I received my Novice license in 1965 & upgraded the following year to General class followed by another upgrade to Extra Class. Those were the days when license upgrades required one to travel to the nearest FCC office - for me that meant getting my father to drive me to San Francisco. I remember, to this day, how intimidating it was for a young man to demonstrate his technical and code proficiency in front of a FCC examiner. I actively chased DX during my high school years.

Engineering studies in college left little time for amateur radio & I was mostly inactive during that time.

I spent 30 years in Silicon Valley working in telecommunications and computer engineering for IBM and Siemens. During that time, my HF amateur activity gradually increased again - mostly chasing DX on CW, my favorite mode. I semi-retired & moved to my current QTH ten years ago and have since enjoyed teaching computer and networking electronics courses to the next generation of aspiring engineers.

The primary station is comprised of a Yaesu FT-2000 and Henry 2KD5 amplifier. My current QTH is in an antenna restricted community so all my antennas are small. I am always experimenting with new designs. I have had wide spaced yagi's on top of high towers at previous QTH's but don't miss them as designing efficient small antennas is challenging. The QTH is located at 1000 ft overlooking the Sacramento Valley in Northern California so the close-in Fresnel zone clearance for my long path to Europe is favorable and helps offset the smaller antenna limitations in that direction.

73's & I am looking forward to our next QSO.