Second is beer and brewing. For that, click here.
Third - last but definitely not least - I enjoy historical reenactment. This I found through my wife, Kass, who is a huge name in historical costume. In fact, we have a business called Reconstructing History which supplies items of interest to reenactors.