About

I retired after 41-years with Lockheed Martin Corporation as a program manager. In my last assignment, I led a team of researchers who designed and fielded a revolutionary laser-based nondestructive test system in conjunction with the F-35 Program, the next generation fighter for the United States. I have been married to Karla for 46 years and we are the proud parents of 2 children and grandparents of  5 wonderful and talented grandchildren. We live in a northeast suburb of Fort Worth, Texas (North Richland Hills). We are active in his local church, North Richland Hills Baptist (see panel) . I invite you to visit our church’s website (www.nrhbc.org)  where you can learn more about the place that is the center of our lives.

I first became fascinated with radio around the age of six (1953). I found a shortwave radio (bigger than I was) at a relative’s house where we were “vis-tn” as it was called in the south. There I began to listen to a multitude of amazing sounds from around the world. I was a confirmed DXer from that point on. Between 1953 and 1981 there many attempts to get a ticket but never successful. I lived in a small oil field town in southern Oklahoma and no one had ever heard of ham radio; so I found it overwhelming. During this time an Allied Star Roamer receiver was built and used to keep the interest as well as a Heathkit DX-60 (cart before the horse, it should have been a HR-10 receiver to upgrade the Star Roamer). Finally licensed in 1981, I began pursuing my goal of confirming radio contact with all the DXCC entities. Equipment during the early days included a Hammarlund SP-600 receiver, Heathkit HW-101. This was followed by a Kenwood TS-830S with remote VFO coupled with a Dentron Clipperton-L amplifier and 2-element cubical quad antenna. Now I was cooking. This setup accounts for the majority of the contacts for DXCC credit and this was before the days of DX cluster, etc. HOWEVER, DXCC was achieved with 100W and a G5RV at 20 feet! So don’t think you have to have a monster set up to work DX! After 34 years, I lack one…North Korea! I was off the air due to work demands (dumb, don’t lose focus, you may never get the chance again) when the last North Korean operation took place. DARN! I hope to live long enough to have another change. I won’t miss this one!!

I am a founding member of the Lone Star DX Association (see panel) over 25 years ago. I am also a founding member the KP1-5 Project (see panel); whose efforts resulted in the 2009 K5D operation from Desecheo Island (Desecheo National Wildlife Refuge) and now the generational K1N DXpedition from the #1/2 most wanted entity, Navassa Island (Navassa National Wildlife Refuge). I am a member of the North Richland Hills Amateur Radio Club (see panel). I’ve has been the QSL manager cards for a dozen different call signs and operated from six DX locations including Australia, England, Swaziland, South Africa as well as Desecheo Island and now Navassa Island. After Navassa, I’ll be doing my DXpeditioning with Karla from nice resorts that have beautiful beaches (for her) and a nice shade (for me) and a place to hang an antenna! Look out Caribbean.

I’m the trustee of W5NWR and have operated as W5NWR from eight National Wildlife Refuges. The first was Tishomingo NWR followed by the Wichita Mountains NWR and most recently Navassa NWR. Most memorable of these are the 2009 operation from Desecheo NWR using the call sign K5D and now the 2015 operation from Navassa NWR. These operations were conducted in accordance with the Special Use Permits for each refuge and, with the exception of Desecheo and Navassa NWRs, held in conjunction National Wildlife Refuge Week which promotes the purpose and mission of our National Wildlife System. I plan to operate from as many, of the more than 560 refuges across the nation and around the world, as possible. See the National Wildlife Refuge tab for more information on how you can do this as well and view my past operations.