W5IAS Club 2nd Vice President 2024
When were you first licensed?
I received my Technician license around 1982 during high school while I was attending electronic classes and Tulsa Vo-Tech.
What is your current class?
I have been licensed as an Extra class since 2021. I changed my call sign to KY5VAR so I would not forget it.
Areas of Interest
I enjoy HF and POTA a lot and have combined these two activities into the HamVee. I have spent the last year rebuilding my morse code skills and tinkering with QRP. Additionally, I attend Heritage Church, where I enjoy teaching a Sunday School class.
What was your first radio
My first radio was a mobile Drake 2meter transceiver. I could not afford a stereo for my car, but I could afford a very used transceiver. The best part was using the Tulsa Repeater Organization’s auto-patch. I remember getting into a minor fender-bender and needed to call my dad. I pulled out a Radio Shack phone keypad tone generator and held it next to the mic. I tried multiple times to key-up the phone patch, but it did not let me through. A fellow ham heard me trying to make the call and made the call for me. I remember my dad kept asking “How are you calling me?” since I told him I was on the side of the road.
What’s your favorite ham story?
Last year I took an old military HumVee on a camping trip / POTA activation at Little Sahara State Park. I replaced one of the backseats with a weather-proof HF radio stack. I set up camp the evening before and the following day drove all over huge sand dunes looking for the tallest one to erect my military HF vertical. I had a great activating the POTA park and making plenty of contacts. It was at that moment that my Military M998 earned its reputation as the “HamVee”.
