I've been a licensed ham since 1976 (WN4GTP) and upgraded to extra class in 1977 and received my current callsign, N4PY. I've always had an interest in technical topics, even when I was a little kid. As a kid, I built simple radio sets and that eventually led to my interest in engineering. I earned my BSEE degree and eventually found myself programming by the second half of the 60s for IBM. I wrote my first program in 1964. This led to a fulfilling career as a systems programmer which also led to my interest in programming for ham radio equipment. I've been writing ham radio software since the 80s (including PTP, RTP, etc.). In the early 90s, I began playing with the ROM chip with the TenTec Paragon and that led to experimenting with the OMNI V. I developed the OMNI V quite extensively and made it nearly as functionally as a TenTec OMNI VI (my OMNI V chip is well known as the N4PY OMNI V.9 chip). TenTec asked me to write the ROM for the PARAGON II when that rig was being developed. I promptly jumped on the opportunity.
When the TenTec Pegasus came out, the current N4PY software really began to take shape. That has led to the many programs available from N4PY today.
I'm an avid DXer and proud to say I'm on the ARRL Honor Roll and also work on the DXCC Challenge award (currently at 2561 band countries confirmed). I enjoy operating CW and SSB from 1.8 to 432 mhz. You can sometimes find me playing around in contests. I typically operate with a few friends, including my son N4YDU, during ARRL FD each summer. I'm a proud father of three children (two sons, one daughter), 2 grandchildren, and I've been happily married for more than 56 years to my lovely wife Kathy.
I'm orginally from western Massachusetts, but moved to Raleigh, NC in 1973. In 2006, I moved to Wilkes County, NC to enjoy the quiet mountain life. I moved back to the Raleigh area in 2013 to be near our kids.
I now live on 13 acres in Hertford, North Carolina. The antenna farm includes a 8 element log periodic for 14 to 30 mhz, wires for the lower bands, five element yagi for six, 22 element yagi for 432 and 10 element yagi for two meters.
My current station consists of a Flex 6600, Sunsdr 2 DX, Icom 7300, Kenwood TS2000, Elecraft KX3, Tentec Jupiter, and transverters for 432 and 144 mhz. I also have an OMPower OM2000A+ amplifier to help in the pileups. I also use an SDRplay as a panadapter with my Icom 7300.
My other hobby is astronomy. I have a personal observatory with an 18 inch reflector here on the mountain top.
Feel free to contact me at any time via email. I try to check my email at least every 2 hours during the day.
Below is my Vintage station for playing around. It is a Collins 75A4, Collins R390A, Collins 30L-1, a Central Electronics 200V transmitter, and an Astatic T3 crystal microphone. As you can see I have supports below the table to keep these boat anchors from crushing the table! There's about 260 pounds of gear on the table.