Biography

I received my first license in the early spring of 2019 and have upgraded to the General Class. I have volunteered as radio support for two mountain biking competitions and a bicycle road race since receiving my license. I have also joined our local amateur radio club: Gila Amateur Radio Society. I have a Yaesu FT-991A connected to a Hustler Vertical, a couple of homebrew random end fed wire antennas and for VHF/UHF: a homebrew dual band yagi. For the field, I use a Xiegu G90 attached to an inverted V dipole antenna 20 ft agl on a DIY portable mast, or a homebrew small magnetic loop (see photo at bottom), or a homebrew random end fed wire antenna. I also have a couple of handhelds: an FT-250R 2M and an FT-70DR 144/440/C4FM. I currently use QRZ, LoTW, eQSL, ClubLog, and HRDLOG.net for my QSO logs. I would love to exchange QSLs by mail/bureau as well.

Amateur radio, for me, is a natural progression from my love of computers. I like to tinker with things and experiment with software, hardware, etc. I had a childhood friend whose father introduced me to amateur radio at a young age. I have learned so much more since being licensed than I have from any other rabbit hole I have crawled down previously. :o) One big appeal to me is in the age of big corporate culture, amateur radio has its own infrastructure which doesn't usually rely upon a commercial network.

73 de K5MGK

Worked DXCCs:

Equipment

Rigs: Yaesu FT-991A, Xiegu G90, Alinco DX-SR8 as a backup
Antennas: Random Wire End Feds, Hustler Vertical, Magnetic Loop