My interest in Amateur Radio began in 1959 in Oakland, California, when I listened to my uncle, K6AY, carry on conversations with family members while copying cw in his head at some unbelievable speed that left the dots and dashes indistinguishable to the casual observer. I was fascinated by this skill and would often play with a simple code practice oscillator, trying to imitate him. Sensing my interest, he gifted to me an old Navy BC348R HF receiver that served two purposes. It solidified my interest in amateur radio and kept me away from the television set. While the rest of the family watched the Ed Sullivan Show, I was listening to hams around the world exchange signal reports.

In the early 1960s, I passed my Novice exam as WN6FPP. I saved money from a paper route to buy an EICO 723 transmitter (featured in the March 2001 QST) to go with the Navy receiver, and within the allotted year, I advanced to General Class as WB6FPP. With the help of some high school electronics classes, I moved up to Advanced Class, where I remain today. Throughout the 1960s, I chased DX and collected Certificates/Awards with a Heathkit SB200, SB300, and SB400. While in college, I traded the Heathkit gear for a Swan 500, which conveniently replaced the glove box in my 1969 Ford Mustang.

In 1972, I moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico, at the behest of my employer and became WB5GSC for a little over a year, then back to California as WA6BVP (in those days you had to have a call reflecting your location). Although inactive since the move to New Mexico, I kept the license up to date, and in the early 1990s took the opportunity to get shorter call sign (KO6LU). Along the way, I had donated the Swan to a local high school radio club. In late 1999, I decided to become active again, but upon investigating the array of radios available, found myself facing new brands I'd never heard of and unable to find modern equipment from the old familiar brands like Drake, Collins, Halicrafters, Viking, Heath, National, and Swan with which I was familiar. Somewhere along the way, they were all displaced with names like iCOM, TenTec, Kenwood, and Yaesu.

In short order, I was on the air with an iCOM 775DSP and Cushcraft R-7000 vertical, chasing DX and wondering why I had waited so long to get back into the greatest hobby ever...meeting people.

I have always enjoyed amateur radio....from chasing DX to rag chewing...meeting new and interesting people from all over the world. In
the process, I've learned a bit about other cultures, traditions, and even geography.

Speaking of geography, I operate from two....from the heart of Silicon Valley in Mountain View, California (Santa Clara County), as KO6LU and as KO6LU/7 from a vacation site in the Sierra Nevada mountains called Incline Village, Nevada (Washoe County), at the very Northern tip of Lake Tahoe (elevation 6,600 feet above sea level).