Featured Article

Reading the other profiles inspired me to provide one.

My mother, siblings, numerous aunts, uncles and cousins, husband, daughter and I are natives of Colorado. When I was little my family would take a trip every summer which would end in CA. We would camp in the forest most of the time and saw many beautiful sights along the way.

Our campsites were well chosen because I have muscular dystrophy and my father lost his leg in the Korean War. But it didn't stop us from doing a lot of things. We just had to be more creative. Little did I know that they were paving the way for living in the mountains permanently. My husband and I moved to Evergreen in 1973, decided it was too crowded, moved to Conifer in 1976 and a couple of years ago moved to Bailey.

My parents were very active in their community and we just joined along with whatever was going on. So it wasn't unusual in adult life to do the same. I have been involved as a 4-H leader for disabled kids, donated 99% of my legal background to nonprofit endeavors and other legal challenges, but my most cherished activity and education has been working with parents of children with disabilities, creating programs to work with their disabilities, which I continue to do to this day.

I also engage in a very vigorous physical therapy (better known as pain and torture) program which has me walking, something I couldn't do very well when I was younger. I am getting better with age!! And with new technologies, there might be some medical things in the near future that might make life a little easier yet. We shall see.

When we lived in Conifer there was an elk herd that frequently visited so I was able to work with DOW on a study they were doing. I missed the wildlife and the lush growth in Conifer when we moved to Bailey but much to our surprise found that we had located to an area that harbored many bears, mountain lions, deer, elk, fox, etc. So more study of wildlife.

Living by a national forest has also meant more smokes/fires so we created an informal group in our area watching for smokes. Many of us are disabled and it is something we can do from home.

Back in the olden days, being in the mountains meant that rescue help was coming but wouldn't be there right away. So I took an EMT class with local firefighters and was pretty intrigued with the radios they had and what they could do with them. I always wanted to be a ham radio operator but with speech, hearing, muscle impairments and memory issues, it didn't seem possible. Many of the 4-H kids I worked with were intrigued as well. So with Padre's encouragement I started many months in advance preparing for the testing. I am hoping some of my "kids" will chose to do the same. I don't talk often, partly because I need a better working radio that I will get some day after medical expenses, and because of hearing/speech problems, but I do listen.

Having gotten to know Dutch, working on the organizational side of ARES, I listen to his and other interactions on the radio. I especially enjoy learning about what Padre will be having for dinner!! He makes some wonderful dinners. Thanks to Dutch and JIm for their service to PCRC and my very best to Sharon and Jack who I know will do as wonderful a job. And to all the other PCRC members for all you do. Your service is very much appreciated!

(Additional information in my 'rant' here, entitled Public Service Communications Concerns)

I have been in the computer industry for 22 years now. The first 11 were spent in Silicon Valley and then in 1994, I joined IBM. The IBM world tour commenced in 1995, and included stints in Phoenix and Dallas. After five long years living in heat and humidity, we happily moved to Evergreen in the fall of 2000.

Laura and I have traveled to Greece and the Greek islands and to the Tuscany region of Italy. We're currently planning a trip to Europe next year that should include stops in London, Zurich and Amsterdam to visit family and friends. Since having kids, we've been all over the country, including Michigan, Arizona, Missouri, North Carolina and California. The boys are seasoned travelers by now!

My first call sign was KD6TOC, which I earned in 1993 while living in San Jose. I upgraded to General class in 2004 with the help of the PCRC and changed my call sign to KØTOC. Right now, I have little involvement in ham radio, however, my current projects include setting up a used G5RV antenna that I bought recently and my never-ending quest to be CW proficient (I'm currently struggling with 10 WPM). I'm also shopping for a new portable for the truck (all suggestions are welcome!).

I grew up in Denver, and camped out on my present property with my family on the weekends. There were a lot of fond memories produced as the years went by here in the foothills.

As a young boy I found a big piece of petrified wood not 200 feet from the present house. It wasn't until recently that I found out that my dad had planted it there, as the family helped me find it. I have it on a shelf in my home. I have always loved rocks.

There isn’t much that doesn't interest me, to the point of being sidetracked into delving into a lot of research on the subject of rocks.

I love trains of any kind, even toy ones, researching the subject around the world from my home.

I'm currently involved making wind generators, experimenting to find a robust cost-effective design. There are endless chores around the place here, along with my animals.

I'm single but “looking”. I could write a dissertation on my interests but will now restrict this to Ham Radio.

I earned my license about three years ago this summer through the PCRC VE team. I floated around a bit and landed squarely with being a member of PCRC. I would like to become more and more involved with much more knowledge of the aspects of ham radio.

I belong to ARES, and attended some emergency council meetings in Fairplay with Dutch. I learn from my hands-on experience as well as from reading, and the tests I've taken.

I'm proud of being a member of PCRC and having the pleasure to know the great people that I've been fortunate to have met and get to know better.

Some of you know that Jack Frank and I are involved in an organization named Disaster Support Volunteers, Inc (DSV). Jack and I are founding members of this organization, which was formed after the Hayman fire a few years ago. We formed the organization because we saw a need for a non-profit group that would: provide information on how to reduce the impact of potential fires in our area through mitigation and other efforts, raise awareness of potential dangers, and provide a mechanism for people to easily donate for fire departments or other needs in the event of a fire or other emergency. Through my involvement in DSV, Jack convinced me to get a Ham license in order to assist with communications during a disaster.

On a day-to-day basis, members of DSV (including Jack and myself) monitor the local fire frequencies and post information regarding smoke checks, fires, and vehicle accidents on the DSV website, http://www.disastersupportvolunteers.com/ We also search out news articles regarding preparedness, fire danger, and the like, and post these as well in order to raise awareness within our local community.

I am also involved in a local Boy Scout troop, currently serving as the Committee Chair. The troop committee is responsible for paperwork, logistics, etc. A boy scout troop is (or should be) “boy led” which means that the youth make the decisions regarding what they want to do, and where they want to camp, among other concerns. The committee supports the boys in putting the program together. I coordinate the work of many adult volunteers in our troop who manage the books, make camp site reservations, ensure proper paperwork is filed with council, track advancement, and the like.

I am an active member of Our Lady of the Pines Catholic Church in Conifer. I have several roles that I fill at the church, mostly doing things during Mass on Sundays. Through DSV I have also offered Disaster Preparedness training at the church.

In addition to all of the above, I work full time for the Department of Defense in Information Technology. Although I’m not currently active, I have also been a member of Toastmasters International, which helped me tremendously in overcoming my reluctance to speak in public.

As you can well imagine, my days and nights tend to be full more often than not. My husband has adjusted to the fact that there are weeks when he may only see me for one or two evenings. At times, I consider cutting back somewhat on my volunteerism but everything that I’m involved in is important to me so, I don’t see that happening soon. I have recently recruited another adult to eventually take over my Committee Chair commitments within the scouts. Moreover, I have also agreed to serve as a Unit Commissioner, which is basically a resource person for other scout units in the area.

I have enjoyed meeting and getting to know the members of PCRC. I had a lot of fun helping out with the Burro races and look forward to doing more of this in the future.

I live with my bride of 4 years, Sally, who cannot figure out what’s my fascination with ham radio. Eric, my only child (KBØLFT), is married to a lovely woman, Rachael. I have three great grandkids: Abigail – 7, Tristan – 5, and Reilly – 3. I am a financial advisor – for retired folks, folks who are looking to retire someday, and business owners – and a management consultant.

I received my first license in Grand Rapids, MI, in 1971 as WB8GIA. Along the way I was WD9IDF in the Chicago area during 1977 and 1978, and received my AIØW call in November 1978, after moving to Denver. My ham radio interests include homebrewing, antennas, CW, and restoring tube-type equipment. I enjoy sharing my radio experiences with the local radio clubs and have many great ham radio friends!

In addition to ham radio, I enjoy backpacking and am a Unit Commissioner with the local Boy Scout Timberline District. I also teach finance, economics, and management for three local universities (not all at the same time !!??). Busy – you bet! But there is always time for a great QSO – eyeball or on the radio.

I was born and raised in Denver until my parents moved us to the Cherry Creek area, where I graduated from Cherry Creek High in 1967. Then I went to college at Western State in Gunnison where I met Nancy and we had our daughter in 1969. I graduated in 1971 and took a management job in Tempe, AZ. Nancy joined me later that summer while I was working 60-70 hours as a restaurant manager.

We got out of there and after several different career routes, I ended up in the elevator trade as a technician. We moved up to the Bailey area in 1979 and still live here. Nancy and I have been married for 37 years this March and our daughter now lives in Australia with her husband of 5 years. She graduated from C.U. in 1993 and became a pharmacist.

Nancy went back to school at Regis and received her bachelor’s degree after two hard years of working and going nights to Regis. It really paid off as she had a very successful career, helping me throughout. Of course, since my daughter is in Australia, we have had the pleasure of traveling down under and enjoying it immensely. We have been down there twice and plan on going back in the near future. We had a very interesting trip to Ireland last year and really enjoyed the people and the country. I hope we can get back there and spend more time tracing some of my Irish roots.

I got into ham radio around 1983 and got my novice ticket right around that year. At that time we had to pass 5 words a minute and you could be tested by someone with a general license or higher. So, the guy sent me code on the phone and I read back what I copied. I don’t remember if I had to take the written at the F.C.C. office for the novice or not.

I then kept on working on 13 w.p.m. so I could upgrade to general. I knew the technical stuff pretty well as I had taken over a year of electronics. The code was the bugger. I use to get cassette tapes and listen to them as I was commuting to Denver and finally it was sinking in. I got up to around 18 w.p.m. when I went down to the F.C.C. office to take the general test. I passed the code, barely, but whizzed through the written. I later upgraded to advanced and aced the written. When they eliminated the 20 w.p.m. for the extra class, I ran into Padre E.R. Bova and upgraded to Extra class at one of his famous V.E. sessions.

I am currently involved with the Park County Radio Club and A.R.E.S. and belong to 3 other clubs as well. These included the Colorado Repeater Association, The Mountain Amateur Radio Club and the Rocky Mountain Radio League. I am also involved with the Colorado Connection as I have volunteered to get on their work crews to maintain their repeater systems.

That’s about it for my profile. I hope you find it somewhat interesting as I peck away on this keyboard.

I believe it is my turn to give a little information on my family and myself. Fran and I will be married 51 years in May. That’s a long time. We have two children. Our daughter lives back East and we have two Grand children plus two Great Grand Children back there also. Out here our Son and his Family live about a mile and a half from us here in the Bailey area with his wonderful wife and Twin daughters.

My Life experiences have never been in electronics, although I always enjoyed SWLing even going back to crystal set building many moons ago. The SWLing lead me into Ham Radio. Christmas 1974 I was given a portable multi band receiver and I spent all New Year’s listening to a local 2 meter repeater and some of the near-by Hams in the area. I enjoyed listening to them so much and I thought why not join them by getting my ticket. After taking novice classes my call was WN2AWS. I remember my first CW CQ call. Someone came back to me. I was lost and did know what to do next, so I just left the room, sweaty hands and all.

Once I received my upgraded call, WA2AWS, I really started chasing DX on 10 meters with a home brew 5 element mono band YAGI. I could not compete with some of my neighbors on the other bands that were running K’watts. Eventually I wound up with a 70ft tower and 5 element tri bander. That was back east and out here I am just using a dipole and not really into HF and chasing DX as before.

For my working life. I retired from a company that made powdered metals and I spent most of my 35 years working in the R/D Lab as a Sr. Mechanical Lab Tech. Compaction of the powder, Hot Forging of the compacted powders and Heat treating were some of my duties and specialties. Along with this I also had the responsibility of the R/D Labs Machine Shop. Designing and making tooling along with many other shop jobs. This shop came very handy for making antennas or any thing else I needed for Ham Radio, or my boats.

My other love is fishing, which I have not done hardly enough while living here in CO. I guess the reason is that I lived on a small lake and had a 19 foot bass boat on a trailer parked in the drive way and a 12 foot boat on the lake. Going fishing was very convenient and a lot different style of fishing than here in CO. The other love I have is in the earth sciences. I had a fairly large collection of Minerals, Fossils and Indian Artifacts, but only brought a small part of the collection out here. Just driving down roads where the rock formations are exposed I have trouble keeping my eyes on the road while thinking about what forces formed the formations and strata.

In the time that I have been in the PCRC I have seen it grow and like any other group, PCRC has a core of regular members who are always willing to help, while other members come and go just like the wind. A few of these people have left a good impression with us and have helped with the growth of PCRC. I would like to see more club members get involved with some of our activities. If you are into a type of Hamming that you think others might be interested in, why not show and explain it?

PERSONAL PROFILE
by Ray Thompson, WØIVB
Second President of PCRC
(02/28/06)

I guess my love for electronic gadgets started early. Right after the end of World War II the Army surplus stores were flooded with millions of goodies. My best recollection is a gigantic dry cell battery with multiple voltages that cost five cents. I remember using its 67 volt terminal and an old car coil connected to a long piece of wire to make static crashes on my AM radio receiver. Spark gap maybe?

We have all made a crystal set, which I did, and learned the benefits of putting a lot of metal in the air and a good ground. It wasn’t until 20 years later in a college electronics class that I learned how the thing worked.

Everyone says to be happy and successful “DO WHAT YOU LOVE AND LOVE WHAT YOU DO”. For me, anyway, if you work at your hobbies your hobbies become work. So maybe for that reason I never pursued an electronics career. Instead I did the next best thing, and went to where the money was: the oil and gas industry. I worked for Standard Oil Company of California, the U. S. Geological Survey, Mineral Management Service and finally the Bureau of Land Management in the fluid minerals department in Santa Fe.

Retiring in 1994, I decided to get a ham license because of the poor communication system in South Park and the vast amount of wilderness. The first meeting of what is now PCRC was held in Bailey and the second meeting, which I attended, was held in a little school house or church (maybe both) in Como. The club had no budget to speak of so things moved slowly but the primary goal of uniting the two geographically divided Park County areas (Kenosha Pass) succeeded. I served as the second President of PCRC following the big shadow of Padre’s, WØWPD, two terms. I think Padre would agree that we all wanted our own VHF/UHF communication system to back up the then poor Park County system. In fact much of our present day equipment is a product of Padre’s ability to obtain financing from Park County Commissioners.

We all went over some pretty rough roads in the beginning but that only makes the freeway feel so fine. I have but one regret: I didn’t get a ham ticket earlier.

Our family has been truly blessed. We have seven hams in the immediate family. Our contribution to the ham kingdom includes our son Jim and his wife Marie, K6RRS & N6ZFM and their son and daughter Kris and Brianna, KF6SVO & KF6SVP respectively, all of whom reside in California. Our son in Colorado Springs Phil, KBØYCQ got his ticket while helping build our dream home in Fairplay. My ever-loving wife, Judy, KØWGN and I are working on at least three more family members and have bought them all copies of “NOW YOU’RE TALKING” so maybe someday we will have an even ten.