Biography

VOTA - For the 2023 ARRL Operating Event "Volunteers On The Air", I count as MEM (Member), VE (Volunteer Examiner) & VEL (Volunteer Examiner Laison) and Diamond member. I dont think they add them up?? Just the highest. (25)

I am 80 years old. seen a lot of water under the bridge.....

I grew up with ham radio, I had metal tubes and old chassis to play with.

when i was 4 my Dad gave me a crystal controled radio, with the admonition to not take it apart, because the crystals would be harmed if i touched them. guess..... the next thing i did was to take the back off of it to see what was inside. i have no clue if i killed it then or not.

The Navy moved my parents around a bit. We even lived in Guam in 1947-1948. Back to the USA, and San Diego.

I made my first shot at a ham license when I was 14, I played my mothers code records, beat my head against the wall absorbing code at 5 WPM That was one of my worst experiences with ham radio. It was right up there with the piano lessons! My brain just does not like code... A few years later I took my radio telephone ticket.

Then I discovered Girls and all that got put on the back burner. Raised a nice family 4 Girls, and i didnt kill them when they were teens.

When I was thinking about retirement I remembered how much fun my parents had with Ham radio. I had to go back to square one. Off I went. when I passed my Extra I took my Dad's call..

W6VJT. "Whisky Six Vicious Jumping Tigers".



We recently (2018) moved to 5 land Las Cruces New Mexico. I currently am the President and the VE Chairman for the Mesilla Valley Radio club

I grew up in San Diego. I was the Vice chair of the Lakeside Amateur Radio Club. we formed that club about 11 years ago (2009). I was the chairman for the San Diego Amateur radio Hamfeast. This is an annual event that draws hams from all over the southern Carlifornia area..

I served as treasurer for the San Diego County Amateur Radio Council for almost 8 years. I served as treasurer for 2 ARRL Southwest conventions

I helped establish the "Communication volunteer Group" to coordinate with the Lakeside Fire Department

We do some volunteer work here as well as enjoy Amateur Radio.

Equipment

Currently I have a 756 Pro III that I bought about 8 years ago and a Ameritron AL572 that I can use in tough times.

We have some room here. I have a 160 meter full wave loop, up 42 feet, seriously quiet.

Aug 29th of 2020 a Micro-burst destroyed my tower and everything on it. Here is the new one. Universal 9-50 tower, A4S with 40m kit, 2m yagi, diamond tri-band on the top, there is a standoff to support the DXEE, and a weather station. The coax hangers came from nuwave tower parts. there is LMR 600 up the tower,. that and most of the rest came from HRO in San Diego.