HAM Radio

My primary interest in amateur radio is for emergency communications however the more I explore the hobby/sport, the more interested I get in participating in more aspects of it.

I am the President of the Rural Radio Preparedness Association.  I’ve had a burden on my heart for several years to bring an emergency response focused group of amateur radio operators to central Santa Rosa County in Florida. I also wanted to be able to help bring a up new amateur radio operators, including our youth, to ensure amateur radio continues for generations to come.  I’m incredibly passionate about amateur radio, not only as a hobby, but as critical need to our community in times of disaster response and community events.

I’m no stranger to incident management and emergency communications. For nine years I worked my way up in the ranks, ending in Lieutenant, of a local police department’s auxiliary unit.

I’m an active member and Assistant Emergency Coordinator of the Santa Rosa County ARES team, manage & administer the county’s DSTAR repeater system and, I operate DSTAR Reflector 46.

I’m also an accomplished audio, lighting, and video engineer with more than 20 years’ experience in the industry. I’m the lead front of house engineer, lighting director/designer, and Service Media Director for my local church.  I have a background in music as well, being a former bass guitarist and vocalist, which helps me understand the needs of not only the media team but that of the musicians and vocalists as well.

Licenses and Certifications

Amateur Radio

  • Achiveved Technician in 2016
  • Achieved General in 2017
  • Achiveved Extra in 2019

Weather

  • Advanced Skywarn Spotter in 2019

Comms

  • Auxcomm Certified in February 2020

My Equipment

  • HF
    • Primary
      • ​Flex Radio 6600
    • Go Kit
      • ​​​ICOM 7300
      • LDG AT-100ProII
  • VHF/UHF
    • ​Mobile
      • ​ICOM ID-5100A (DSTAR)
      • Yaesu FTM-400DR (Fusion)
      • Dual Comet SSB-5 NMO Antennas
    • Home
      • ICOM ID-5100A (DSTAR)
      • ​Yaesu FTM-400
      • Comet GP-3
      • Comet GP-1
    • HT
      • ​Yaesu FT-2DR
      • ICOM ID-51A Anniversary
      • Kenwood TH-D74

Awards

  • Ham of the Year NOARC – 2017

Primary Interestes

  • Emergency Communications/Preparedness
  • DSTAR (If you ever need help, please reach out)
  • Echolink (I operate the node to link users to the Santa Rosa County EOC repeater)
  • Antenna Building (still learning)
  • Solar Power
  • Hoping to get into Contesting

I’ll be using this portion of my site to keep useful information related to the hobby as I find it.

My Amateur Radio Blog Posts

Useful Links

First Contact

W4CPD