Dad was in the Air Force and the Army and over the years we lived in Florida, New Jersey, Georgia, Illinois, Alabama, Germany, Kansas, Arizona and probably a few other places that I can't remember. I became a technology buff at an early age. By the time I was 17 I was working during the summer with my uncle John, KC5UNF, who ran a small TV repair shop in the Phoenix area. From there I went gung-ho into electronics and eventually into computers where I've been gainfully employed ever since.

From 1988 until 2006 I was employed at Sun Microsystems, Inc., as a UNIX systems architect. Sun was a fun place to work in the 80's, an exciting place to work in the 90's, and a miserable place after that. I blame it on the big company syndrome, as eventually it became a maddening bureaucracy for me. I would have stayed longer but I was finally laid off after having made it through 5 previous layoff cycles. Such is the world of big business today. I don't regret working there, however, because what I learned in those 18 years is more valuable than I could ever have imagined.

In addition to ham radio, my main hobbies include flying airplanes, playing the guitar, programming, electronic swapmeets and a lot of other stuff that I can't afford. It's a good thing that Arizona doesn't have a seashore otherwise I'd have to buy a boat.

Given a choice, however,I'd probably rather own an airplane, which is something that I've not yet been be able to afford. I got my private pilot's license at age 30 in Colorado Springs, Colorado where the home field elevation was more than 6000 feet. As a pilot, I hold a CFII rating with a single and multiengine commercial license. I really like instructing however it's not a living that I could ever afford at this age. I'm a member of the EAA (Local Chapter 1217), the Civil Air Patrol (CAP) and the AOPA.

I first got interested in radio back in the early 70's when there was a lot of cheap used (tube type) CB gear to be had. I got my CB license held the callsign KEU2408. I got bored with CB very quickly and within a year I was off the air. I did have an interest in ham radio at the time but could not get interested enough to sit down and learn the Morse code.

In 1975 I earned my second and first class radiotelephone operator's permit (now GROL) by self study. I then briefly worked for a small AM radio station, WRXB, in St. Petersburg Beach, Florida. I was a 23 year old chief engineer with no formal education in electronics. It was great fun while it lasted.

I worked as a computer geek in the early to mid 80's starting out with single board computers and early operating systems like CP/M. I became an Apple and IBM certified repairman and was in San Francisco for the launch of the first Macintosh. I also attended IBM repairman school for the IBM PC and XT around the same time. Working in Colorado Springs, CO, I managed to hold down two jobs at the same time, one in the local computer shop and the other at TRW, Inc., where I worked as an electronics technician. Eventually, I got involved in optical disk drives (with a whopping 100MB of storage) and that led me to Rhode Island and a year later to Silicon Valley where I ended up joining Sun in January of 1988.

Finally, in 1989 I'd had enough of yearning to play with ham radio so I just sat down and learned the code. I took my first test on January 7, 1989 in Cupertino, CA. On that day I passed the 5 WPM code (with hands shaking), and the Novice(2),Technician (3A) and General (3B) written exams. My Technician license, N6UFT, was issued on January 31, 1989. When it arrived a few days later, I made my first QSO on 40 meter CW (it was a personal vendetta) and went on the air with a 220 MHZ mobile rig as well. There were lots of fine 220 Mhz repeaters inthe Bay Area.

Three weeks later on the 21st of January, I upgraded to Advanced Class when I passed the 13 WPM code and written exams. I asked for a new callsign and was granted KJ6RK which luckily sounded good on CW. In April of that year, while attending the monthly Foothills College hamfest, I took the Extra Class exams on a dare. I passed the written but missed the code test by one answer. Then, after brushing up some more on the code, I passed the 20 WPM test and earned my Extra class license on the 13th of May. It was a busy spring season for me and I was having a blast! I kept the KJ6RK callsign until I moved to Arizona later that year and was systematically issued AA7BQ.

I started QRZ in 1992 as a dialup bulletin board system. I've written more about that story at http://www.qrz.com/i/about.html

The photo above, taken on 11/22/2001, shows me at Phoenix's Deer Valley Airport (DVT) standing in front of the Cessna 182 that I did some instructing in for a while. The other photo is me standing on the back platform of the Grand Canyon Railway, ca. 2004.

Over the past several months I've drifted back into music and have been working with a blues band where I play the lead and slide guitar. It's all about having fun. :-)

73, -fred