About

Check out the AD6DM™ Hamdom Thoughts Podcast, my latest creative effort!

Hi, I’m Dennis, a FCC licensed Amateur Extra Class Radio Operator (a.k.a. a “ham”). My callsign is AD6DM. My initial callsign was KF6UJS. I live in Sacramento County in the Central Valley of California.

This website highlights my ham life. I am a Software Engineering Technologist by day, and a QSOer/tinkerer by night.

I’ve been a ham since 1999 (which, if you hang out with other hams, really isn’t that long). Back then, I was introduced to the idea of amateur radio by a Radio Shack HTX-202 2-meter handheld, when I thought all that civilians could use was CB. Listening on the 2m VHF bands, I was fascinated and eager to transmit. I studied Gordon West’s study guide during the winter holiday season 1998, and became a Technician Class (no code) at the start of the following new year.

I enjoyed meeting other hams on the SF Bay Area repeaters for about a year, but also had quite a bit of mic shyness, so ended up not doing much with my license for the subsequent 17 years except occasional 2m repeater chat. I wasn’t part of any volunteer communities or radio clubs. I’d only revisit favorite repeaters and check in whenever I dusted off my handheld radios.

Then in August 2017, my uncle got caught in Hurricane Harvey in the British Virgin Islands. My family and I could not reach him, and had no idea of his status for more than a week after the storm dissipated. We were starting to think the worst might have happened. I was reaching out to consulates and online “safety walls”, while my family went on social media groups asking for any word. When the relief workers got back to our family that he was located and safe, I realized that we should do whatever we can to prepare for calamities and disasters. That got me back into some basic questions: How do you talk to people when infrastructure has collapsed? What does it take to prepare and train? How can a person help others in these kinds of situations?

With that, I took a training course with the Sacramento Metro Fire Community Emergency Response Team (CERT), and became a Level 2 member. I started looking at emergency response resources on the FEMA and Office of Emergency Services sites. I joined the ARRL, and became an ARES® applicant.

I quickly found that communication is key to any response.

In November 2017 I upgraded to General class license. Then December 2017 to Extra.

My passion for ham radio was reignited by this emergency preparedness drive within me, and has since led to so many other amazing tangents.

I’ve discovered things like digital HF modes, traditional DX’ing, D-Star (and its headache stepbrother DMR), mobile hotspots, digital voice reflectors, antenna construction (dipoles, loops, and portable hamstick setups), and offgrid power operation. I hope one day to understand and experiment with satellite and ATV as well.

I’d also like to get good at CW (Morse code), contesting, and get into computing in the ham space with areas such as PSK, Olivia, Winlink, and mesh networking. Let’s see where this goes!

BTW, I started a small YouTube channel that has a few of my projects and adventures. I prefer Odysee.com, and the two are bridged for content sync.

Every time I get re-fascinated by the world of radio, I like to do a quick blurb about it here to share my thoughts and discoveries. Thanks for your visit! Please drop me a line by visiting the CQ (Contact Me) page.