Brian Bowman, WD0HBG

 I grew up primarily in the Kansas City MO area (Hickman Mills, Belton, Grandview) with 3 years in Japan (1963-1966) as my father was in the Air Force. Graduated from Belton High in 1971. Became an Amateur in March 1978 when I passed a Novice exam given to me by Samuel Cartinhour. I remained a novice for about the next ten years (I really like code), then rapidly progressed to the Advanced class license. 1990-1995 I was in Bryan/College Station TX. While in TX I was KI5QN. With the vanity call sign procedure, I reclaimed my original callsign.1995-2000 in Philadelphia PA (Phoenixville) area.

 In Feb 2000, I passed the 4B element exam, but at the same time was job hunting/interviewing. I wasn't able to process the EXTRA class paperwork until August of 2000 when I finally settled into the new job and home out here in the Los Angeles area (Agoura Hills). I have a Bachelors degree in Chemistry from the U of MO (1975). I worked as a volunteer police officer for the city of Columbia MO from 1978 - 1981. For the past ten years I worked in the EPA/FDA regulation arena as a Quality Assurance professional, but now am in the FDA/pharmaceutical side of the QA business. This is not the same as QA under ISO 9000 (though I have had that training as well). This is more "inspector general" type QA, making sure what
they say they did is what they really did, and that all the scientific studies are well documented.

 My current rig is a Heath SB-1400. The first rig I owned and used for about 8 years was a Heathkit HW-16 along with the HG-10B VFO. I have recently re-acquired an HW-16a along with and HG-10B VFO. I also have Heathkit QRP rig
models HW-7, HW-8 and Hw-9. Finally, I have the requisite 2M/440 mobile rig and a small ICOM handheld. I will be building some QRP rigs soon, the Tuna Tin 2, and a couple MFJ Cubs, and plan on playing with the Tick keyer. I attended the QRP convention ATLANTICON 2000 this year, held outside Philadelphia. It was a blast. I recommend the QRP conventions to everyone!

 I was a member of the Mid-Atlantic Amateur Radio Club (MARC) while in southeast PA, but will now be looking to join a local club in the Agoura Hills/Thousand Oaks area. The outdoor site where M*A*S*H was shot is just a few miles from my house, as is the old Paramount Ranch (Dr. Quinn was shot there). I hope to go QRP mobile from these sites and put out some unique QSL cards.

------
Brian R. Bowman
GLP Compliance,  Amgen Inc., M/S 5-1-A
One Amgen Center Drive
Thousand Oaks, CA 91320