KA1IOR
My Amateur Radio career began in 1981 when
I discovered a copy of the Radio Amateur's Handbook at the college
library. After practicing morse code for a year in my spare time with 2
children under the age of three, I passed the Novice exam on my second
attempt at the written element.
Holding the call of KA1IOR ever since, I
spent the next 14 months upgrading to Extra, making repeated trips to the
FCC's Custom House in Boston. On the first attempt, I upgraded from Novice
to General. When I looked at the materials for Advanced and Extra, I decided
to just do them both. I passed the Advanced theory test and the 20 wpm code,
but missed the Extra theory by just a few questions, and passed it on the next
session instead. I have enjoyed the privilege of serving fellow
Amateurs as a Volunteer Examiner since the inception of the VE system,
and I am a Life Member of the American
Radio Relay League.
It was my privilege to serve the community
in August of 1991 as Net Control in a coordinated response with Falmouth's
Office of Emergency Preparedness during
Hurricane
Bob, which left many of the roads impassable with downed trees
and much of Cape Cod without electricity for over a week. The storm was
responsible for 18 lives lost (3 on Cape Cod), and damages were 1.5 billion
dollars. Over 2 million homes lost electricity. I also currently serve
the community in another
public safety related capacity.
I have served as Net Control and elsewhere in the
Falmouth
Road Race to support the emergency medical service needs of this world-class
running event since 1984, and ran the seven mile course as a participant in 1997 in less than an hour.
Not exactly a world-class speed, but maybe respectable enough for a non-runner. I have also served as
Net Control for the Cape Cod Marathon, and
spent a few years helping in the Safety Launches during the
Head of the Charles Regatta.
In 1988 and 1991 I placed first in the Eastern
MA High Power CW category of the
November Sweepstakes contests. In the SSB portion
of 1991 I worked a clean sweep, contacting every
section
in the U.S. and Canada in less than 24 hours of operating time. I have
served as Secretary for the Falmouth
ARA for over 5 years and as Field Day
Leader in 1991 and 1992.
I was one of less than 700 lucky operators
to successfully uplink one-way via Packet Radio to
Ron
Parise, WA4SIR during the flight of Space Shuttle Columbia's STS-35/ASTRO-1
mission in December of 1990. Later in 1992 I made a complete two-way QSO
among less than 1000 others to successfully make a contact with
Jay
Apt, N5QWL and Mamoru Mohri, 7L2NJY aboard Space Shuttle Endeavour
during STS-47. Photo courtesy of Jay himself!
More recently, I made a two-way voice contact
with the International
Space Station, NA1SS in December 2008.
My current activities center mainly on HF/VHF/UHF,
serving at exam sessions, and helping out at Field Day as needed. CW is
still my favorite mode,
and my HF contest operating is finally recovering to normal activity now that I am no
longer subject to a landlord's restrictions.
Please feel free to leave
me a message.
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