Matthew Kersus is a twenty-one year old junior at Boston University's College of Engineering. His major is biomedical engineering and he plans a career designing and testing prosthetic limbs and artificial organs after he graduates.
Matt was first licensed in 2000 and received his General license in 2002. Given his home environment, he had been involved in Ham Radio well before getting that first license. Matt was "introduced" to ham radio by his father, W1GD. Growing up in the house of an active contester and DXer, Matt has always had a tower in his yard, wires in the trees and weekends to be avoided for other activities. Over the years, he has also been around other contesters and DXers and has eaten countless slices of pizza at Frankford Radio Club's annual "Pizza Blast".
As a Cub Scout and later as a Boy Scout, he participated in Jamboree on the Air (JOTA) on several camp-outs. In 1999, his troop joined with another local troop to operate Field Day as K2DR. The scouts helped install all the antennas and were responsible for operating and logging. In 2000 and 2001, Matt was part of the NYC Marathon communications crew and was assigned to the Mile 8 Medical Station. He has also assisted in the New Jersey Juvenile Diabetes Walk, the New Jersey Ultra-Marathon, and the MS-170 Bike Tour. He is a member of Monmouth County NJ ARES, RACES and SKYWARN. Matt earned his Eagle Scout rank in 1999 and later became the Assistant Scoutmaster of Troop 333. He has brought his troop to his local club's (Ocean Monmouth ARC) Field Day operation to operate the GOTA station. He has also helped scouts in his troop earn their Radio Merit Badges and has given presentations on ham radio to several Cub Scout dens.
When home from school, Matt operates out of the same station as his dad. This is only fair since he has done his share of building and maintaining the antennas and station equipment. He's been there to help repair the KT-34XA and to get wire antennas up in the trees. Matt also helped dig the trench from the house out to the tower and lay the pipe for the cables. This summer, he helped his dad replace all the tower guy wires. Matt also helped set up the W2GD 160 Meter Contest Station when it was in Sandy Hook NJ. It was lots of fun being out on the beach in January helping adjust the phased NE Beverages!
While being away at school limits Matt's operating time, he's managed to cram in some DXing during the 2003 and 2004 IARU HF World Championships and he even managed to get some station time during the 2004 ARRL DX Phone Contest while home on Spring break. He's still working to finish up his DXCC, but it looks like that will have to wait until he's back home in December!
