On The Cover: April 2004

Jules Freundlich, W2JGR, of Minneapolis, Minnesota

On the Cover

Jules Freundlich, W2JGR, of Minneapolis, Minnesota, says he lives in an ideal ham radio location, on one of the highest spots in the Twin Cities area and on the 14th floor of a 15-story apartment building that towers over everything around it. Speaking of towers, Jules’s 40-foot tower on the roof puts his Teledyne log periodic 10-20-meter antenna 190 feet above the ground, with a clear view in all directions – high enough, Jules says, to overcome the “RF black hole” effect for which the northern Midwest is famous! Inside, he runs a Ten-Tec Omni-6 Plus into an Ameritron AL-80A 500-watt amplifier. Jules has lived in Minneapolis since 1991, when he moved there from Malvern (Long Island), New York to be closer to his family. Jules says he had no problem getting permission to install his antenna, noting that “the building manager knew all about ham radio, and he had no hesitation in letting me put it up.” (He’s very fortunate; see our article this month on dealing with antenna restrictions. –ed.)

Jules says he’s primarily a DXer, operating mostly on 10 and 20 meters, almost exclusively on radioteletype (RTTY), on which he’s worked and confirmed over 300 countries. “RTTY is my special interest,” notes Jules, adding, “I’ve operated it almost as long as I have my license … decades.” That’s coming up on seven decades – Jules has been licensed (and has held W2JGR) continuously since 1935. For the mathematically-challenged among you, that’s 69 years as a ham! As for RTTY, Jules says he enjoys it because “you can keep a hard copy of the contact, it saves your voice, and you don’t have to be a CW expert!” Cover photos by Larry Mulvehill, WB2ZPI

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