I have been a Ham operator since 1971 when my call sign was WN7RWU. I let that call sign lapse. I took the Technician Class test in May of 1996 and was issued KC7REK.

I applied for and received my new call sign W7ARC on March 08,2002 as a vanity call.

This is a fitting call sign for me as I am an avid radio "chatter" as is "Always Ready to Chat" or, putting on my other hat, "American Red Cross", as I am a 20+ year volunteer for the American Red Cross in disaster services where I function as a Mass Care Specialist, a Family Services Specialist and a Communications Technician.

On April 20, 2002 I took and passed the General Class test upgrading my license and getting on the air on the HF bands. On April 17, 2005 took and passed the Extra Class test.

I also spend a lot of time these days on the NTS traffic nets. I am Washington Receive for the Daytime Region 7 Net several days a week and a regular on the Noon Time Net (7268.5 kHz.) and the Washington Amateur Radio Traffic System (WARTS)Net(3970 kHz.) in the evenings at 1800 Local time.

I am a member of the ARRL and a Charter Member of the new World Radio Relay League, (WRRL-3) serving as thier 2nd Vice President and Webmaster. Read more about the WRRL at http://www.wrrl.org.

I have been appointed as an ARRL Official Emergency Station for Kitsap County and ARRL Official Relay Station for Kitsap County for my work in Emergency Communications and traffic handling. In October of 2003 I was appointed as Section Traffic Manager for the Western Washington Section. Check out the Western Washington Section page on the ARRL Website ( http://www.arrl.org/sections/?sect=wwa ) for the latest information.

I was appointed as District Emergency Coordinator November 23, 2005, for District One in Washington State which includes Island, San Juan, Skagit, Snohomish and Whatcom counties. I was also appointed the RACES Region Coordinator for RACES Region 1, January 27, 2006.

I was a member of the Washington State Emergency Operations Center Communications Team under RACES until my appointment as DEC for District One in the Western Washington Section.

I was as an Assistant Emergency Coordinator and liaison for the Red Cross under the ARES program for JacksonCounty, Oregon when I lived there.

I am an Assistant Editor to the monthlyemergency communications newsletter, The EMCOMM MONTHLY Newsletter and maintain the EMCOMM.ORG Website at: http://www.emcomm.org .

I also maintain Website for Washington State ARES/RACES, Washington Sate ARES District 3, Sacramento Valley ARES, Siskiyou/Modock County, CA ARES, and the World Radio Relay League ( http://www.wrrl.org ).

I also have my own Website where you can learn more about my ham radio activity at http://www.w7arc.com