Biography

United States Navy Fire Controlman (FTM, later FC) serving aboard USS Benjamin Stoddert DDG-22 in Pearl Harbor, HI 1981-84, and then Plank-Owner USS Vincennes CG-49 San Diego, CA 1984-86.

I worked in a variety of electronics jobs from 1986-2001, including 5 years with Intel Corporation (1995-2000), first as a motherboard failure analysis technician, and later as a MASK DESIGNER for the Pentium 4 CPU. I started my FAA career in 2001 at McCarran Airport in Las Vegas, NV; we moved back to Oregon in 2002 and I worked at Portland International Airport from 2002-2007. At both locations, I was a technician working on RADAR (ASR-9, ASDE-3A, Mode-S), communication systems, and radar automation/display systems (STARS). In September 2007, I transferred to the Mike Monroney Aeronautical Center in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, where I taught RADAR (Modern RADAR Concepts, ASR-8, ASR-11 (DASR), ASDE-3A/3X) through 2012.

I was first licensed in May 1998 as a Technician Plus with the call sign KD7BVL in 1998. Quickly realizing I wanted more, I passed both the General and Advanced tests later that year, and was granted the vanity call sign N7INT (yes, for Intel lol) in late 1998. I was a very early adopter of the PSK-31 mode, my first ever project, such as it was, was the home-built interface between my PC and my Kenwood TS440S to participate in this fun mode. In March 2000, I passed the Amateur Extra exam (yes, STILL with 20wpm) and luckily obtained the vanity call sign KN7I, retaining part of my N7INT call. An aside, I'd been studying morse code for YEARS aboard ship; I'd had the radiomen pump morse code from short-wave stations into an un-used channel on my RADAR headset so I could practice while on watch on long deployments

My logging software of choice is Ham Radio Deluxe (HRD), thusly, all contacts are uploaded into the QRZ database immediately. I also upload my logs into LoTW and HRD net at the end of each operating day.

Father of 1 beautiful daughter, and grandfather of 5 fantastic grandchildren.

Equipment

HF: Yaesu FT-DX10 feeding a Zero-Five 27' vertical, also an 80M hamstick mag-mounted on the carport roof.. I also have an 80M hamstick, which is mag-mounted on my carport roof. I'd done well with a 20M hamstick, in that I'd worked 103 countries and all 50 states on FT8 between April 1, 2025 and July 31, 2025. I am hoping to get a multiband hex-beam also in the very near future.

I have an Icom IC-7300 as a backup HF radio.

VHF/UHF: Icom ID-5100 feeding a Tram 1481 vertical.