It is my honor to be a member of CWops and I would like to thank Walt KC8J for the nomination and my sponsors; N3JT, KR2Q, W6SX, WS1L, K6RB, N7US and KC7V.
I grew up in Sunnyside, Washington, located in the south east corner of the state and later moved to the Tri-Cities area. My dad worked full time on the Hanford project and also ran a model airplane hobby shop in a small building behind our house. In the 60s the radio control electronics was not as sophisticated as today and required a lot of “tweaking”. I was always fascinated by radio control and fell in love with electronics at a very young age. My dad would buy ARRL books for me to read to learn more about radio. I would spend hours looking at and studying all the wonderful projects.
This early exposure to radio had a profound impact on my life and career. I went to college and earned an electrical engineering degree and then spent most of my career at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory supporting mass spec research by developing specialized instrumentation. I retired early and now run a product development company building instruments that support research with mass spectrometers.
In my youth I never had an amateur radio Elmer so it was not until the early 90s that I finally decided to get my license. KG7YU is my first and only call sign, I was licensed with an Advanced class license in early 1992 and upgraded to Extra a few months later. I have always loved CW: It’s not easy for me and I really have to work at it, I think that is why I love it! Most of my experience is CW. It’s a bit magical that you can carry on a conversation by just making and breaking contacts!
Like many amateur radio operators’, life interrupted my hobby for a number of years and in 2019, in the middle of COVID-19, I re-energized my interest. I met Rob, K6RB, on the air and he told me about the CWops academy. Following his recommendation I enrolled in the Intermediate class. This was pivotal for me, the instructor Roy (KK6M) did a great job and was also a great mentor. Through this class I learned how to contest. I am now active in CW contests. I also found the SKCC group, bought a BUG and spend as much time as I can on the air with a mechanical key.
I support as many amateur radio and CW organization as I can, the impact of radio is much more than just making contacts, in my case it helped me focus my life’s goals. I am proud to be a member of CWops and support their mission advancing the art of CW. I have found lots of very knowledgeable radio operators to help me on my journey, and many great organizations working tirelessly to advance radio and CW!
This biography is what appeared in Solid Copy when the member joined CWops.