I was born in Holland, Michigan at Holland City Hospital (now known simply as Holland Hospital) on Thursday, December 5, 1974 at 8:15 AM. That makes me 49 years old.

My primary education came from Holland Public Schools. I attended Lakeview Elementary, E.E. Fell Intermediate, Holland Junior High and Holland High School, graduating from Holland High in 1993.

While at Holland High, I also took a year of Media Production at Careerline Tech Center. I qualified for an internship and spent two mornings a week for three months at local radio stations WJQK 99.3 FM and WWJQ 1260 AM doing behind the scenes work. I did learn that radio stations are serious business and nothing like how they were portrayed on WKRP in Cincinatti.

I also volunteered at Holland Community Television, the city's public access TV station, for nine years. I did just about everything including direct several episodes of a program dealing with various types of investments and also produce and direct a one hour call in show on the illegal drug problem. I also crewed City Council meetings using a set of four remote control robotic cameras.

After Holland High, I attended Grand Valley State University. At first my intentions were to major in broadcast engineering. However, I decided towards the end of my freshman year to declare a major instead in Computer Information Systems.

Hobbies

Model railroading has always been a hobby of mine. My earliest memories of my parents' basement include Lionel trains. While I was in high school, my father decided to combine model railroading with one of his other hobbies, gardening, into something known as "Garden Railroading". The name does mean running model trains outside. However, this is usually in landscaped areas, not among rows of vegetables.

Amateur ("Ham") Radio became an interest of mine around my freshman year of high school. At that time I was into CB radio. A customer on my paper route put me in touch with a friend of his who had a ham license. At the time, knowledge of Morse Code was a requirement to earn an amateur radio license, which proved to be a hurdle I could not overcome.

A few years later as my interest in CB was entering a nosedive due to the etiquette and language of some people on the air, I heard an announcement on a local radio station that the local amateur radio club was offering a class for those interested in obtaining a ham license from the Federal Communications Commission and that the FCC had dropped the Morse Code requirement for the entry level license class. In April of of my junior year in high school, I tested for my ham license and passed! That summer I received the call letters N8UJH from the FCC. This is why the URL for this website is what it is.

For over thirty years, I remained at the Technician level license class, unaware that the FCC had dropped the Morse Code requirement for all license classes in 2007. During my local club's annual "Field Day" exercise in 2023, I decided there was no reason not to upgrade other than being lazy. I passed my General class license exam on December 13, 2023 and my Extra class exam on January 11, 2024. I soon after applied for and received Volunteer accrediations from the Americna Radio Relay League, Laurel Amateur Radio Club, Greater Los Angeles Amateur Radio Group and Anchorage Alaska Amateur Radio Club to help adminster tests both in person and online via Zoom.

Besides amateur radio, I also keep an ear to what is going on in the community with my police scanner.

The one thing about me that people find bizarre is one hobby I have not mentioned above: an interest in traffic signals.

I do have a bizarre side. I am an avid watcher of Mythbusters and enjoy the hilarious videos posted on eepybird.com. While I am also amused by the antics of Blue Man Group, I've never seen them in person (and at only 5 foot 8 inches tall, I'm too short to be a blue man) myself.

I am a Defender-ship. I am fiercely protective of my friends and loved ones, and unforgiving of any who would hurt them. Speed and foresight are my strengths, at the cost of a little clumsiness. I'm most comfortable with a few friends, but sometimes particularly enjoy spending time in larger groups. What Video Game Character Are You?