Biography

I was born and raised in Richland, WA in 1957. I graduated HS in 1975 from Hanford High School in Richland, WA. Directly following HS Graduation I joined the U.S. Air Force. I spent 6 months in basic electronics and microwave radio communications. Ironically I didn't follow this path the mimic my father's but that's exactly what happened. He served from 1951-1954 as a communications security analyst and served his entire tour of duty in Hawaii. I served my entire tour of duty in Germany. The reason for the path I took was rather fortuitous as it turned out for the rest of my life. My father, being well educated and experienced in electronics technology, created his own sideline doing in-home repair on all kinds of electronic devices, TV's, Stereo's, two way radio's, kitchen and other household appliances. However, he did tend to focus a great deal of time and energy fixing TV sets. I would spend time in his shop working with and helping him. Little did I know just how significant the knowledge I gained from doing that would be. When I joined the Air Force they gave had us take a battery of test's to ascertain where I strengths and weaknesses were academically and occupationally. I scored extremely high in the electronics section of the test. So, the AF determined I would attend electronics school. I left the Air Force in 1978 and returned to my home town. I wasn't home more than a month and I landed a job with the telephone company, GTE telecommunications. I landed the job because of my training and work experience captured in the AF. I also was the benefactor of a recommendation for the job by an existing and reputable telecomm employee, my father. He worked for the Telecomm company that managed communications on the Hanford reservation, the origin of the weapons grade plutonium that was used in the bomb dropped on Hiroshima that ended WWII. He had however, worked for the domestic phone company prior to changing job's to work for the government run Hanford Plutonium Production facility. He had a strong group of friends and colleagues still working for GTE Corp. and his word was well trusted and respected. In no small part, he's the reason I got the the job I would have for the next 30 years. I started as a microwave radio equipment technician, top paygrade for the technical jobs at the company. In the first three months in that job I took the FCC exam for a 2nd class Radio Operator's license and passed. It was, after all, a pre-requisite for the job I was doing. After 11 years of doing that job, and my recent graduation with a BS degree in Telecomm Management, I moved from the hourly position to a salaried management position in the Outside Plant Engineering group in the same building I was based out of in my technician's job. I wasn't in that job for more than two months when the corporation reconfigured and reorganized the OSP engineering groups. My current position as a first line supervisor went away, but it was replaced by a promotion to a Senior Engineer's position. I got a promotion and an increase in salary after two months in my new undertaking in management. I first tested for my Amateur Radio Technicians License in 1992, not long after they dropped the code requirement for the VHF/UHF bands. I wanted to get into HF, but I had a real learning disability when it came to Morse Code. I attempted to pass the 5 word a minute speed twice and failed, and gave up. I just didn't have what it took to master the audio of the ditty bop and translate it to text. In 1998 I took another promotion and became a Network Engineering Manager's position. The position was open in Gresham, OR so it required a relocation. I did that job for 5 years while also attending graduate school. I graduated with an MBA in Managerial Leadership which got me another promotion. The new job was a mid management job overseeing the creation of an entirely new engineering group that had a National footprint. So in 2003 we relocated from Gresham, OR to Everett, WA. In 2007 I retired after 30 yrs in the Telecomm industry. Keeping busy and entertained became a full time effort on my part. Then one day in 2009 the Ham Radio bug bit me hard and deep. The code requirement for HF privileges no longer applied so I studied up and got my General License inn short order. Next came the obsessive and expensive need to purchase top shelf HF gear. I made roughly 1500 contacts within the limits of General License using an all mode Yaesu and a small mobile antenna mounted on a tripod on our deck. I became very interested in DXpedition contacts and chasing island contacts to make my first 100 island milestone for an IOTA certificate. It didn't take long to recognize I could be much more successful having band privileges of the Extra License. So I studied and aced the test. Next came the procurement of Ham radio big boy toys. I eventually got myself an 8 band vertical and a dual band dipole for 20 and 40 meters. I was hard at it until 2014 when I slowed down and took time off from the headset and boom mic. I was also dealing with some rather bothersome health issues that also interrupted my hobby. In 2018 the spirit moved me and I jumped back in with both feet. I wasn't on the air as obsessively as I had been, but I did my fair share of collecting IOTA contacts. I got my first 100 certificate and added another 50 Islands before I had to step away again for health reasons. In 2021 I suffered a complete kidney failure. I ended up in the hospital ICU where they started dialysis and cleaned my blood up from all the poison. I was unaware, they had put me under and kept me there. When I woke two days later, my kidney's had resumed working. It was nothing short of a miracle. The prognosis was 60/40. The kidney doctor told my wife when I was in recovery mode that she didn't want to scare her until it was absolutely necessary but, in her words, I was circling the drain. I spent 8 days in the hospital. The recovery at home took a year to return to about 75% of the capacity to do things than before the event. Amateur Radio was the last thing on my mind. Last year in 2005 I made the decision to dismantle my radio gear and box it up for sale. The radio gear and ancillary devices are in tip top shape, other than being 15 years old and obsolete in today's Ham Radio world. Like and old Heathkit set, as old as the Yaesu gear is, it still works as well as it did the day I first put it on the air in 2012. In addition, the antenna's had become somewhat corroded and problematic. I was having intermittent trouble with them not tuning up. I had a Tokyo Hy-Power amp and associated automatic tuner that worked like a charm for many years. A quick reality check precipitated the total removal of my entire antenna farm. They were not salvageable. I had to dispose of everything. So that's my story so far. I feel it's not over yet. I have been craving a renewed interest. I have some portable antenna's I purchased to take on camping trips that have hardly been used. So I've been looking at radio's. I've got a thing for Yaesu, always have, it's all I owned. I figure an all mode that will get up to 100 watts will be something I could talk my wife into letting me buy so I can resume getting on the air.

Worked DXCCs:

Equipment

Yaesu FT-897D Multi-Mode Transceiver
Yaesu ATAS-120A Auto Tuning Mobile Antenna
Yaesu FP-30 Switching Power Supply
Yaesu FT-950 Transceiver
Yaesu FT-8900R 29/50/144/430 MHz FM Transceiver
Yaesu VX-8R Tri-Band Handheld
Yaesu FP-1030A 30 amp power supply
Yaesu RF Mu-Tuning Kit A RF Mu-Tuning Kit A 160m band
Yaesu RF Mu-Tuning Kit B RF Mu-Tuning Kit B 80/40m band
Yaesu RF Mu-Tuning Kit C RF Mu-Tuning Kit C 30/20m band
Yaesu SP-2000 Speaker External Speaker with Audio Filters
Yaesu DMU-2000 External Data Management Unit

Tokyo HY-Power HL-1.5 KFX Solid State Linear Amplifier
Tokyo HY-Power HC-1.5 Kat HF Automatic Antenna Tuner