Repeater information

Biography

First exposure to two-way radio was when I was living in Rome, Italy and a friend dug two Tokai (now Midland) 100mw CB walki-talkies out of his dad's closet. We tried to communicate between us from our homes with no luck. Determined to do so, I went to the 5th floor roof of our apt bldg and tried from there. Still no luck, but heard someone else. Bug bit! Ended up with a home brew ground plane and car battery for power when on the roof. There were about 20 CB'rs in Rome at that time as it was not a permitted or licensed band. Moved to Madrid, Spain. Used a Heathkit GW-11 5 Watt 2 channel crystal TX and VFO RX CB radio and an 11 meter 3 element Plumber's Delight yagi (which I made based on ARRL Handbook plans). Rotated the 20ft mast by hand. 16yrs old, not a lot of money. Made contacts around Europe and into the US. Propagation in 1970 was insane. US signals came booming in on 11meters as one big heterodyne.

Came back to the US and was first licensed as a ham in 1974 as a Technician Plus, 5 wpm required. Operated VHF and UHF except two years in the late 90's when I was an operator at NK7U's multi-multi contest station for CQWW.

Worked selling electrical construction materials until age 32 when I decided to change careers. Became a Police Officer , retired from that 22 years later, and owned/operated a motorcycle accessories business for the next 15 years.

I now hold and Extra class license and am on HF since my full retirement on Dec, 31, 2017. Ham Radio keeps the retirement boredom at bay.

Worked DXCCs:

Equipment

Icom IC-7610

SPE Expert 2K-FA

JK Antennas Force 12 6BA-JK7 for 40, 20, 17, 15, 12, 10 and 6M

EAntennas 30MDY2 for 30M

MyAntennas 256 foot end fed square loop at 35 feet with a Palstar HF-AUTO for 160, 80, and 60M