N6SV — Amateur Radio Biography
Licensed in 1995 as KC5NWR in Arlington, Texas, I didn’t seriously pursue amateur radio until I renewed my license in 2005 and took a vanity call sign: W6ONV. The change was twofold. I had moved back to California and wanted a call sign reflecting my new location, and — perhaps more meaningfully — W6ONV had been my father’s call sign before he became N6SV years earlier.
After relocating to Oakley (CM98da), California in 2003, I joined the Mount Diablo Amateur Radio Club and began monitoring the local MDARC repeater (147.060) with a Kenwood TR-7600 2m transceiver. On February 17, 2007, I passed Element 3 and earned my General License, promptly buying my first HF rig: an ICOM IC-718 paired with a Hustler 6-BTV vertical antenna.
In April 2007, I erected the 6-BTV on my garden shed with band-specific radials. Three months later, the homeowners association notified me the antenna violated the CC&Rs and had to come down. Undeterred, I put it back up the following month — this time disguised as a flagpole, ground-mounted with roughly 16 radials. A winter storm snapped one of the aluminum tubes, and I was off the air until early 2008.
After replacing the broken section, I decided to take the fight to the HOA board directly. I prepared a formal presentation: information about amateur radio, detailed specs of what I wanted to erect, photographs, and a petition signed by my immediate neighbors. I still feel fortunate — I won. The restriction was lifted.
Energized by contest operating and now with HOA approval in hand, I upgraded my station. I purchased a DX Engineering 5-band hex beam antenna — think upside-down umbrella — and mounted it roughly 20 feet above my garage. Around the same time, I picked up a used Yaesu FT-1000MP from Ken, N6RO, after his station upgraded its fleet to Elecraft K3/100s.
At the end of 2008, I joined the Northern California Contest Club and began competing in sponsored contests — radiosport, as it’s often called. I spent as much time as possible at N6RO’s station in Oakley, one of the area’s premier “big gun” operations. The operators there are seasoned and skilled, and there was no shortage of things to learn.
The FT-1000MP served as my primary radio until 2012, during which time I participated in numerous contests, earned several awards, and checked off meaningful personal goals. Then life intervened. I went off the air.
In 2021, I purchased a used Elecraft K3 package from Saraj, KU6F, and was genuinely excited to get it on the air. But the house I’d bought in 2015 prohibited outside antennas, and between that and a demanding schedule, the radio sat. From 2012 to 2026, my only amateur radio activity was renewing my FCC license. After my father passed away in 2023, I renewed two years later and took his call sign, N6SV, in his memory.
Now in 2026, my station has a new home on Whidbey Island, in the town of Coupeville, Washington. Though the shack is still taking shape, the K3 is up and running, and the hex beam has been rebuilt — thanks in large part to the guidance and hands-on help of Dick, K6KR, and Bob, N6TV. I’m back on the air.
