Like many of us who became hams as kids, the hobby defined us and our future.  So too is this the case with Steve Johnston, WD8DAS, whose amateur radio journey led him into a career in radio broadcasting. Steve's ham radio life covers the broad spectrum of ham radio interests that include operating different modes, experimenting with the 630 meter band under special license, collecting military radio hardware, restoring old gear to almost new condition, and just plain home brewing.  Steve says that he has been defined by ham radio through the friendship of hams from all over the World, the experience of building, and the facing different challenges in both the operation and construction of gear.  Join Eric, 4Z1UG, in his QSO Today with WD8DAS.

A conversation with Wayne and Sharon Spring about ham radio and life, is a lesson in faithful commitment to the work ahead, attention to detail, and a relathionship between two people where ham radio has been a major ingredient in the success of each. At the fifty year mark of their marrage, Wayne and Sharon are both active in ham radio, restoring Collins radio gear, leading their local DX club, and lending a friendly hand to anyone who crosses their path. 

Elecraft's co-founder and CTO, Wayne Burdick, N6KR, can live his dream of building the ultimate QRP rig for the backpacker, and sharing it with all of his friends.  This is the theme of Wayne's ham radio journey from his humble beginnings as a teenager in San Diego, California, where he liked to homebrew his first transmitters using the "cockroach" of transistors, the 2N2222.  A stint in the US Coast Guard and a degree in Cognitive Science prepared Wayne to be an out of the box thinker. No doubt, that this, combined with his techncial background from his years in ham radio, helped him create some of the coolest QRP transceivers beginning in 1989, with the Safari-4, a multiband, 1 watt, QRP transceiver, that used plug-in transverter boards for band changes.  Of course, this story advances to the present, where Wayne and his business partner, Eric Swartz, WA6HHQ, create the Elecraft line of popular transceivers and the ultimate QRP backpack transceiver, the KX3.