Who Is This Maass Guy, Anyway?

 
                                                                                         (Right photo by Bill Chunn)

 
Nobody in particular. Why are you wasting your time reading this page?

I'm Jeff Maass, licensed as K8ND (Amateur Radio), and USPSA Life Member L-1192. I live in Central Ohio.
 
I've had my Amateur Radio license from the Federal Communications Commission since 1970,  and since 1976 I've held the callsign K8ND.  My tower is a 68-foot high Rohn 45, and the antennas  are a Cushcraft XM240 2-element 40 meter yagi at 79 feet,  a KLM KT34XA triband yagi at 69 feet, inverted-V antennas for 80 and 40, and an inverted-L and Beverage receiving antennas for 160 meters. Inside, the station includes an Elecraft K3 and a pair of Alpha 91b 1500 watt amplifiers.

My primary interest in Amateur Radio are Contesting and 160 Meter operating. I'm a member of the Mad River Radio Club (MRRC) contest club in the US Midwest, and the Caribbean Contesting Consortium (CCC), a group of contesting Radio Amateurs who have built and operate one of the top contest station in the World. Our house/station is on the island of Curacao in the southern Caribbean, on a 37-foot cliff overlooking the Caribbean. The facility is called Signal Point, and uses the callsign PJ2T in Contests. There is a PJ2T Facebook page.

PJ2T is one of the top contest stations in the World, and has been determined to be the most logged callsign in Amateur Radio contests for each of the past several years. For a few years, I've served as Station Manager for the PJ2T station, and serve on the Board of Directors for CCC. (NOTE: The PJ2T facility, which includes permanent four full-power stations and three towers with monobanders and many other antennas for operation on 160-6 meters, is available for rent by any license Radio Amateur. )

In my working life, I'm a Senior Software Engineer developing embedded software for LayerZero Power Systems, Inc., a manufacturer of power monitoring and switching systems. Our products are used primarily in computer data centers, although some are installed in industrial facilities which require high-uptime power to guarantee 24/7 operation.

I shot USPSA/IPSC practical shooting matches from 1992 through 2002 (when work took over all my free time). I am USPSA Life Member L-1192, currently classified A-Class in Open and B-Class in Limited. My two open class match guns were built by Matt McLearn at McLearn's Custom Machines (now M2i Custom Tactical). They are MCM Signature Series built with Caspian frames and slides, C-More red-dot scopes, Schuemann 5-port, 1:32 twist Hybricomp barrels  in caliber 9x21. These guns have proven 100% reliable and very accurate when I do my reloading chores well.  Matt also enhanced a concealed carry gun for me, a Springfield EMP in .40 S&W. A second EMP in 9mm serves as a backup concealed carry gun.

When I was having a .38 Super gun built in 1993, I started asking shooters and poring over published articles, gathering loads on a list. When I actually got an Open class gun in 1995, it was in caliber 9x21, and so I started another list of loads. When I ventured for a time into Limited class, I started a list for .40S&W. As I've found other loads from published and unpublished sources, I added them to the Lists. These are the "Loads Lists" presented on this site, and previously on many other sites on the Web. I have not updated these lists or web sites in 15 years.

I served as USPSA/IPSC Match Director for the Pickaway County Sportsmen in Circleville Ohio from 1993-1995,  assisted in 1996, and was MD again for 1999-2002.

Designing courses of fire has always been one of the fun parts of our sport for me. I'm certified (now expired) as an NROI Chief Range Officer (CRO), and while recovering from back surgery and during frustrating periods when my job kept me from shooting matches in 1997, I started re-drafting some of my favorite stage designs and creating some new ones. This became the "Unofficial Sourcebook of USPSA/IPSC Courses of Fire - Volume 1", which has been available from the USPSA site since March 1998, and now is available on this site. I have not updated these lists or web sites in 15 years.

I can be reached by email here.