Biography

I was introduced to the hobby by my father K6KVL Manford L Root of Burney California, USA. He talked me into getting my Technician ticket and in exchange he gave me his Yaesu FT-209RH handy talkie. Of course it didn't stop there. Once I hit the books again he told me that if I get HF privileges he would give me one of his base stations. I tried to learn CW but it just would never click and at the time you had to know code to do HF. I continued to study the General study guide and kept trying to learn code, until one day I found that the FCC had done away with Morse code testing. I know this probably angered a lot of Hams out there that did learn Morse Code, but at long last I was finally able to take the test for General. I was in Iraq at the time so I had little opportunity to take the examination till I got back to the USA.I passed with ease and informed my father that I was finally up to the same class that he was. I’m certain this made him happy that finally one of his children would follow in his footsteps on the airwaves. I did not get a chance to get to his house before deploying again, and even then I was studying for Extra. Then I got the terrible news of his accident. He is now a silent key Survived by his wife W6KAR Karen A. Root also of Burney California, USA, myself and my brother Noman, Half-sister Tracy, and Step sister Dee. He died as a result of an accident involving a tree that repeatedly knocked down his wire antenna. His legacy continues to live on through me, but he will be missed by the entire family and those with whom he made contact throughout his years in the Amateur Radio Community. Since then I advanced from General and to Extra class. I feel confident that he was smiling the day I passed the extra Exam.

Ever since hurricane Irene took down my power for six days and nights and was using HTs to communicate, I have participated in the local emergency nets. Good thing I had several back up batteries all charged up and ready before my power went down. Since then I added a solar array and a deep cycle marine battery to operate my FT-8900R 24/7/365 with no reliance on the Grid. Funds dependent I will add more arrays and batteries so I can operate my FT-897D full time in an emergency. Push comes to shove I can easily run the FT-897D, but the power would last longer if I had additional arrays and batteries or switch the FT-897D to low power.

I made my very first DX contact from my QTH to Brazil using my FT-101B that was passed down to me from K6KVL, on 10M through my home built 10M dipole that was and still is between 25 and 30" off the ground suspended between two trees in my back yard. I want to move it to where the feed point is towards the front of my house, but first I need to re-hang it a bit higher in the trees in the back, and find a suitable tree in the front. This would correspond with converting my 10 meter dipole into a multi band dipole and since 40 and 15 meters is already covered by another antenna that is mentioned later I wouldn’t need those bands on the dipole.

I have been operating on 20 meters using a buddiestick and may look into modifying it so I can switch bands from inside the shack, but until then I have to do this manually. Either that or I will get a multi band vertical eventually because the buddiestick is not designed to be left outside as I have been doing.

I also have acquired through military surplus a vertical antenna that is matched very well to 40/15 meters and so far it has been doing great. I've had a whole slew of contacts on 40 meters. In the near future I will add some ground radials to improve my near field, but I need to work on a means to secure the ground to the base of the antenna.

I am looking into getting an antenna to hit more of the bands, but because my property is a tad short for a full length 80 and or 160 meter antenna I may have to look into a compromise, and added to the problem my land is covered with trees. I’ll figure something out though. As stated earlier I might have to look into a vertical for these bands.

Needless to say I have really enjoyed myself in this hobby and I look forward to many more contacts.

In addition to Ham radio and since I do not have an XYL, girlfriend or significant other, I enjoy the outdoors. Not so much in the cold weather, but in the summer when I am home I can be frequently found at or on the community lake. I love paddling either my canoe that I recovered abandoned in the lake and repaired or my paddleboat. They are both great fun and provides me with exercise. I also love fishing, usually from my canoe or just paddling around watching nature at work.

I also have started a rather small Aquaponics garden with a 55 gallon fish tank and two plastic footlockers for grow beds, but I have plans to build it up much bigger with a 275 to 330 gallon tank or two, and at least two 4’x8” grow beds. For those who don’t know what Aquaponics is,it is a combination of Hydroponics (Growing plants without soil) and Aquaculture (raising fish) where they form a symbiotic relationship. The fish feed the plants, and the plants remove the fish waste from the water thus cleaning the water for the fish. I found my information about Aquaponics through various sources (where else) online.

I also love hiding and finding Geocaches. It gets me to places I would have never thought to go to find these caches. I have one active cache that I hid in the local area and one inactive cache in Afghanistan while I was there. I have found thus far 216 Geocaches in the USA (Pennsylvania, Michigan and Ohio) and in Okinawa, Japan while I was there. You can find more information about Geocaching at www.geocaching.com www.terracaching.com and www.opencaching.us . I started geocaching when I bought a GPS receiver just for fun and started reading about people who look worldwide for caches that vary in size from the size of a five gallon bucket to as small as your pinky finger in diameter and about as tall as the length of the nail on your pinky finger. Shorter if you happen to have long finger nails.

As with everything I frequently mix and match my hobbies together as I usually have at least my quad band Handy Talkie whenever I am outside. Nothing better than Fishing on the lake and at least listening to the chatter on the band, or Geocaching and using the radio so I don’t start talking to myself. Hi HI.

Anyway, that’s me in a nutshell.
Thank you for visiting my page
73
KB3MKK / Lee
OMISS # 10334

Worked DXCCs:

Equipment

Yaesu VX-7R, Yaesu FT-897D, Yaesu FT-8900R, Yaesu FT-101B, Dipole 10M, Buddiestick 20M, Military Surplus AT-1043/U Vertical 9 sections resonate on both 15/40M,

Solar Charged Battery Emergency Power.