Hi there⌗

I am Ben - KU0HN. I’ve been a ham since 2016, but interested in radio for much longer. When I was a kid I loved to mess with toy walkie-talkies and try to extend the range with ad-hoc antenna extensions and other “experimental” ideas. My first experience with ham radio was seeing my uncle’s ham shack as a kid. He lived in New York and I was in Wisconsin so I didn’t have many oppertunities to spend time there, but iI found it impressive and it planted the seed for getting my license. In college in the mid 2000s I built my first proper antennas for long-range wifi to try to get internet service faster than 56k in my rural area (In 2022 you can still only get 3mbps there.)

Professionally, since college, I have worked in IT. I spent many years as a network engineer focusing on wireless. When I finally put forth the effort to get my ticket, I realized it complimented my profession very well. I have since moved in to info sec, which, in the corporate world doesn’t involve radio too much. Maybe one of these days I’ll pick up a HackRF One or something and change that.

I’ve been told I can be pretty opinionated. I have no time for proprietary nonsense in ham radio, on the computer, or anywhere else. I like knowing how things work. It makes me a better radio operator/nerd/mechanic/whatever so when I find deliberate obfuscation i’m irritated immediately.

When I’m not working I’m usually spending time with my wife and 3 daughters. In summer time we might be found on a sandbar on the Mississippi somewhere, or on the boat. The rest of the year, there’s always something going on. If I’m not on the air for a few weeks at a time that’s why. Anyway, that’s me in a nut shell. 73 de KU0HN