Rick Conners: An Amateur Radio Operator since 1977, I was first licensed as WA6ZYG while living in Santa Barbara, where I was trained by some of the finest "Old Timer " Elmers in the world. Moving to Kailua-Kona, Hawaii in 1987, I held the call AH6HZ and enjoyed being DX! I was a boat captain and NAUI SCUBA Instructor on the Big Island. We returned to the mainland in 1996 and I applied for the WA7ND vanity call. The ND is for Notre Dame from which our son, Rick, W7UND, graduated. Current License Class is Extra.

 The QTH is located on ThunderPaws Ranch in Tumalo, Oregon (where we raise Appaloosa horses and rescue Golden Retriever dogs),  just east of the Three Sisters Wilderness in the Cascade Mountains. At an elevation of 3,500 feet here in the high desert, we enjoy good weather year 'round and DXing via the 72' US Towers crankup tubular tower and Force 12 C3E 8 element 5 band yagi. The lower bands are covered by a double size G5RV at 70 feet, mounted in the pine trees.

As an experienced DXer, I still enjoy the hunt for that rare "new one". Phone operations usually are carried out during the daylight hours, switching to CW later in the evening. Operating conditions in the remodeled shack are as follows: Yaesu FTDX 5000MP, Palstar Commander HF2500 Amp, Palstar AT4K Tuner, Heil Pro Headset dual element, Yaesu Rotor control, Vibroplex Vibrokeyer key and the MacLogger DX computerized logging system.