Don's Page
Updated 05/21/2010

Hello, and welcome to my web site. My name is Don Hill. Born Donald Allen Hill on June 27, 1957 to George Jr. and Betty Lou Hill in Indianapolis, Indiana. I grew up in Ravenswood, a small community on the north side of Indianapolis. My parents still live in the same house I grew up in on Ruth Drive. I have a sister, Patty, and a brother George III, both older.

I went to White River Elementary School, Northview Junior High School and North Central High School where I graduated in 1975. My only claim to fame in high school was lettering in swimming. My specialty was the 50 yard freestyle and also swam butterfly on the medley relay team.

At the young age of 14 years old, I earned my Amateur Radio license in January 1972. My father is WB9FAD and was instrumental in getting me started in this wonderful hobby. My first callsign was WN9IVC. Two years later I passed my General exam and became WB9IVC.

A local contest club, the Indy DX'ers, kind of adopted me and I soon became an avid contester. I took to CW more than SSB and at the age of 16 was sending Morse code with either fist and wowing the other club members. My first trophy came in 1975 when I placed 10th in the USA and first in W9 land in the WAEDC CW contest.

After graduating from high school, I went to ITT Technical Institute for two years earning an Associate Degree in Electronics Engineering Technology. Immediately after graduating I went to work overseas in Iceland as an Electronics Technician on the North Atlantic Radio System maintaining a tropospheric scatter radio site at Naval Base Keflavik starting in September 1977. While in Iceland I was not permitted to operate, so my ham radio activities were put on hold for two years.

After completing my contract in Iceland, I moved to Louisiana to thaw out. I got a job as a communications technician working for the oil and gas industry in the Gulf of Mexico installing and maintaining microwave and two-way communications systems.

In Louisiana I immediately got back on the air as WB9IVC/5 in 1979 and continued DX'ing but did very little contesting. On July 23, 1983 I made my first ever RTTY QSO with EA7BBK. I quickly fell in love with this new mode.

On July 8, 1987 I became AA5AU. I was very happy with my new callsign and did my best to be on the radio as much as possible, spending nearly all the time on RTTY. On August 7, 1989 I earned RTTY DXCC certificate #249.

My first major RTTY contest was the 1985 BARTG when I made 19 QSO's! The following year I made 67 QSO's. Later in 1986 I earned my first RTTY contest award by winning 1st place All Band Non-Europe in the WAEDC RTTY contest and my RTTY contest career was off and running. For a complete list of my RTTY contest achievements check my Contest  Results Page.

I continue to enjoy my favorite hobby of Ham Radio, especially RTTY DX'ing and RTTY Contesting. In 2000, I created this website and and the following year I created the rttycontesting.com website.  In March 2002 I made the CW & RTTY DXCC Honor Rolls. In 2005 I earned #1 DXCC Honor.  I 2010 I received the 2009 YASME Award for Excellence.  In May 2010 I was inducted into the CQ Contest Hall of Fame at the Contest Dinner in Dayton, OH.  And I owe it all to dear ol' dad, who got me started in all this.