KØXB - Rick at
Welcome to KØXB's Web Site!
Greeting (turn on
your speakers)
e-mail my day job QSLs Ham Radio
.Rick Borken
Amateur Radio Station KØXB
Greetings,
and welcome to my web page!
I received
my amateur radio license in 1961. There have been lots of different callsigns
and different QTHs, but it is hard to believe so many years have gone by. It’s
been fun every day.
I am a
Physicist with Bachelor’s and Ph.D. Degrees from MIT, and I had a rewarding
career in the aerospace industry. At one point, I launched sounding rockets
from White Sands Missile Range, so I guess that means
I’m a rocket scientist.
(The
following is not accurate anymore, but I’ve left it in-place anyway. We sold
our lake home in 2022 and moved to a very comfortable apartment in Duluth,
Minnesota, due to age and medical issues. But we treasure the time we spent on
Lake Vermilion.)
My wife and
I moved to our lake home when I retired. My QTH is on the shore
of Lake Vermilion, which is a large and
beautiful lake in the wilderness of
northern Minnesota and in the Canadian Shield - just
a few miles west of the Boundary
Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. We are north of the Laurentian Divide,
which means water flows north, ending up in Hudson’s Bay.
Loons are a favorite summer visitor. Eagles
and osprey fly over the lake almost every day, and deer, bear, moose, fox and
wolves live in the nearby forest. Fishing is
good too. Walleyes are the most popular game fish, but northern pike, muskies,
crappie and bass are plentiful. During fishing season, you can find me in my
fishing boat a lot.
I recently
operated as KØXB/6 in Coronado, California, and I have
operated in the past as KØXB/5 from the desert in Albuquerque, Placitas and Santa Fe, New Mexico. Here’s a
PowerPoint presentation
I gave the San Diego DX Club about my portable setup.
My home
station includes Elecraft K3 Transceiver and P3
Panadapter, along with Elecraft KPA1500 and Elecraft KPA500 amplifiers. A Ten-Tec Orion II sits
on my desk, ready for use as a back-up rig. I also have one of Icom’s IC-7300
transceivers which I used with SteppIR’s CrankIR portable vertical antenna when
I operated my portable station in California.
A 3-element SteppIR Yagi on top of a 60 foot Universal
tower is my main HF antenna covering 6 through 40 meters, and I have a
sloper for 80 and an inverted-L for 160.
DX-ing has always been my primary ham radio interest. I am on
the Mixed DXCC Honor Roll, and I have also
earned 8BDXCC, RTTY DXCC (#315), CW DXCC, SSB DXCC, QRP DXCC, Diamond DXCC, a
2,000 medallion for DXCC Challenge, and WAZ. Specifically, I’ve worked 349
countries overall, with 337 on SSB, 340 on CW, 331 on digital (including 257 on
JT65, JT9, FT4 and FT8) and more than 200 on QRP.
Licensed as
a Novice in 1961 as WNØAPN, I received my General Class license in 1962 and became WAØAPN. I upgraded to Extra Class
in 1976, and my callsign has been KØXB since 1977. I am a vice president and
charter member of the Lake
Vermilion DX Association. Also, I belong to the American Radio Relay
League, the Northern Minnesota DX Association, the Minnesota Wireless
Association, the San Diego DX Club
and the Twin Cities DX Association. In September 2013, The Gray Line Report,
the newsletter of the Twin Cities DX Association, published a profile of me
(which I wrote). Here it is.
At home, my
wife Liz and I enjoy cooking and exploring California wines. We also had the
pleasure of driving two different MGB/GT sports
cars for years.
I can’t
help but include a special link. Click here.
Please
QSL via Logbook of the World or eQSL. If not, you can send your cards to my
callbook address. I don’t use the bureau.
73, Richard J. Borken, Ph.D. (“Rick”)
E-mail to: KØXB
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Page
updated September 1, 2024
Copyright ©
2002 – 2024 Dr. Richard J. Borken. All rights reserved.