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KG7YU Gordon A. 'Gordo' Anderson Benton City, WA QCWA # 38536 |
I grew up in Sunnyside Washington located in the south east corner of the state and later moved to the Tri-Cities area. My dad worked full time on the Hanford project and also ran a model airplane hobby shop in a small building behind our house. In the 60s the radio control electronics was not as sophisticated as today and required a lot of "tweaking". I was always fascinated by radio control and fell in love with electronics at a very young age. My dad would buy ARRL books for me to read to learn more about radio. I would spend hours looking at and studying all the wonderful projects.
This early exposure to radio had a profound impact on my life and
career. I went to college and earned an electrical engineering degree and
then spent most of my career at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
supporting mass spec research by developing specialized instrumentation. I
retired early and now run a product development company building instruments
that support research with mass spectrometers.
In my youth I never had an amateur radio Elmer so it was not until the
early 90s that I finally decided to get my license. KG7YU is my first and
only call sign, I was licensed with an Advanced class license in early 92
and upgraded to extra a few months later. I have always loved CW, its not
easy for me and I really have to work at it, I think that is why I love it!
Most of my experience is CW. It's a bit magical that you can carry on a
conversation by just making and breaking contacts!
Like many amateur radio operators', life interrupted my hobby for a
number of years and in 2019, in the middle of COVID-19, I re-energized by
interest. I met Rob, K6RB, on the air and he told me about the CWops
academy, following his recommendation I enrolled in the Intermediate class.
This was pivotal for me, the instructor Roy (KK6M) did a great job and was
also a great mentor. Through this class I learned how to contest. I am now
active in CW contests. I also found the SKCC group, bought a BUG and spend
as much time as I can on the air with a mechanical key.
I support as many amateur radio and CW organization as I can, the impact
of radio is much more than just making contacts, in my case it helped me
focus my life's goals. I am proud to be a member of QCWA and support their
mission advancing the art of CW and education. I have found lots of very
knowledgeable radio operators to help me on my journey, and many great
organizations working tirelessly to advance radio and CW!
73, Gordo,
KG7YU, https://www.qrz.com/db/kg7yu
September 19, 2021