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Member Biographies |
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| John - KI6BEN |
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| My name is John Vargas, and barring a short 4-year stint as a single guy living in Mountain View, I have lived in Fremont all of my life. I love California but I also love to travel. I'm usually cash-poor, so the travel I embark on is most often within California. |
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| I grew up on a cattle ranch located in the hills east of Fremont. My brother and one of my three sisters still live on the ranch. I moved out in 1977, rented a few apartments along the way, and then got married in 1983 and from that time have been a Fremont homeowner. We're in our third home now, each time, selling the old home because we couldn't afford to become landlords. |
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| The Lord has blessed me with a lovely, understanding wife and three beautiful, healthy,smart kids. I can't ask for more. |
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| Since my kids are older now (20, 19 and 14) I am able to spend A LOT more time with my hobbies. Since 2000, I have been flying radio control gliders, in the genre we call Slope Soaring. This basically means, take a glider to the top of a hill, mountain, dam. levee, sand dune, or any high place, with nice wind blowing right up the face -- and throw the plane into the wind. It's SO MUCH FUN! |
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| As we all know, you can never have too many hobbies, and in said form, I became an Amateur Radio operator in October of 2005. Since that time, it has been a wild ride. In May of 2006, I passed the Element 1 (Mose Code) exam, then in June the Element 3, and then in February of 2007, I passed the Element 4. I love the extra band space afforded to the Extra Class licensee. |
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| Since I'm a new ham, I haven't accumulated a lot of really fancy gear yet. In my car, I have a Yaesu FT-7800 dual-band rig, with a Comet tri-band antenna on a Diamond trunklid mount. At home I have a Yaesu FT-857 and FT-817 hooked up to a homebrew 2-meter J-pole (gift from my Elmer AE6IS), a homebrew "croppie" HF vertical for 40-10m, and a very basic randomme wire thrown over our two-story home for 80-160m. I also have a Yaesu FT-11R HT (my first rig). |
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| At present, my passions are in this order: 1) HF PSK-31 operation, 2) HF USB phone operation, 3) VHF USB phone operation, and 4) VHF/UHF FM repeater operation. At present, I have made HF contacts with 33 US states and 13 countries. In the evenings, when I should be doing chores around the house, I am instead found at my little temporary hamshack (read card table and fold-up chair) working PSK-31 on 80-meters, and once in a while, staying up too late working PSK DX on 20-meters. |
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| I can be found most often during commute hours on the Sunol Ridge 147.045 MHz repeater, chatting with my commuter friends. I also like to visit the N6NFI repeater (147.230 MHz) and I enjoy visiting the National Simplex Calling frequency for 2-meters (146.520). On Friday mornings, I always try to check in to N6NFI's 9:00AM Talk Net, and I can be found right here at the 25-25 Net on Wednesday evenings at 8:00PM. |
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| Am I crazy? GOD YES, but I love it!!! |
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| 73 DE KI6BEN |
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