New Official Observer Coordinator Appointed
Posted by af6aq on February 3rd, 2008
I am pleased to announce the appointment of Jim Tittle, K6SOE, as our new East Bay Section Official Observer Coordinator (OOC).
He started to study for his first Amateur Radio license while at Pleasant Hill High School in 1968. Frustrated by his inability to learn the code successfully and distracted by other studies in general electronics, cars/motorcycles, etc., as well as general aspects of life at age 16 — amateur radio became low priority. Fast-forward to Field Day 1988: Not knowing any better, Jim accepted an invitation to visit the Mt. Diablo ARC FD site atop Mt. Diablo by longtime friend Keith Lattin, N6PMF. After being put on the air on VHF FM for a few dozen Q’s, he was hooked on Ham Radio again.
Jim was first licensed in March 1991 as KC6SOE (Technician) and soon joined Mt. Diablo ARC/Rocky Ridge Repeater Group, ARRL, and Contra Costa County ARES/RACES. During the Oakland Hills Firestorm in October of that year, he was deployed to the Red Cross HQ in Oakland, and then to the main Fire Staging area at Broadway Terrace, where he set up a station. This experience encouraged him to become active in the ARES/RACES Training Committee, which is responsible for developing and deploying resource manuals, as well as classroom- and field-exercise programs. He became Assistant District Emergency Coordinator for East Contra Costa County in 1993, and later served as District EC from 2003 to 2007. Jim finally mastered enough CW to upgrade to General and became an ARRL Life Member in June 2001; then in 2002, he changed his call to K6SOE (January), and later made Amateur Extra (April).
With his extensive background in electronics, he has been a working member of the MDARC/Rocky Ridge Repeater Technical Committee for the past 17 years; most of his fun involves keeping the W6CX ATV repeater on the air. He also served as Chairman from 1993 to 1996.
His day job for the past 29 years has been with a worldwide precision optics company in Berkeley and Richmond (CA), where he started out as an Electro/Mechanical Technician. These talents allowed him to help design and build many cutting-edge, multiple-axis CNC (Computer Numeric Controlled) figuring and polishing machines used in myriad projects, including the 1993 COSTAR fix for the Hubble Space Telescope. In addition, he has spent the last 10 years as a practicing Network Administrator for the company’s Richmond division. He says “it has been a great source for funding my radio habit, but working all day gets in the way of my activity on HF/VHF/UHF SSB, Data and ATV, but retirement should fix that problem someday. And the best thing is that the XYL always lets me go to Field Day — even if it is on our wedding anniversary 6/22!” In November 1992, he joined the OO Program and is still listening today.I ask you all to welcome Jim on-board and to cooperate with him as he helps maintain order and the traditional high standards on the Amateur bands. Congratulations Jim!!Jim Latham, AF6AQ
Bay Section Manager