Howdy,

I grew up in Fair Oaks, California graduating from Bella Vista High School in 1970. Enlisting in the United States Air Force, I served in aircraft maintenance on EC-130's, AC-130's, C-130's, B-52's and as a flight crew member on JC-130's and HC-130P's. Was stationed at: Udorn RTAFB Thailand, Edwards AFB California, Ubon RTAFB Thailand, Kirkland AFB New Mexico, Hickam AFB Hawaii, Mather AFB California and Fairchild AFB Washington where I retired from the USAF in 1990.

I  became interested in AM DXing as a boy and that grew into SWLing as a teen. In 1988 I earned my Novice license in Spokane, WA. I enjoy RTTY, PSK-31, JT-9, JT-65 and SSB on HF. Locally, I am active with the Sky Valley Amateur Radio Club where I serve as club President. The club's repeater is: 444.125 MHz + / T 103.5 Hz., www.w7sky.org. I am also involved with Snohomish County ACS, http://www.wa7dem.info/ . Other interests include: Weather Spotter, Aviation/Space (non-current private pilot), Scanner Monitoring, Railfan and occasionally "make noise" with my electric bass. My wife, is also a retired teacher.

After retirement from the USAF, I earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Natural Science and a K-8/Reading Teaching Credential from Eastern Washington University. I moved to Sultan, Washington to accept a teaching position at Gold Bar Elementary School during which time I taught Fifth Grade, Second Grade and earned a Masters Degree in Literacy from Western Washington University. I retired from teaching in June 2013. In retirement, I have more time for HAM radio... recently earning my IOTA 100 Islands of the World Certificate and now focusing on initial WAZ award, hurry back sunspots!!!  

Retirement

First day of the 2013-2014 school year... and my first day of retirement!

The Shack

The radios are an ICOM IC-746 PRO, ICOM IC-7000 and ICOM IC-207.

Antennas

HF antennas I use are either a Cushcraft R-8 vertical at 10 feet (3 meters), Carolina Windom 80 Special running West/East at 23 feet (7 meters) mounted under eve, or a 40/80 meter end-fed NVIS homebrew antenna mounted on the fence at 6 feet (2 meters). My VHF/UHF antenna is a Cushcraft AR270 mounted in the attic. For portable operations I use an Eagle One antenna (33' vertical), a 40-10 meter end-fed antenna or a 40/80 meter end-fed NVIS homebrew antenna.

Mobile

Sometimes the IC-7000 is mobile in the truck.

Field Day 2016 Backyard

Operated with W7SKY 2A the Sky Valley ARC on Saturday, Operated as KB7GFL 1E on Sunday.

QSL's

I QSL via LoTW 100%, usually daily. I respond to Direct and Bureau QSL's.

Mountains and River

Looking east the Cascade Mountains and Skykomish River in Sultan, Washington

What a Catch!

My QSL card shows a USAF photo of a USAF JC-130B making an aerial recovery of a KH series surveillance satellite reentry vehicle. I was a flight crew member with the 6594th Test Group while stationed at Hickam AFB, Hawaii.

Recently, the National Reconnaissance Office published a book titled, "Corona Star Catchers". This book chronicles the development and implementation of aerial recoveries for Corona, Gambit and Hexagon satellite reentry vehicles. Here is a link to that book:

http://www.nro.gov/history/csnr/corona/StarCatchersWeb.pdf

 

73 David