Biography

I started as a Novice in 1971 using Heathkit equipment that I built on HF. I spent about 6 months practicing CW so I could take my General Class. I took the test at the FCC field office, which was a very intimidating place. I took the Advanced Class License in 1983 while "elmering" a co-worker who was interested in getting his General Ham ticket. There was no way that I could do 20 wpm for the Extra test but i tried and just missed it.

I made CW contact with Barry Goldwater (K7UGA) and SSB voice with King Hussein of Jordan (JY1). I managed to swap signals with Owen Garriott W5LFL aboard the Columbia Space Shuttle on 2 meters, while I was living in Corpus Christi, TX. Owen was the first ham to operate in space aboard Columbia (STS-9). The window of communications was only about 70 seconds. I believe the contact was Sunday morning, December 4, 1983. The space shuttle flew northbound over Brownsville (on the Texas border with Mexico) and traveled nearly overhead Corpus Christi. I was using a 5w Standard radio handheld with a homemade handheld 3 element beam. It all happened so fast, that it was almost a blur. Owen held a Masters Degree in Electrical Engineering and was an Associate Professor at Stanford. Owen played a trick on NASA using a recorded Women's voice from Space that apparently blew the minds of several mission controllers.

For a number of years from 1978 through 1997, I traveled all over the world while working with Oil/Gas measurement systems. Being tired of travel, I changed jobs and moved from Corpus Christi to the north side of Houston in 1997. Being about 3/4 mile from a creek, my property never flooded until August 25, 2017, when everyone in entire area flooded. Hurricane Harvey brought an unprecedented 53" of rain over a few days (not a misprint), which really caused major damage. The creek rose from a normal low level of 102' to 130+' which is hard to imagine and the water took out the rain gauge equipment. It was a great opportunity to strip the house completely to studs and a roof where we started over. I was able to keep the ham gear all dry. I had an Icom 7000 which was a great leap forward for ham radio. For an antenna I used the Icom AH-4 with a long wire, which worked well. I had a lot of Tall Pines at the QTH which made installing an antenna quite easy.

I retired in late 2018 and decided to go all digital with a FlexRadio 6600M. The selectable filtering in the FlexRadio is absolutely superb in so many ways. I have been on FT4, FT8, & JS8 call since these modes are all new to me. I have enjoyed being able to make everything communicate via TCP/IP, instead of having a lot of special audio and control cables with intermediate boxes. I installed an EFHF 160-6M made by Maple Leaf Studios with the match box screwed to a pine tree (at 10') with the other end up about 70'. I have a Palstar HF Auto tuner which is also superb. I was making contacts all around the world on FT8.

In 2023, my 1 acre property was purchased by the County as part of their flood control master plan. The buildings were crushed by a large escavator and hauled away. Eventually, the property will be part of a retention lake where the elevation is 127' but is sinking due to subsidance. We moved North of Houston into a master planned area with plenty of drainage around us. We are at 145'. There is a strict HOA here, so I'm planning my HF, VHF and UHF antenna strategy in the attic.

At an early age, I fell in love with Motorcycles. I started with a Ducati 160, Ducati 450, Honda V65 Sabre, Boss Hoss 502 bike and a Boss Hoss 445 Trike (that was flooded by Harvey). Currently, I have a 2021 Honda Goldwing DCT Trike 7 speed DCT with the CSC conversion. While it's not the Boss Hoss hot-rod, it’s refined, smooth and easy to drive.



73

Guy (ke5ko@guyw.us)

Equipment

Running hf,vhf, uhf gear.