I was originally licensed as KD5TMF in August 2002 at the age of 14. I upgraded to Tech+ in September and then to General in October of that same year. I subsequently upgraded to Extra in February of 2003 (coincidentally the same day of the tragic loss of STS-107). I received KU5B in March of 2003. I also hold V31UB, P40CJ, and M0KUB.
My uncle (N6UNI) was the driving force behind me getting licensed. He’d told me stories about working communications for the LA Marathon and I was immediately hooked. I joined NARS (Northwest Amateur Radio Society) in Houston in late 2002 and was first introduced to contesting in August of 2002, just a week after getting licensed. I joined W5SB and crew in NAQP SSB that year and got a real taste of contesting from a fairly large station.
I worked many public service events for NARS in the following years but could not really get into them as much as I could contesting. Throughout 2003, I entered as many contests as I could and was invited by N1LN and N1YXU to join them for the ARRL DX SSB contest in 2003. I have very fond memories of working JA pileups on 10m. My contesting interest quickly progressed and I became a member of the CTDXCC (Central Texas DX and Contest Club) in 2005.
I’ve operated from many different stations around the world as well as in the Texas area. These include W5SB, N1LN, K5NZ, NX5M, W5KFT, K5NA, NR5M, G6PZ, V31UB, K1TTT, NR3X, K9CT, K5YAA, N4JF, W4CUE, and P40CJ. I participated in IARU, NAQP and WPX CW contests from Belize as V31UB from 2007-2012. I have also made several trips to England operating at G6PZ for CQWW SSB (2007) or CW (2008, 2009) with a bunch of Worldwide Young Contesters.
I served as a referee at WRTC 2018 in DL (Y87K/OM2ZC/OM2ZI).
Amateur radio has become a wonderful hobby only made better by contesting with good friends.
I look forward to many more years!