My name is Brian, nick name Strek, and have lived in Downey California, about 15min from LA, all my life.

Growing up my father (K6ICS) was always on his big radio in the side room. One of the coolest thingsI remember as a child was that my mom (WA6OUD) and dad had 2M and 220MHz radios in their cars, before there were cell phones, and they were always able to keep in touch. My older sister is KE6WWC and her husband is KF6KKY.

I have two kids, a dog (Great Dane mixed with German Shepherd and Rottweiler, a Maine Coon cat and have three fish tanks, two chiclid tanks ( one for breeding Calvus ) and a goldfish tank.

All my life I have tried to figure out how in the world to pass the test, until my dad picked up a book and CD written by Gordon West!

I FINALLY took my test 7-6-12 and PASSED!!! Now that Gordon explained things to me, I have no clue what took me so long. Now I need to get my upgrade so I can get more bands and get my kids to sit down and study with Gordon to get theirs. :)