Paul Braun - WD9GCO

Board Member

Paul's personal biography:

Born in Chicago, his family moved to a little farming community in Southern Illinois called Steeleville in 1972. It was there that his 4th-grade teacher, Mr. Wasmund, taught him about the joys of electronics and Heathkit. Soon after Mr. Wasmund helped him build his first Heathkit, a transistor radio (the rectangular black-and-white one).

That led to shortwave listening, which started the radio bug.

After meeting his Elmer, Steve Ramsey K9SR in early 1978, he got his Novice ticket (Steve snuck the code test by him by saying it was just another “practice session” and then announced he had passed the test) he upgraded to General the following year.

Paul attended Valparaiso University and, upon graduation, decided he like the city and stayed put.

College, followed by apartment life, marriage and condo (HOA) living kept him off of HF for the next 34 years. He started listening to Ham Nation with the first episode, and that got the itch for ham radio going again. In August of 2014, he decided to live on the edge and installed a multiband vertical in his courtyard with not nearly enough radials, fired up his original TS-520S that he’d hung on to all those years, Googled the details for tuning the finals (it had been a long time, after all) and suddenly he rediscovered how much fun the hobby was. After a couple of months, he treated himself to his second new radio in 35 years, a TS-590S so he could experiment with PSK.

Over the years, he’s worked in radio at various local stations, designed sound for a local theatre company and produces an acoustic concert series there as well. He has worked in corporate IT for many years, and works for a production company at a local casino mixing live music on weekends and setting up and running A/V equipment for special events. Once a nerd, always a nerd…

It was at the theatre where he met his wife, Sheri, and they just celebrated their 28th anniversary. No human children, but they do have a comfortable assortment of furry ones. One of them, a 14-pound white rescue kitty named Bowie is, in fact, attempting to stop him from typing this because he’s not being petted.

Paul is active on HF, both SSB and the digital modes; 2M FM for local repeaters, and just started playing with UHF DMR. He is also a proud member of the 100 Watts And A Wire tribe.

Callsign:   WD9GCO
Contact:   QRZ