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868 COOLEY SPRINGS SCHOOL RD CHESNEE, SC 29323 |
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See Related Page in Memory of My Late Father K4HXC, Ray on QRZ.COM |
For his information on QRZ.COM click here
You may know that I actually lived in Lynchburg for a time and several of the Jokers and Wednesday night net guys knew me as a kid. My stepmom, Erline actually worked for Lawrence. Small world indeed.
It seems my hectic life over the years provided an excuse for not getting around to getting my ham license. I worked along the way as field engineer for National Semiconductor while flying in the National Guard, when the division I worked at closed, I went to full time commercial flying and got to see the world while ending up with a 30+ year career doing it. When I retired in 2008 my Dad, Ray, encouraged me to finally pursue my ham license and helped me prepare for the exams. Sadly he passed last Feb 14 not seeing me successfully complete my Technician and General exams.
As you can see in the photo above, My basic equipment starts with a Icom IC-756 Pro III and Ameritron AL-800H amp, left to me by my Dad. These are backed up with an ATH-30 Tuner, MFJ-259B antenna analyzer and MFJ-1026 noise canceling signal enhancer. RV's are huge noise generators, between DC florescent lights, inverter chargers and wall warts of various sorts, so noise reduction is a plus. All of this is topped off with a G5RV antenna which I usually string up in the trees available around my campsite using a slingshot to get the lift lines up.
Being a pilot and avid bluewater sailor HF SSB was always around and I often found myself tuning some awful antennas, so becoming a ham was a logical next step and getting set up was just an extension of things I had already done, either at sea or hanging out with my father.
My wonderful wife, Georgie, and I now travel the United States and Canada, performing various volunteer assignments at lakes, dams, rivers, nature preserves and campgrounds. I have tried staying at our home in SC but find I get bored and need to hit the road again.
