20 April 2012

I got started in ham radio in high school when I learned there was such a thing. As far back as I remember I've always played with radios and enjoyed listening to station from far away. My ham radio interests include electronics from 20's through modern digital radio, field day, CW, DX ragchew, eyeball ragchew, hamfests, and antennas.

Completed  a BS Physics at Ga Tech in 1976. From there it was Peace Corps Fiji. Shortly after completing Peace Corps service I hired on as Navigator with Western Geophysical on a 'green and rust' marine seismic ship working in Fiji and Tonga. I stayed with Western until Spring(Northern Hemisphere) of '81 and during that time worked in Phillipines, Indonesia, Malaysia, China, and Ecuador.

Completed another Ga Tech degree in 1983. This time a MS Geophysics. This was when OPEC fell apart and there was no work to be found in oil exploration. I stayed on at Ga Tech doing geophysics lab and field work while XYL worked her way through the administrative ranks. In early 1991, I left Ga Tech and started a combination consulting/surplus business. Basically doing whatever was most interesting with computers, networking, or surplus IT and electronic gear and spending a lot of time with our kids.

XYL took a job in Hawaii at the university and I followed. It's difficult to find work in Hawaii so it  was back and forth to the mainland a lot for me.

Back to school again in 2008. Completed a BS Nursing degree fall 2010. I'm TDY in Atlanta GA working as a registered nurse at the state hospital. I expect to find a job at the Hawaii state hospital once I've acquired enough "experience". In the meantime, look for me on 80 and 40 CW from Atlanta with the occasional 20 CW from the pickup truck on my lunch break at work and on 40/20/15/10m CW when in HI. HI activity will be sparse until we find a house. I am surprised at how well a ground mounted 4BTV vertical gets out with only a pair of 40m and pair of 20m radials run along the side of the apartment. Rig is Cubic Astro 103. Also have a FB7 with preselector and PP 10's. 

73, -Bob