Hey there! I'm Dave. At left, I'm sitting at my desk at the Madras Pioneer, where I'm the Sports Editor. I've lived out here in Central Oregon for four years now (2001). Here's the Reader's Digest ® version of how I became a ham:

I blew my left knee out while coaching volleyball at Culver High last fall. After the surgery, I was laying around in the recliner, semi-immobilised, and decided to just go ahead and study for the thing that I'd held in the back of my mind since Cub Scouts: a ham radio license.

A co-worker went and got the two books on ham radio that are in the Madras Library for me. I brought a little electronics knowledge (one of my grandfathers was a ham, W7GER sk) to the table, also. One book -- Harry Helms' "All About Ham Radio" -- really filled me in and helped me to pass my General test.

Gear: Swan 350 SSB tranceiver; KnightKit T-60 AM transmitter, Heathkit HG-10b VFO & Lafayette HA-800 receiver (mostly for 6 meters); MFJ TNC (for RTTY and fax); Realistic DX-440 SW receiver; Midland 73-005 HT on 2 mtr. For antennas, I run homemade dipoles taped up to the walls of my shack, because that's all I can put up here at the Ol' Yardless Apartment. The whole station cost me about $500! So lay off the pizza and beer once a week for a couple of months and get involved!

Links: A few little links: The Madras Pioneer, The Arkansas-Little Rock Callsign server, my 'real' homepage, KC6UUT Amateur Radio Information, and a bunch of other stuff that I haven't gotten around to yet!

E-Mail me at: [email protected] (duh!)