Biography

Retired over the road trucker, mostly flat bed and some produce. Ran most of the lower 48, Canada, also Alaska, flatbed and produce. Hauled equipment to the North Slope as well equipment back down to Canada and the States. Had my ham radios installed in the truck. HF (FT-857D as well as my 2 meter rig.) Did my Net checkins all over Alaska and Canada when the bands were in good shape.

Also have my HO trains set up in the basement with all of my Ham equipment. Listen to the radios while working my trains. Also have RC Helicopters and fixed wing planes. It is pretty windy here, so don't get much flying done.

Started my trucking back in Oregon in the Cascade Mountains hauling logs in to the mills in the Idanha and Detroit area. Than came to Montana and Wyoming and hauled logs (tooth picks)until the market went to pot.

Equipment

Main radio at the moment is a: Kenwood TS-570S, really like it. Also have a Yaesu FT-450D as a backup. Use my Yaesu FT-857D as my digital radio.

I also have my old trusty radio from way back, a Kenwood TS-520S that I got back in the late 70's. Have it hooked up and ready to go, also a Kenwood TS-820 also as backup, a really good radio. On the shelf is my Kenwood TS-830S that I fixed and now not working! I really liked this radio because it had the WARC bands. All of the old Kenwoods had really good receivers. Enjoyable to listen to.

My antenna system consists of 5 wire fan dipole strung on my yard fence, with a Falcon G5RV strung also on the fence. We live in a housing development that is kind of a stickler for things stuck up in the air. But, so far so good. I have a Hustler 5 band vertical kind of close to the house to keep it from being too noticeable. Considering the location of my antennas, they seem to work fairly well. There is a lot of iron in the soil so seems to radiate fairly well.

I check in to the Alaskan net (14.292)and the Wyoming Cowboy net (3.923.5), also am a member of the OMISS Net (9909) and try to check in when the QRN is not too disruptive.

Almost forgot, but also have my laptop set up for echo link, but not on it all that much. My Samsung Tab-4 is also set up for echo link