KB2UKA

My Ham Radio Journey: From Kid to Audio Fanatic

I caught the radio bug early—licensed as a Technician at just 12 years old back in 1992. Like most teenage hams, I spent those formative years tinkering with VHF/UHF, probably annoying my neighbors with my youthful enthusiasm and questionable operating practices. Then came my early 20s, when the allure of college studies, career-building, the party scene, and actually making money took over. Let's just say the radios got dusty while I focused on more, shall we say, terrestrial pursuits.

But the radio waves called me back in my mid-20s when I upgraded to General class and discovered the magic of HF for the first time. I was absolutely hooked. My station at the time was built around an Icom IC-7000 paired with an Ameritron 811H amplifier—a setup that felt like graduating from a tricycle to a Harley. Around this same time, I met my wife (who, remarkably, put up with me installing tower and radials shortly after we started dating). We tied the knot in 2010 and made the move from Long Island to Connecticut, where I set up a proper station: the trusty IC-7000, the Ameritron amp, and a SteppIR BigIR vertical antenna that promised to solve all my antenna problems. Spoiler: it didn't, but it tried.

Then reality hit—hard. Our first child arrived in 2013, followed by our second in 2014. Suddenly, sleep became a luxury, free time became a myth, and my beautiful station sat silent. Being a good husband and dad meant the radios took a backseat, and honestly, that was exactly where they should have been during those precious early years with the kids. The equipment gathered dust, but I have zero regrets about that season of life.

Fast forward to 2020 and the great COVID lockdown. Like millions of others stuck at home, I needed a productive obsession, and ham radio welcomed me back with open arms. One fateful evening, I stumbled across a YouTube video by Steve, K1GMM (check out his channel K1GMM Green Mountain Maniac) discussing ESSB and what he calls "voodoo audio." That video changed everything. Over the past six years, I've become fanatically obsessed with audio processing—and I mean fanatically. I've spent hundreds of hours watching videos on EQing, compression, limiting, gating, and basically learning how to run a recording studio, all so I can apply those techniques to amateur radio. The goal? Absolutely gorgeous, broadcast-quality audio on the ham bands. I've made incredible friends along the way who share this passion, and I've learned that the pursuit of perfect audio has no destination—it's always evolving, always improving, and that's exactly what makes it so addictive.