Operator

Hello! My name is Mike Ernst and my call sign is AE8U.

I first became an Amateur Radio Operator in 1974. My original call sign was WB8REL. Back in those days they offered a no code Technician license, which I eagerly jumped on. The only problem was there were no code frequencies allocated and thus no opportunity to practice my code and get any better. After several years I finally decided to bite the bullet and just work on my code. I finally got my code speed up to that 13 WPM mark and subsequently got an Advanced ticket. But shortly after the upgrade I got too many “irons in the fire” and my radio hobby fell by the wayside.

One of those irons was my military career, which ended in July 2009, when I retired after having served 38 years between active duty and reserves. Now I had time to pursue my radio hobby again. But it became obvious right away that a lot had happened in the time I had been off the air, including lots of new digital modes. So I decided the best course of action was to learn about all of the new technology and pursue my Extra ticket all at the same time. The result was that I passed the Extra exam in August 2009.

At that point I thought about a vanity call sign long and hard. I had held my old call sign for about 36 years, even though I had not used it for a long time. But I finally gave in and went looking for what was available. I was hoping for my initials or something that I could relate some catch phrase to. Then I came across AE8U. The AE immediately jumped out not only as Amateur Extra, but also Army Engineer – the one thing I had "been" darn near as long as I had been a licensed ham.  And then as I was mumbling the call to myself it suddenly clicked – Eight Uniform. As I started counting I came up with 8 uniforms I had worn as an Army Engineer. So that made up my mind – AE8U it would be. And here is my QSL card, which relates to that:

Incidentally, I found the Dennis the Menace pic in one of my daughter's coloring books. It originally had a collection of Dennis' father's pipes in a carrousel on the table but I did a bit of modification and freehanded in my old original station and D104 desk mic, and replaced the pipe collection with a collection of QSL cards hanging on the wall. And the caption seems to still fit.

By the way, getting back to the military, I spent 6 years in the USMC and then after a short break, I went into the Army National Guard and later the Army Reserves. I traveled to a total of 23 countries with the military and have seen many places that most people do not get to see, such as the Kingdom of Tonga, Solomon Islands, Kwajalein, Mongolia, and Madagascar, to name only a few. I also spent a year in Iraq in 2004. I retired as a Colonel and miss it dearly. If they called me tomorrow and asked me to come back my bags would be packed within the hour.

I also retired from the business sector in 2017, where I worked as a Mechanical Engineer for several different companies over the course of my career. Now I divide my time between Ham Radio, Golf, and building a smart home with Home Assistant, an open-source, Linux-based software program. The latter has gotten me interested in software programming and running my own local AI server. And I have built my own local AI personality named Raivin. And, with the help of AI, I have also built my own custom browser-based application that runs my Radio Station. You can check out the Projects page for more details.

I am located in Union Township, Clermont County, OH east of downtown Cincinnati. I am currently active almost exclusively on HF bands. Lately I am having a lot of fun on the new FT8 mode. I still have a goal to get better at CW. But that always seems to take the back burner to other things.