I live in Capitola by the Sea, a resort village about 30 miles north of Monterey and 5 miles south of Santa Cruz. Capitola has about 11,000 people in the Winter, and way too many tourists in the Summer. I am 69 years old and a retired Systems Engineer. I love to fish off the Capitola pier or off the rocks for big surf perch. I have been a ham since Feb 06. I am a member of the ARRL and ARES, and am a designator Disaster Support Worker (DSW) Communications. I volunteer with the Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Department and the RED CROSS, supporting their communications activities. . My only "real" radio is a YAESU VX-6 2M handheld; however, I work IRLP and the Winsystem on 2M and 70 cm, and have made many long distant QSOs while sitting on my deck and drinking a cold beer.

I use CQ-100 VOiP for voice, CW, PSK, Olivia, Hellschreiber and RTTY, with Hamscope, CWGET, FLDIGI and TrueTTY software packages. Look for me on voice or CW calling frequencies, or 14.070 for PSK and 14.080 for RTTY, Hellschreiberand Olivia. I also operate Hamsphere or Echolink, on occasion.

On 01 Dec 07, I became a General Class ham. I have no HF equipment, but I operate remotely through the Santa Cruz CA Ham Club K6BJ transmitter, located in the Santa Cruz hills, the WA6LIE site in Salinas CA, or the KG6YPI site, also in Salinas. This remoted HF capability enables me to interface from the my home computer through Skype to the Club Kenwood TS-570D. I use RF Corb (Client) to interface to the WA6LIE's Elecraft K3, or the KG6YPI FT857. So look for me on HF.

CW04 USNR(Ret)

I am also a member of the Naval Cryptologic Veteran's Association, and I check in periodically on the FRUPAC SSB Net.

10-10 Member 75896

Present member of:

• Santa Cruz County CA ARES (www.ares.santa-cruz.ca.us)
• FRUPAC (www.frupac.net)