I earned my Technician license in Dec 2021, General in Feb 2022, and started activating POTA in Apr 2022.  I’m still a “New Ham” and suspect I always will be.  There’s just so much to learn and try.

My primary goals are emergency comms so I run portable – radio, battery, antenna, and run the same functional setup at home from the porch. I’m an “outdoor operator”, a “hatchback ham”.

I’m active on the air though almost exclusively POTA.  This program seems purpose-built for me – establishing, refining, and testing off grid communications.  Through POTA, my modes of interest have evolved from SSB to digital to CW and I’m constantly tinkering towards a smaller, lighter, faster, hassle-free park deployment.

No longer just “dipping my toes in CW”, I’m soaked to the bone with it. It simply changes everything in my approach to portable ops.  My entire park rig will fit in a single backpack.  Smaller radios, smaller batteries, much more efficient mode – 5w will activate a park in about 20 minutes, 10w and hunters will pile up.

ELMERS MATTER!  I’ve spent hours on YouTube listening to the beeps and boops of AD0WE Curt Zoglmann, K4SWL Thomas Witherspoon, and W4EMB Ed Bennett.  All three selflessly contribute to my CW growth and I just can’t thank them enough.

I’ve added my own YouTube channel at Ditwit Portable Radio

In the spirit of MajGen Julian Hatcher, think of these pages as my notebook- a collection of experiences, experiments, and opinions – a journal of what I’ve learned.

Personal: I joined the Marines in 1985 and married my highschool sweetheart in 1986.  We retired from the Marines in 2005 and nearly 40 years later we have three children and two grandchildren. I work as a systems engineer specializing in maintenance and logistics.  I enjoy the outdoors, amateur radio, shooting sports, and hand tool woodworking.  

TNX ES 73,
KA5TXN Mark
DitWit

P.S. The “DitWit”.  It’s a play on nitwit – to me, a morse code and CW mode enthusiast. CW has captured me and from the start, I’ve given a good bit to learning the code. I tap out most everything I see – license plates, signs, emails, texts – I sing to myself or tap out the dits and dahs with a finger.

Mostly, DitWit just sounds catchy and clever to me.  That’s really all it is.