KG6MZS – Eric Fitzgerald
Born in Santa Monica in 1956, I was raised hiking the chaparral of the Santa Monica Mountains right out our back door in Pacific Palisades. At an early age I developed a fascination with astronomy. My buddy and I would often get our garage sale telescopes out and battle the light pollution of the Los Angeles Basin. When the marine layer would come in, as it did more often than not, we would repair to Al’s little room in a detached garage and fiddle like safe-crackers at the VFO of his battered old third-hand Hallicrafters S-36 trying to coax mysterious, faraway signals out of that magic art deco box.
I spent most of my teens, twenties and thirties hiking larger and more distant summits and listening, listening, listening to all kinds of radio wave signals. I worked at a variety of jobs before settling into a career as a graphic artist and designer in the movie business. As an artist, the technical aspects of getting my amateur radio license seemed beyond my natural aptitudes. I never got beyond buying the ARRL study guides.
In Southern California – specifically in the deep fuel of the Santa Monica Mountains – wildfire is a way of life. I’ve battled numerous wildfires with a garden hose and this is not a pastime I would recommend. Most notably the Dayton Canyon Fire on October 9, 1982 and the Corral Fire on November 25, 2007 very nearly destroyed my mother’s house in Malibu. During the Old Topanga Fire of November 3, 1993, my wife Cassandre went to our neighbor’s house and managed to rescue their two horses, tack, truck and horse trailer while they were away. After this experience Cassie decided that if she was going to go into the horse rescue business, she should get some proper training.
She joined Los Angeles County’s Equine Rescue Team shortly after her harrowing experience and learned the finer points of trailer loading and handling of panicked one ton+ beasts. At one point during this training the leaders asked her to get her amateur radio license for emergency communication. She took the General test twice and failed, as this was a skill that was not really in her wheelhouse. Frustrated, she came to me and asked me for help because she knew I was into listening to shortwave radio. We went to the local Ham Radio Outlet to get the newest ARRL study guide and there we met a young woman that had just passed her Technician test. She suggested that we take a practice test online at QRZ.com.
As a lark, I went home and took the test cold, without cracking the book. To my utter amazement I passed!
We both went on to pass the test easily at a local VE session in Thousand Oaks in 2002. We have consecutive callsigns: KG6MZR and KG6MZS. I went on to upgrade to General in 2004 as one of the last “code” generals, passing my 5 WPM test.
This last year the Palisades Fire and the Woolsey Fire before that proved to be too much disruption in our lives. The constant road closures, power outages, evacuations and stress forced us to leave our beautiful little cabin in Topanga Canyon and move to New Mexico. Cassie had built a little adobe casita near Taos way back in the ’80s. We have been a frequent visitors to The Land of Enchantment over the intervening years and I have brought my SOTA passion with me. Now we are looking for permanent residency here in the wonderful state.
I’ve bumped into Carol K5TFL, Alan NM5S and Eugene AF9O on summits here in New Mexico and look forward to meeting many more of the W5N.
Thanks for listening,
73 Eric Fitzgerald KG6MZS
KG6MZS 