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Howdy...

Had to find a new hobby after I sold my Diamond Star DA-40 (single engine, 4 place, low wing composite certified aircraft) and found I had some time on my hands.

So, I remembered building a cyrstal radio as a kid and had lots of fun listening to anything I could find on the airwaves.  Well, spin the clock forward a few years, and I got my Technician (2015) and General (2016) license, studying for the Extra test this spring/summer.

Just starting to find some equipment that works for me.  Have two Yaesu VX-6 handhleds, a couple of the Baefong HT's, and got a FT-897D to get me out on the HF bands.

Since I live in a small HOA, a little difficult to put up a big radio antenna, but do have an End Feed plus I've setup an Alpha EZ Antenna as a temporary antenna untill I can get a center feed dipole up and running.

My QTH is Urbandale, Iowa - just west of Des Moines, Iowa.  The family came back in 2009 after working in every corner of the United States.  Good place for family and kids, better place that any big city, and it's always fun to be in Iowa during the elections.

The local ham radio club is great and I'm slowly getting some ARES opportunities - great fun and great Hams.

Just getting up to speed on Digital and EchoLink - made my first EchoLink contact on January 18, 2016 - ironically it was with someone in Medical Lake, Washington - where I went to high school and my father (Forrest "Red" Taylor) was an air traffic controller at Fairchild AFB.  Talking about a small world, then we got to talking, and found out that we had only a few degrees of separation and knew some folks in Northport, WA - ham radio makes the world really small.

Will update my page as I get more to talk about.  In the meantime, I'll post some pictures of my ham shack - actually not a shack but a rack mounted box with my gear.  I've got the FT-897, LDG tuner, power supply, light weight backup batteries (LiFePO4), with external antenna chassis mount and power connections.  Added a portable PV panel to charge the batteries while in the field.  Was a lot of fun building the mobile shack and plan to take it and my PV panels up to Como, CO this summer.  My brother's place at 9,500 feet MSL, so listen for me to get that rare QSO location this summer.