KL7JFT Donald E. 'Don' Bush Jr Wasilla, AK QCWA # 34189

Hi there, I'm Don Bush, KL7JFT. I am the Matsu Borough's District Emergency Coordinator, Navy Mars member NNN0JCB and the Net Manager for the South Central VHF ARES Net. I am on the Board of MARA (Matanuska Amateur Radio Assoc). The QTH is located outside Palmer Alaska about 50 miles North of Anchorage. I was first licensed in 1976. Novice to Extra. I've been in Alaska for most of my adult life, except for my Military Service starting in 1966, which include the Navy, Coast Guard and Army. Finally retired in 1997 at Fort Richardson Alaska. My military career took me to all the garden spots around the world, Southeast Asia, China, Philippines, Japan, Juneau, Ak and various places around the west coast ending up at Desert Storm. I've been in electronics, communications, search and rescue, and light infantry. I currently work for a Telecommunications Company in Alaska.

My current station, that the wife, Carol/KL2FA and I share consist of an Icom 756PROIII, Yaesu 897, Kenwood D710, Kenwood TM-V71A, MFJ Manual & Auto Tuners, AEA MX 232 TNCs ,SCS Pactor 3, Tigertronics, Navigator TNCs, and Phone Patch. As you can see the box on the top left on the station is my go box. We also run Yaesu 857 & Kenwood D700 in the Truck with Packet, Winlink, Digital, APRS with a HI-Q 5 for the HF antenna. The base station antennas consist of a 400' loop, Cobra Senior Folded Dipole, Hygain TH-7 at 50 feet, 5 Element 6 meter beam, and various VHF/UHF Beam and Collinear antennas. We host the Palmer/Wasilla Area VHF Winlink Station KL7JFT-10 and APRS I-Gate KL7JFT-5. We run the station on a battery bank, with generator backup for the house with UPSs for the computer systems.

My web site is www.kl7jft.com and the MARA web page is www.kl7jfu.com. You can follow our club activities on Face Book under Mara Club.

January 9, 2015