AG7TW
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SOTA
- Home Region
- W7O - ARM-W7-Oregon
- SOTA Activities
Just starting. Interested in activating more than chasing. Learning CW. Want to leverage lightweight/ultralight strategies from backpacking for ham radio in the field.
Personal
- Name
- David Neves
- Bio
If you know where Austin, Texas is, I grew up just north of there in what we now call a little ex-urban town Leander. I couldn’t get out of high school fast enough and essentially moved to Austin when I started at the University of Texas as a Liberal Arts major in 1990. I took the slow route to graduation and got out in 5 years with a great education but no idea of what I wanted to do professionally.
Through a friend, I got in with Apple Computer doing technical support on the phone. I made decent money for not a lot of effort and sort of coasted in life for a while. I moved to California as part of the new Apple Retail Store roll out in 2001. I had a great experience. I met my now wife Devon at a karaoke bar on the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica two days before the grand opening on the first Apple Retail Stores. Shortly after meeting Devon I moved south from the San Francisco bay area and lived in Los Angeles with her for a couple of years.
In 2004, we moved to verdant Portland, Oregon and bought a house. I worked for a local Macintosh repair shop for a few years. After my 35th(-ish) round of professional burn out, I got inspired to go back to school and become a nurse. I graduated from the University of Portland in the summer of 2012 with my BSN (which makes me dual degreed in the worst way possible - 2 bachelors degrees). I worked at a hospital for 6 years and moved into Home Health Nursing in December of 2018.
Our daughter came into our life in 2009. Our son followed just a few years later in 2013. He still follows her around.
I’ve had too many hobbies. I had tabletop roleplaying games as my dearest hobby through high school. Then I switched to LARPing for a while. I was very into LARPing. I spent enough time that I learned how to sew (serviceably) and even earned a knight-hood. Yeah, I was *that* guy for a while.
Motorcycles found me soon after college. They stayed with me on and off until December 2017, when I caught a cable to the throat on the way to work one morning (that’s a whole ‘other story that I’m happy to tell over beers.) I have sold my motorcycle and gear. I miss it, but not enough to start riding again.
I began hiking and bicycling more seriously while I lived in Los Angeles and after I stopped smoking. When I moved to the Pacific Northwest, my hiking blossomed into some light mountaineering and backpacking. I began commuting by bike roughly 16 miles each day in 2005 and only stopped in 2012 because I need to drive to do my job as a home health nurse (though I’m scheming to change that). I also got into overnight bike camping in last three years and I’ve had almost a dozen trips, including one out to the coast.
Most recently, I got bitten by the amateur radio bug. I’ve earned my Amateur Extra license and I favor the idea of QRP operation for a couple of reasons; I’m cheap and the radios are more portable so I can combine radios with my other interests (bikes and backpacking). I have no idea where it will take me.
Current toys of note:
Surly Big Dummy long tail bike with Big Dummy bags
Surly Disc Trucker with 700c wheels
Yaesu FT 60R HT radio
History
- Member for
- 4 years 50 weeks
- Blog
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