Budd was first licensed in 1954 in Punxsutawney, PA. His main interest is in portable HF radio. One of the first members of HFpack, he is very active with that fine portable HF Yahoo! group. Try 14342.5 Khz to see who's out portable! He loves operating from his bicycle (soon to be a recumbent trike) and from golf carts, picnic tables, and while out walking with a pedestrian mobile setup.

He is the "Buddipole Guy." See the homebrew version of this popular HF portable antenna on QSL.NET and the commercial version at Buddipole.com.

Budd has been married to Patty for over 43 years. A former DJ, Budd also spent over 20 years as a State Farm Agent in Redding, CA. Budd holds an Extra Class license.

First licensed in 1985 while on active duty with the U.S. Army in Hawaii, Chris later spent time living and working in Eastern Europe shortly after the fall of the Soviet Union. It was there that he met his wife, Inese, while working for a startup company to bring western-style supermarkets to Latvia and the Baltics. During this time his licensed had lapsed and upon return to the U.S. Chris was relicensed as W6HFP (for HF Portable).

Currently Chris is involved (more than) full time in the Buddipole business, running the day-to-day operations and helping to design new products. His interest in Amateur Radio is centered around HF portable while hiking and traveling. Other interests include fly-fishing, lightweight backpacking, international travel, and scuba diving

Biography is in the works...

Scott was first licensed in the Summer of 2002 and, though new to amateur radio, has spent a life working with technology. He started burning his fingers with solder in the 1960's and received his degree in Computer Science in 1981. His summer project prior to graduation was wire-wrapping a microcomputer of his own design, blinking lights, toggle switches, and all.

QRP, portable operation, contesting, antenna design, and HF propagation are his main interests in the hobby. Recently he developed an itch for DXpeditioning and has been traveling with his radio ever since. His recent destinations include KH6, KP2, Deer Isle (NA-055), and activating the Boston Harbor Islands (NA-148).

Sandy is the very patient and supportive love-of-Scott's-life for the last quarter century or so, and she's put up with a lot: wires running everywhere, parts overflowing boxes, and a new gizmo every couple of weeks. Many of his accomplishments are really team accomplishments, truth be told.

Scott holds an Extra class license and is an active blogger, expounding on all his radio DXpeditioning exploits in his blog The 100 Pound DXpedition, a work that gets updated daily.

Mike, an Extra class operator, has been licensed since 1980. His primary ham radio interests include portable HF operations and public service. His portable HF operations include operations from Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay, cruise ship operating from the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea and beach front operations from several Bahamian islands. His public service work has included planning, coordinating and directing the ham radio support for the Marine Corps Marathon for a number of years in the early 1980's while serving in the Pentagon as well as serving as the net control operator for the St. Louis Marathon.

Mike served over 24 years on active duty in the US Army and retired as a lieutenant colonel. He also was the ground transportation and parking manager for the Lambert-St. Louis International Airport for a number of years. Mike currently lives in Des Moines, Iowa.

Paul is the founding president of the Indiana-Michigan-Ohio Skywarn Association and has been involved with emergency communications for 30 years, both in public and amateur communications. He is also a member of the Goshen (Indiana) Amateur Radio Club, and HFPACK.

First licensed in 1988, Paul was one of the first Buddipole users working people from locations across the globe with the lightweight portable antenna system. He hopes to operate from hotspots near the volcano. (Not too hot, we hope!)

Paul is 53 years old and has been married to Ann (KB9DQP) for 31 years. He was involved in the orthopedic implant field for 15 years and spent 15 years in the manufacturing sector prior to that. He now has a private business in retail sales. His other interests include computers, historical reenacting, and community service. He holds an Extra class license.

Tom hails from Philadelphia and became a ham in 1956 as K1AST. Previous calls have been K1AST, WA4DGM, and EA7BXP. He graduated from Drexel University in 1963 with a BS in business and engineering. He joined the Navy in 1962 and spent 24 years on active duty as a Naval Aviator, flying maritime patrol and logistics transport in Lockheed P-3 and C-130 aircraft. Retiring in 1987 as a Commander, he went to work as a contract pilot doing flight testing at the Navy's Test Center at Patuxent River, MD. He has flown about 15,000 hours, in 46 types of aircraft, and has made 168 Atlantic crossings. Since 2005 Tom has done work on aircraft flight manuals in engineering support and coordination.

Tom holds an Extra Class license and enjoys building gear, building antennas, APRS, digital modes, and good old ragchewing. He has operated portable in TF, IT, G, KG4, KP4, and aero mobile from the P-3 and the C-130. Having a 25000 foot high antenna is wonderful! He is married with four children.

Bob was first licensed in 1963 while in the Air Force, and became a DX-'receive end' operator while stationed in Japan with one of only two active KA7 prefixes. He spent his work-life in Information Technology, mainly in data telecommunications. The during the last years of his career he was both an independent IT consultant to Fortune 500 companies, and performed due-diligence for a large venture capital company.

Retired at 55, Bob became interested in CW QRP, and was active with the QRP-L group, including serving on FDIM board. After many 'little homebuilt' radios later, Bob discovered HFPack and switched interest to portable SSB operation. Usually active from his home station, he can be found on the HFpack watering hole of 18.157.5mhz while performing co-moderator duties. Bob holds an Extra Class license and can periodically be found running mini-dx from the island of Maui over the last ten years.

Bob was an original Buddipole tester, and took most of the photographs used in the first ad campaign. He will continue the photographer role for the VP2M expedition. Bob has been married to Nancy for over 38 years, she still puts up with antennas, cables and too many boxes of parts. They live in Park City, Utah, a ski resort town at 7000' altitude.

Dave received his Novice license in 1968 at the age of 13 in San Diego, CA. He has held the call signs WN6CSK, WN4OAO, and WB4ODN. He is a long-time DXer, having joined the PVRC while still in high school, rubbing elbows with some of the all-time great contesters and DXers during his formative years. Dave was later the president of the Collins Employees Amateur Radio Club in Melbourne, FL in 1978, where he designed radar transmitters for the avionics division of Rockwell / Collins, while attending Florida Institute of Technology. Later he worked for Heathkit in Benton Harbor, as a test engineer for amateur, instrumentation, and computer products. He switched his career from hardware to software in the early 1980's, and was employed by Wang Labs in the software diagnostics division.

Dave holds an extra class license, and has been a Volunteer Examiner since the beginning of the VEC program in the 1980's. He has recently announced his retirement at the age of 51, as CTO and V.P. of Azores Corp, a manufacturer of high-end step-and-repeat photolithography capital equipment for manufacturers of flat panel displays (FPD).