Biography

I got my novice ticket in April 1988, upgrade to technician in October 1988, and in December 1988 I upgraded to a general class license. I was satisfied with that for a few years, then I got the drive again to hit the books and study for another upgrade and in June of 1992 I upgraded to advanced. My advanced privileges carried over to my HL9 call that I held while I was assigned to Kimhae Korea. After returning to the states in October 1992 I put the radios on the shelf and had to get caught up with everything I had on hold for years because of traveling and relocating. After my military career ended in 1994 it was back to work, this time in a production facility and that didn't really help me achieve my goals. In 1998 I went back to work for the Defense Department and I was back on the road. I worked in Clearfield Utah until the facility prepared for closure and in 2007 I changed duty stations to Magna Utah, in a missile facility. After a year there I relocated to NE Ohio to complete my last 7 years before retirement. In 2014 the XYL and I decided that my traveling days were done. We retired and moved to Florida where we are today. After a couple years of getting the things the way we wanted them she bought me my first ever new radio a Yaesu FT 450D and told me to get back on the air and in January of 2018 I made my first HF contact in a many year absence from ham radio. In August 2020 it was time to packup and relocate once again this time we relocated back to the west to Idaho. We settled South of Malad Idaho in a small place that doesn't even have a zip code, Cherry Creek, ID. Operating conditions remaining the same, still waiting to get the hex beam up. Taking a while since we couldn't find a place to buy so we had to find a lot and a builder we moved into our place in early March and almost ready to get on the air on HF.

Grid Square DN32vc

Equipment

Operating with a Yaesu FT 450 D to a hex beam at 32 feet running barefoot, never owned an amp and at this age don't think I'll ever get one. Back up radio is an older Kenwood TS 520 I get it on the air a couple times a year.