FYI---I am in Cascade County and not Teton County, but my mail goes there---FYI

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I became interested in the mysteries of shortwave radio while listening to my Dad’s Hallicrafters S38D receiver back in the 60's. One night I tuned across a ham using AM and was greatly intrigued that he was talking to another ham on the other side of the country. I never could figure out how to tune in all the Donald Duck sounding SSB on the 38D. Having been bitten by the bug, one day I went to a bookstore in the largest nearby town and bought a bunch of ARRL publications and began studying for my license. I learned the code copying on air QSOs and via an old Ameco LP record. I passed my novice test and received my first license, WN7CFL, in October, 1975.

In October of 1976 they did away with all the WN prefixes so I became WB7CFL even though I was still a novice. In my senior year of high school I skipped a day of school and drove 135 miles one way to take my general test administered by FCC examiners. I spent the night in a Motel 6. The next day at the test session we had to send and receive CW and take a written test. The gap on the straight key they had us send on was set at about one inch, but I pumped away and they sent me home with general privileges. They allowed us to immediately use our new privileges signing with an interim designator which signified which FCC field office administered the test. On phone I had to say “WB7CFL interim ST” (for Seattle) and on CW it was WB7CFL/ST. I went home and got on 20 meter CW and immediately had a pileup. It wasn’t til later that I figured out that the callers must have thought I was in The Sudan!

I upgraded in 1983 to extra class while bumming around the Oregon coast. I passed Advanced and Extra at one sitting at the Portland FCC office. I kept my call until 1989 when I put in for a 2x2 callsign. I was hoping for AA7AA, but I missed it by a little bit and got AA7BG. When they allowed us to choose our own call in 1996 I received K7BG which I have held since. It was my third choice and it has served me well.

My main interests are CW contesting and DXing. There’s nothing like those two pursuits when it comes to incenting a ham to build both his skills and his station. I enjoy all the bands from 6 to 160 having earned DXCC on all of them except 6 meters and now spend a good deal of operating time outside the contests trying to increase my DXCC Challenge totals. I currently have over 2200 band countries confirmed.

73 from northcentral Montana and I hope to see you on the bands and in the contests.

C U in the tests!

-------------------------------- I am in CASCADE County and not TETON so if you need TETON county my home station is not in it. My mail goes there, but I live in CASCADE county.