Born 1964 in Beckley West Virginia from the parents of Bill & Cecille Newsome of Mullens West Virginia. I was raised up in the small coal town of Mullens with my other brothers and sister ( Steve Vickers ( KE4KND ), Donnie Vickers, Nancy Newsome, and Robert Newsome). My dad got his ham license around the late 70s ( KA8CHO ) and I was facinated with being able to push a button and hurl my voice across the world. Through the years I always remembered wanting to become a ham radio operator like my dad until one day (sometime in 1990) I was in a Radio Shack in Charlotte, NC (where I have lived since Oct 1989) andI saw a Gordon West book with cassette tapes on getting your ham radio license. I bought the book and went home and immediately started studying. To make a long story short I spent the next two years studying like a madman trying to make it to Extra class ( Yes, I did the 20 WPM code test). My Novice license was issued December 24 1990 with the callsign of KC4UWR and I made Extra Class December 7 1993. In the 21 years I have been a ham I have mostly been on VHF, UHF, voice, packet and APRS until my very good friend Jon Jourdan( NJ4D ) got me set up on HF ( Yaesu FT-840 running into a half-wave 160 meter inverted Vee at 100 feet ). For years I have looked up to him for his technical ability and as far as I was concerned there was'nt anyone who knew more about ham radio and being a ham than he does. I thank him for all his support as a ham and friend.

One of my ham radio passions is trying to keep packet radio going in the Charlotte and surrounding areas. In the last two years I have put up two X1J4 nodes on 145.01 Mhz. One is on a water tank near the intersection of HWY 521 and HWY 160 in Fort Mill, SC and the other one is on a tower in Altan, NC between Monroe, NC and Pageland, SC.I recently stripped my 100 foot tower of everything but the 160 meter inverted Vee to get all new high quality VHF / UHF antennas and coax back up. With the help and hard work from Lee Price (KD4GCF) we also have a node stack on Sauratown Mountain in Stokes County North Carolina. Currently there are 2 meters (145.09 Mhz ) and 440Mhz ( 446.500 Mhz ) up there running and maybe future plans to add other 2 meter frequency to cross link the system better. I now have a full service internet-based packet BBS running here at the house thanks to my friend Richard Arrowood ( KD4GCA ) who devoted an entire weekend at getting the computer programmed to run correctly. Thanks Richard for your time and efforts. At the time of this writing I have two frequencies up and running on the BBS. 145.01 Mhz and 446.500 Mhz. Here is a link to a GOOGLE MAP of all the packet nodes in North Carolina so click on it and check it out.

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&oe=UTF8&msa=0&msid=116981879152654581831.00045d66695bc7279b561&mid=1327178194

So if your in the Charlotte area and active on packet then connect up to any of the local nodes and connect to AC4ZR for the BBS or AC4ZR-1 for the BPQ node and enjoy.

*About the pic* This picture was taken 9/25/11 on top of a water tank in Fort Mill,SC near the intersection of HWY 160 and HWY 521. Its home of the K4YS 2 meter and 440 repeater. I also have a packet node here on 145.01 Mhz. The antenna behind me got hit by lightening and we are going to replace it soon. Also in the background is the new Walmart.