Don Winn  AF4Z
Biography / Portfolio

I was born in Savannah, Georgia in 1946.  I first licensed as WN4ZCV in January of 1965 as a teenager. My interest in Amateur Radio never waned, upgrading in June of the same year to General as WA4ZCV. I took my Advanced test at the FCC office in Miami, FL in 1973 and my Extra Class test in the FCC office in Tampa, FL in 1979 where I received the call  AF4Z.

I Attended South Georgia Technical school from 1965 - 1967 where I majored in Electronic Technology.  Upon graduating in 1967, I got a position with electronics company in the Melbourne, FL area.  In September 1969, I received a letter directing me to join the Armed Forces. I served 2 1/2 years in the US Army from Sept 1969 until March 1972. Most of this time was spent at Ft. Bliss, TX teaching electronics for 2 years.  During my tour of duty, I still remained active with a Heathkit SB-100 transceiver I had built.  I returned to Florida in April of 1972 and returned to the same position I had left earlier. I am still with this company and recently celebrated my 32nd anniversary.

Over the many years, I have always been active in Amateur Radio.  I have been a member of the Platinum Coast Amateur Radio Society (PCARS) for over 28 years and in 1995 was the first to be elected as a "Life Member".  I was very active in the club holding positions of President, Vice-President, Hamfest Chairman and Technical Committee Chairman.  I served as a member of the Technical Committee for over 10 years before becoming the Chairman for which I served for about 8 years. I am still active in the club but do not take as active roll as I did years ago.

Most of my operating has been chasing DX.  A good portion has been on the CW portion and I have been kidded about not having a microphone but I have worked my share of SSB DX contacts.  Just to prove I work SSB, I have a framed QSL Card from JY1 King Alhussein, King of Jordon who is now a Silent Key. Over the last several years I have been enjoying the fun of RTTY Contesting.

Along with operating, I enjoy building.  I love to see an idea become a finished project.  Over the years I have designed many Amateur and non-Amateur projects. As the Chairman of PCARS, I designed and made many club projects over the year. By far the best has been the Multi-Modem.   You can get details on some of my projects here on my web site.  Since Analog and RF is where I enjoy playing, most of the projects are in this area. Since designing the AF4Z Multi-Modem project, I have enjoyed using the modem along with contesting software to enter info the realm of the RTTY CONTESTING. As a result I have joined with several other local Amateurs most of which are also PCARS members and we have entered many of the bigger RTTY Contests.  The results of our activity can be found of the FLORIDA BOYS Web Page.  The FLORIDA BOYS is a name that was given to us at the RTTY Banquet at Dayton in 1997 by Ron Stailey after we appeared out of nowhere using a club project terminal unit and won 1st Place USA (Plaque) for CQ/RJ WPX RTTY. Since then, I have been a very active member of the Florida Boys. To find out more about this group visit the FLORIDA BOYS Web Page.