About Me

After graduating high school in 1989, I joined the U.S. Army as a fire direction specialist in the field artillery. I was stationed in Germany. I gained some additional exposure to amateur radio by making frequent visits to the post M.A.R.S. station (then call-sign AEM1FGT). When my unit was called to serve in Desert Shield, my commander purchased a Kenwood transceiver and dipole antenna and asked if I would run a M.A.R.S. station for the unit while in theater.

As it turned out, we were the only combat arms unit to have the luxury of a M.A.R.S. station  in a forward position (AEM3XA). Calls to family in Germany were done during the day, and at night the antenna was moved to contact M.A.R.S. stations in the states, mostly in New Mexico and Michigan.

Years later, I found a local estate sale with ham radio equipment, and purchased the entire collection. I discovered that no price guide existed for used equipment. Over the period of the next 9 months, I developed the first published price guide for the hobby. The Collins Collectors Association granted me permission to use their grading standards. The Amateur Radio Technical Pricing Survey was born and released in 2002. A second edition, Amateur Radio Price Guide was released in 2005 with over 3,000+ nomenclatures using a simplified grading scale. I have since sold the rights to the book, and the last edition is now out of print.

Best 73,

Dave - KG6JTB