Hello! I’m proud to be here with my esteemed colleagues. But my journey here was unplanned. Unlike many of you, I was not interested in ham radio as a child, nor as a young adult, nor as a middle-aged adult …. I did not have a dad (or mom) who got me interested in electronics or in ham radio. I’m part of this group today because I took a CERT class in 2017.
It was an article in a VERY local newspaper that got me started (stay with me here). There was a little blurb looking for volunteers to take CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) training that was sponsored by the County fire Department. I had recently retired and saw this as an opportunity to give something back to the community. I signed up for the classes and noted that, throughout the classes, the instructors stressed the need for people to get their ham licenses to support the CERT teams. I thought to myself, “I’ve been talking most of my life; I can probably do that!” And, frankly it sounded better than a lot of the CERT Team assignments.
Long story short, I had my ticket punched in June 2018, and due to friendly competitive pressure, completed my Amateur Extra by the end of that year. But, I was focused on EmComm only. When I was encouraged to look into HF, my response was, “Why would I want to talk to people far away whom I don’t know, when I often don’t want to talk to local folks whom I do know?”
I tried Field Day for the first time in 2019, and I was hooked. But I wanted more of a challenge. And, frankly, I listened to a bunch of folks on HF who, shall we say, were rather long winded. So, friends told me that CW might be a solution. And, they said, if you want to learn CW, go through the CW Academy. They were right; BOY, were they ever right.
I started my CW journey in September 2020 in the CWops Basic class under the guidance of “Roy” Godden (KK6M). In the winter 2021 Beginners class I was lucky enough to be assigned to Buzz Tarlow’s (AC6AC) class, and I have been fortunate enough to go through the intermediate and advanced classes with him too. I would not be here today, were it not for the tutelage of Buzz and his assistants.
My heartfelt thanks to Buzz (AC6AC), who nominated me for membership, Paul (K2HZO), Karen (AG4CC/SK), Rich (N4DPM), and Tony KB9LLD), all of whom supported me in my classes. Your guidance has been exceptional. And my thanks to Tom (K0SN), Greg (W0GAS) and Rich (N4DPM) for sponsoring my membership. Professionally, I spent 25 years in various management positions with my local energy utility in northern California, before I decided to go back to school for my PhD. I completed my “working” life in 2016 as a professor in the College of Business at San Francisco State University.
Two weeks ago I introduced my 8-year-old grandson to CW. Within an hour, and as he was trying to avoid going to bed, he said, “Grandpa, listen to this.” In CW (with the help of a “cheat sheet”) he sent, “good night!” I hope that in a decade or two, he’ll write in his CWops bio that he was introduced to CW by his grandpa!
This biography is what appeared in Solid Copy when the member joined CWops.