About Us
Don Izzo
W1FYG
Don Izzo W1FYG was licensed in the summer of 1989, receiving his Technician license as N1HAX. Don held that license until his General upgrade and applied to the FCC for his grandfather’s initial FCC license from 1933 as W1FYG. W1FYG can he heard on the HF bands using SSB 10M-80M from his home in Connecticut or supporting the Parks On The Air (POTA) program. Don also enjoys the VHF / UHF bands of FM repeaters, simplex, DMR and DStar. When not playing radio, he can he found enjoying a cigar thus how he received his nickname ‘SmokeSignalsRF’.Don has over 38 years of working with various disaster relief agencies and public safety agencies including continuing to work in a busy 911 Dispatch Center and volunteering with his local fire department.
Shane Hale
K5QBF
Shane was first licensed in 2006 and in 2020 upgraded to General. Upon upgrade he applied for his Grandfathers call sign that was originally issued in 1958 and has not been assigned since. He works in the airline industry and also holds a private pilot certificate. In his spare time Shane enjoys the outdoors, participating in the Parks on the Air program, and flying hot air balloons. Shane also enjoys a fine cigar with a nice bourbon. Shane also has a YouTube channel called This Side of the Radio.
Molson
Daniel aka "Molson' is located in Ottawa Canada on a 100 acre working farm with his family and became licensed in August 2020, as VA3SDO. Immediately towers were erected to support antennas on 10M-80M and 144/440, except nothing on 60M. The farm is a summer mass producer of cotton where the cotton is sold for t-shirts in the garment industry. Molson owns a local Zamboni dealership and was awarded dealership of the year since 2019 for sales and service to the their clients throughout Canada and portions on the United States. In his spare time he enjoys working with wood and metal projects making trinkets for sale at local 4-H Fairs in the summer. Molson enjoys a Dairy Queen "Blizzard' and his favorite whiskey from time to time, while sharing his knowledge and thoughts on Tuesday night shows.
JoeBrett
K5YVY
JoeBrett grew up having 11m in the house which his dad used but he never really caught interest in it. Fast forward March 1st 1997 , at 14 years old, JoeBrett visually watched a tornado coming toward him and family as they quickly sheltered in the storm cellar, when the winds finally calmed, once out of the storm cellar, he watched the F3 tornado with every lightning strike as it wrecked havoc on his community, injuring 21. From that point learning about severe weather was a passion, eventually discovering amateur radio skywarn nets from hearing them on the scanner. The desire to become active in those skywarn nets and being out watching the storms drove inspiration to get his Technician license in 2003. JoeBrett would keep his Tech for the next ten years and making new local friends along the way. One of those friends invited him to stop by his shack and check out his HF radio, for the first time he heard stations from other countries and was hooked to upgrade to general. After getting started in HF he became interested in casual contesting, which leads to upgrading again to amateur extra. This hobby of his went right along with his interest in “how things work” as he has from a young age always enjoyed taking electronics apart and putting them back together, or making something from junk work again. Finding the online YouTube community of other amateur radio enthusiasts he decided to take to the screen to share his fun and tinkering to others. All in all JoeBrett enjoys all aspects and bands of the hobby and is always looking for new things to try.
Dan "Beersnack" KD2FMW
Daniel Beersnack is located in New Jersey with long affiliations in the IT and Banking Industry. His career started in 1980, working as a bank teller at his local hometown bank. One evening his was accidentally locked in the safe. Beersnack rewired his Texas Instrument calculator, sending SOS to local responders with alarm and safe codes for entry and his rescue. After this incident he purchased science fair projects from Radio Shack and Health. He immediately obtained his ham radio license and is currently licensed as KD2FMW. Beersnack temporarily worked for Lafayette (Home Stereo and Audio), selling stereos and turntables at night and creating inventory control and financial retention records software systems during the day. This lead to his work today where he works for a Fortune 500 company managing IT financial systems. In his spare time he enjoys playing on the HF bands, volunteering with his local fire department, the Boy Scouts and his two sons.
Steve KO4AFL
Steve first learned about amateur radio when getting his pilot's license in 2001 but did not get licensed as it wasn't a requirement. Fast forward to Sept 2019 Steve was supporting a charity 100 mile bike ride as a motor marshall and couldn't keep contact with the other motors on 11m. The support and gear vehicles were able to keep contact using a 2m repeater. Nov 2019 I was licensed and upgraded to General in Dec 2019. While studying for Extra the pandemic hit and i became accredited with GLAARG and started doing online testing. April 2020 I upgraded to extra. I have been active with GLAARG in remote and in-person testing, POTA as an area manager and help desk. I'm active with activating POTA working on activating the entire state of SC. I am working on my own channel on YouTube KO4AFL but mostly you will find me on Tuesday nights on the Clubhouse.