I grew up in rural North Dade County (Miami) and graduated from North Miami Senior High School in 1958. I then joined the United States Navy and honorably served 3 1/2 years at Lakehurst Naval Air Station.

In May of 1962 I became a firefighter for the City of Miami. I retired as a firefighter/paramedic almost 30 years later with the same passion for the job as I did the day I joined. It was truly a wonderful career and a great way to give back to those in need.

All along I had a passion to be a Florida Highway Patrol Trooper. In 1990, I was accepted on the patrol as an Auxiliary Trooper and went to the Academy at Troop E Miami for training. Until I moved to Tallahassee, I was assigned to Troop K Turnpike. I moved to Tallahassee to attend the full standards academy for Law Enforcement Officer. I have stayed here and have had a great time doing my volunteer work for the Patrol, the American Red Cross, First Response K9 Search Team and Amateur Radio.

The sparkle of radio hit me when I was quite young. I would listen for hours to a Zenith Transoceanic radio to everything I could. Of all the things that intrigued me about radio was ordinary people talking about everyday things. At the time very few “hams” lived near me and with school and Boy Scouts, I was busy.

It was in the Navy that I got to ask questions and start to learn about the hobby that would later become my passion. I had the chance to visit the base radio station which was in touch with many distant lands, ships at sea and, of course, Washington DC. My favorite story is when I worked my first ever DX contact. While on duty on the runways of the base, I heard a radio ID of another fire apparatus that was giving his location on a specific runway which was the runway I was on. I asked for more details thinking the tower dispatched the wrong unit. Turns out he was in Memphis and not at Lakehurst where I was located. Wow, first 6M dx contact, well sorta.

My ham career started out as a CB’er. I was given a callsign of KDI1667 and operated very legally. One didn’t take a chance when Jack May and Art Gilbert, FCC engineers, lived close by in your locality. Jack would later administer my Technician, General, Advanced Class tests and all the commercial license tests up to 1st Telephone with radar endorsement. In the early years of my Fire Dept. career, I worked off duty for a commercial 2 way radio shop. I ended up doing various antenna / transmission line installs on 50 to 1800 foot towers. This was by far the most exciting off duty job I ever had. I received a lot my repeater building education from this job and have since helped many groups set up systems.

I have been an ARRL Life Member for over 30 years. I am active as a Volunteer Examiner for both the ARRL and W5YI. I hold the position of Assistant District Emergency Coordinator for the Capital District (Digital Communications). I have mentored at least 1 new amateur operator since I became an active ham. To date, directly or indirectly, I have mentored over 100 new operators in the 38 years I have been licensed. While I have experience with most modes on most bands, I have had some real fun on 10M QRP and on all HF bands, have never used an amplifier, relying on antennas to get the job done. Until recently, over 90% of my HF activity was from the mobile. 60 meters is now my favorite band, and I have worked about 30 states and 5 countries.

I was involved in the formation of the North Florida D-Star Group. We are dedicated to learn, build, teach and operate this new mode of ham radio. We sponsor a D-Star UHF repeater and will soon have a VHF repeater, a 1296 repeater and a 1296 data channel in operation. There is so much that can be gained from these systems, both for general use and for Emergency Communications. The members of our group have traveled to visit clubs and presented a seminar in Tallahassee with guest speakers Greg Sarratt, W4OZK and Rick Seeders, KG4PNL from Alabama to present D-Star to about 85 people. I’m proud to be associated with all of these active and interested amateurs.

We as hams are very fortunate to be in the hobby at this time. There are so many different ways to enjoy what is available and to be able to mentor new folks so they can be part of it also. The technology is advancing faster than I would have ever imagined and I really love being part of it.

Lately I hang out on 3950 Kc almost 24/7 only because I have things going on that if I were on 60 meter Channel 4, I'd never get anything done that I need to do. I would encourage you to try 60 meters. There are a great bunch of hams on that band. I'll be back on 60M soon when some major projects get completed. 73, hope to work you soon.