Since I write these articles, and this one is on myself, I'm going to write this in the first person. It seems rather awkward to keep referring to myself as "he."

Although my roots are from Michigan, I currently live in Marion, Iowa. I was licensed as a Novice in 1960 as KN8WHB and passed the Amateur Extra Class exam in 1984. Additional call signs I have held include K8WHB, W9NXD, NJ8X and, of course, my current call of K4EQ, which I received in 1996 while living in Virginia.

I never joined ARMS until January of 2005, but I used to check in frequently back in the late 70's and 80's when I was active in the World Gospel Mission Amateur Radio Fellowship. Maybe it was a regional net I checked into then. I remember that Allen, K2CAC, in Houghton, New York, was often NCS.

Through the years I've had many interests in ham radio, but my first love is CW and QRP. My interest in CW began as a Novice and never left me. Probably 95% of my hamming is on this mode. My QRP interest was spawned around 1979, not long after the Michigan QRP Club was formed. I joined the club and built my first QRP transceiver, a Heathkit HW-8. My first contact was with Japan on two watts. I was hooked!

My current QRP station includes an Icom IC-703 transceiver and a few kits I've built, including a 38 Special (30 meters), a Tuna Tina II (40 meters), and a DSW-30 (30 meters). I've built several others, too, but they've all been traded or sold. Recently, I had a lot of fun running QRP with my IC-703 on Roatan Island as HR9/K4EQ. My 100-watt transceiver is an Icom IC-706MKIIG. I've never used an amplifier in all my years of hamming. My antenna is a dipole fed with ladder line. (You can click here to check out my ham radio Web site.)

I've also enjoyed contesting through the years. It was especially fun to do while living in Honduras, where I was fairly competitive world-wide. In the 1984 ARRL International DX Contest on 80 meters CW, I was first place in the world as W9NXD/HR2. I also placed first, North America (6th in the world) in the 1983 ARRL 10-Meter Contest for mixed mode. Currently, I hold the QRP CW record for the ARRL Delta Division (from Tennessee) in the ARRL 10-Meter Contest.

This year Jan and I celebrated our 40th wedding anniversary by spending a week on the Honduran island of Roatan. God has been more than faithful to us through the years and has blessed us with three wonderful children. We have two daughters and a son (all married), and five grandchildren, with a sixth one due in January of 2007. You can see pictures of our family on HollowayWeb.com, our family Web site.

Jan and I have been in the ministry for 39 years now. It all began in 1967 when I became a full-time student-pastor in Michigan. Since then, I graduated from college and also received a couple of graduate degrees. (By the way, being raised next to the campus of Michigan State University and graduating from that great institution, I am a die-hard Spartan fan when it comes to basketball and football.)

God has blessed us with a variety of wonderful ministry experiences, including nearly ten years in missions, four of which were spent in Costa Rica and Honduras. While pastoring in Indiana, I served as an adjunct professor in the Religion Department at Indiana Wesleyan University.

Another wonderful ministry was with the Christian Medical & Dental Associations, where I gave oversight to our ministry on over 90% of the medical colleges in the U.S. In addition, because of my Spanish language skills, I had the opportunity to speak at several Christian medical conferences throughout Latin America. The remaining years of ministry have been in the pastorate, and in 2002 we moved to Iowa where I became pastor of a young church in Cedar Rapids.

As for a favorite Scripture verse, that's a tough one as I could mention several as favorites. However, I'll go with my life verses that God gave to me back in the late 60's. They're from Jeremiah 1:7-8 (NIV). But the Lord said to me, "Do not say, 'I am only a child.' You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you," declares the Lord.

It's a privilege to be a part of the ARMS Christian Fellowship. We have a rich, nearly fifty-year history. May God grant us many more years of fellowship and on-the-air witness for His glory.

[ POSTED ON 16-OCT-2006 ]