Biography

I am retired now and I live in the beautiful Foothills of Northern California. Beyond Ham Radio / Computers / Electronics, I enjoy beekeeping, mead / wine making, and general Homesteading / self sufficiency. 

My 'ham hobby' started back in the 90's. I was a Field Service Technician traveling 50K miles yearly across California & Nevada. While traveling I'd listen to my police scanner' (BC200XLT modded for 800Mhz), I soon discovered the Ham bands. I became so intrigued, I decided to get my Tech license. At the time, all I had was a 'work pager' for my only communication (remember pay-phones?). I was then able to better 'keep in-touch' while traveling. 

I returned in year 2013 after an extended leave from the hobby - amazed at how much it has advanced. After joining some local clubs SHARP & ARES, I soon upgraded my license to General class and started dabbling in digital comms. After building my Shack-in-the-Box (Roto molded 6U Gator Case w/ FT-857d) I soon got hooked on FT8 - one of Joe Taylor's most popular digital modes that sure took off! 

What helped me get-on-the-air fast, was to built a trap dipole (20m+40m) with help from W7KOZ ans NM3S. I used it lots untill I made OCF dipole and an EFHW. Hoisted with a portable 25' Titan push-up flagpole (with 17 ft extention & drive-on stand) - it sure has worked well. So much, that it has earned me a WAS (Worked All States), plus some ohters awards(see GIF).   

My newest radio is an Icom IC-7300 - it has replaced my FT-857D. Even though it's considered an 'entry level rig', it's a sweet portable software defined radio - this rig is packed with a LOT - Just plug in a USB cable to the PC and load drivers. Instant 'on-the-air' digital...  When you go SDR, it's hard to go back. I'll be exploring more on digital modes and such... Lets see what happens!

One of the other things I'm currently woking on is modifing / enhancing a new magloop. This is a new design by JOHN E PORTUNE - W6NBC. I am further optimizing it to operate more smoothly via remote "nonlinear capacitance tuning". This will achieve easier more stable tuning.  I will be testing it's full limits some day, maybe on a POTA trip?!

Talk to ya on the bands - Maybe on VarAC...(?)

-Tim

CALIFORNIA QSO PARTY
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Once again, I participated in the contest as a "County Expedition" & "California County-line" station. This required traveling to a temporary location, setting up antennas and operating all within 150 meters of a Triple-county location - and sending all such counties in a single exchange. I was running all battery as Single Operator – Low Power – Non Assisted. Even though I made good contacts, I couldn't yell BINGO! as I didn't get all counties or states. 

Equipment:
IC-7300 full power 
N3FJP logger on LG gram
EFHW N/S orientation 35' slope to 12'
25' Titan Push-up pole + 17' ext. with drive on stand 
Mag-Loop (experimental / prototype based on W6NBC plans)
food, sleeping bag, 'tarp tent'


Time:
30 hours. Less (late) set up, sleep, meals, nature call, chasing off vagrants / gas thieves, chatting up local landowners and manual tuning-up the extremely-sensitive magnetic loop. (remote tuning in development)

The exchanges I gave departed from the usual / expected (loggers don't all handle multi counties the same) a bit cumbersome until I honed the CQ routine... Major DX contacts (excluding Canada, Alaska, Hawaii ) were all from Australia and all on 10M - g'day mate!

Equipment

IC-7300
EFHW, OCF, "foil-tape" Magloop
Titan 'flag' Pole w/ painter pole ext ~34 ft
MFJ-4416c Voltage Booster
Many LifePO4 packs