K6MJD

THE RADIO GEEK

Mark was first licensed as KC6UHD in 1991. He was active with the East County Repeater Association (ECRA) and with the now defunct California Microwave Relay Association (CMRA) 1.2 GHz statewide linked repeater system.

In 1998, he applied for and was issued the vanity call K6MJD. Shortly thereafter, Mark experienced “radio burnout” and all but disappeared from the airwaves until 2003 when he got bit by the radio bug again.

On 01 October 2005, with a little encouragement from the infamous Art Bell (W6OBB) and his friends, Mark passed the Element 1 (Morse code test). He then took and passed the Element 3 (written theory exam) upgrading his ticket to General. After about six months of additional studying, he passed the Element 4 Extra Class exam on 15 April 2006. With no additional test to take, there was much rejoicing [insert Snoopy dance here].

Mark also has served as a Volunteer Examiner (VE) with SANDARC and the ARRL. He is generally only active on 75 meters these days. He (Mark) would also like to point out that, “you can usually find me on The Little People Net, 3.680 MHz LSB, weekends, late (very, very late) at night.” It’s hard to say where I’ll turn up these days, but it’s most likely going to be on HF… somewhere.

Ham radio station K6MJD is comprised of an Icom 756PROII, Heil PR40 Microphone, APHEX 230 Master Voice Channel Processor, MACKIE 802-VLZ3 Mic/Line Mixer, W2IHY iBox Variable Attenuator and Interface, Ameritron AL-80A 1KW RF Amplifier, and a Palstar AT5K Antenna Tuner. The antennas are either a Cobra UltraLite Senior installed as an inverted V or a Buckmaster Off-Center-Fed (OCF) Dipole – 7 Band Antenna also installed as an inverted V, with their apexes at approximately 40 feet (12.192 m) above the ground.

eMail: mark at k6mjd dot com