Biography

Hello from De Leon Springs, Florida.

I became interested in electronics while helping my father recover parts from old TV sets. In the 50s I use to walk past a ham operating AM from his garage while he bagged seeds. He was kind enough to visit with me. But I was only a little tike and so there was no real encouragement. However, I did get a shortwave receiver and built a crystal radio set.

Later at Torrance High School, my electronics teach, Robert Baker, was an inspiration. He was a ham and started a school ham radio club. One of its members became a lifelong friend, Butch Fleming, W6DY. Butch and I are still in contact. If anyone knows how to contact our high school teacher, Robert Baker, it would be great to make contact with him again.

After high school, I studied electronics at El Camino College and went to work for Hughes Aircraft Company, Electron Dynamics Division. I dropped out of college for two semesters while the plant moved from the L.A. Airport to Torrance, and was drafted once I lost my college deferment.

I entered the Army at the Los Angeles induction station, did basic at Fort Ord, then advance Infantry Training at Fort Dix and was then selected for Officer Candidate School and was commissioned in the Field Artillery at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. While in Vietnam I established a series of Mars stations near Pleiku in the Central Highlands. I was AB8TR and then upon returning to Fort Sill acquired my novice call WN5LMJ.

While a Novice I started to teach ham radio classes with Ralph Covington, W7SK, and worked all states. While working the Ten Meter contest my code speed broke 20 words a minute and Ralph decided to administer the Conditional Class exam. I came out of the Ten Meter Contest #1 in Oklahoma, #1 in the Gulf Division and 8th in the nation as a single operator CW only station. The code speed was waived since I was more than 150 miles from the nearest FCC testing facility and Ralph administered the test. About that time I was assigned to the 7th Infantry Division at Fort Ord after I received my upgrade to a Conditional Class. Along the way, my wife, Barbara, acquired her Novice Class license. Her Elmer was the now famous Art Bell, W6OBB, SK.

When I was reassigned back to Fort Sill, I upgraded to Advanced Class by taking the exam in the FCC office in San Francisco an hour before boarding a plane to fly into Lawton. While in Lawton the Army paid for me to complete my degree in Education at Cameron University. I was then assigned to Augsburg, West Germany. While there Barbara upgraded to Technician. With just three days to study, she entered to test with 35 soldiers from the ASA Battalion and emerged as the only civilian and woman to test, and one of just five to acquire a ham license or upgrade.

After retiring from the Army in 1988, I upgraded to Extra while again teaching ham radio classes this time with Claude Matchette, KD5RQ. Together, Claude and I licensed about 80 people a year for several years. The Lawton ARC went from an attendance of six or so to over 80 at the monthly meetings during that time. While in Lawton I made contact with the Space Shuttle and then later organized a Shuttle Amateur Radio Experiment (SAREX) that involved 3,000 kids from 21 schools in seven cities in South West Oklahoma.

More recently, I lived in West Palm Beach, Florida and wrote a proposal to NASA for the local science museum to conduct an Amateur Radio Aboard the International Space Station (ARISS) event that reached out to a large number of students in Palm Beach County and resulted in another live contact. See https://youtu.be/VvcGLKSvBnQ The company I work for, OnLine Training, Inc. sponsors a ham radio club and provides a site for the local D-STAR repeater system. http://www.olt.net/N4OLT/ and http://www.wpbarc.com/k4wpb.php/

Currently, my passion for ham radio is in the area of education and seeking ways to create those first moments of lasting excitement that fuel a passion to learn across a lifetime. Current projects include Global Learn Day and GLDOTA http://bfranklin.edu/gldota/ .

Terry - W6LMJ

Equipment

IC-7610, ALS-1306, MFJ IntelliTuner MFJ-998, and switchable antennas for 80-440 with, 6/10/12/17/20/30/40/80 G5RV (ZS6BKW), 40/80 Double-Bazooka, 10/15/20/40 meter Force 12 C4-XL/D, and a Cushcraft 6M/2M/70cm. Plus 2/440 dual-band verticle for local VHF/UHF nets. FT-991A for local HF/2/440 and satellite station. TM-D710G with Microsat WX3in1 Plus 2.0 for APRS iGate. I can handle phone patches and do most digital modes.