Hello, It’s Me

My name is Mike (or Mike B). For 35 years I have serviced office copiers and duplicators in much of Connecticut. I am now retired, at least from my “day” job.

I’m a dad, grandpa and husband. Those will always come first. In additon to those, I’m also a DXer. I lost interest in TV DXing after the analog/digital changeover so now I’m 95% FM only.

I’m also involved with a DX club since 1998. The club is the WTFDA (Worldwide TV-FM DX Association). I joined their board of directors some time before 2000. Then I began writing a column for the monthly club publication called the VHF-UHF Digest. In 2001 I began publishing the VHF-UHF Digest monthly, as well as writing the column.  Publishing a paper publication and mailing it out monthly continued until June 2020, when I retired the paper version in favor of the pdf V.U.D. which was sent out by email. I kept publishing the pdf version, called the eVUD, until November 2020 when the VHF-UHF was retired and I began publishing a monthly newsletter called Line of Sight. I continue that today.

Not only am I interested in long distance FM reception, I’m also fascinated with computer operating systems and Linux, and would not keep any data of importance on a Windows 11 drive. I’ve played with a few distros (flavors or varieties) of Linux. My favorite is Mint, which is a workhorse for me. I’m also fond of Debian, but some of the apps I use aren’t found on Debian and I’ve had to hunt online to find them. Mint, on the other hand, has them all. My two main PCs have been on Mint for over ten years now. If you were thinking about leaving Windows 11 and using some other operating system, I’d consider Mint, or Zorin. If you were thinking about switching to Ubuntu, don’t. But if you still want to, try Ubuntu with the Cinnamon desktop. It’s more like Windows 11 and much easier to get used to.

Other things I do: I run the Hartford TEF 6686 webserver. I had the WTFDA FM Station Database built 13 years ago and administer it today.

I like N scale model trains, computers (especially Linux), computer software and the beach. I love taking the grandkids and my beautiful wife to yard sales, flea markets, the beach, and to wherever they want to go. This the most fun of all.