I have been a SWL during my teenager time, when I used a Signal Corps BC-348 and a Telefunken E127/Kw5 rainbow radio heavier than myself to listen to Radio Canada International, the VOA, HCJB The Voice of the Andes from Ecuador, and many others in french.

I remember trying to decode weather fax pictures using my Sinclair ZX Spectrum with only 48 kilobytes of RAM.  I later joined the Club Ondes Courtes du Quebec, to which I participated by writing the Utility Stations monthly column in L'Onde for a couple of years.

I passed the HAM exam at Pacificon in 2007 and I am enjoying AX.25 packet radio, APRS and SSTV.  I recently got a nice SSTV picture from the ARISS station aboard the International Space Station at the occasion of the 25th anniversary of amateur radio in space, where space ship commander Mike Fincke KE5AIT is showing a commemorative memo he had quickly written on a piece of paper.

I am a member of the Foothills Amateur Radio Society and the Palo Alto Amateur Radio Association both located in the Silicon Valley of California, as well as of the ARRL and AMSAT.

I am currently thinking about building a SatGATE.  I am interested in Templar history, artifacts and sites.