Greg Galka — Amateur Extra, on the air from the Arizona Desert
First licensed in 1982 as KA7IVF, I've been active on HF, VHF, and UHF ever since. These days I spend most of my time on FT8, collecting grid squares and states toward Worked All States — a chase that started in Cheyenne, Wyoming, where I earned six-band WAS on 80, 40, 30, 20, 17, and 15 meters. After nearly twenty years of wanting to live in Arizona, my family and I relocated to Coolidge in May 2023, and I'm working toward WAS all over again from the new QTH.
My wife is from Nanning, Guangxi, and I've traveled to China many times and fallen in love with the country — I always make a point of calling any Chinese station I hear on the bands. My son earned his Technician license at fourteen, is already studying for his General, and picked up my father's old callsign to honor his grandfather. Watching him make his first satellite contact and start learning CW through the Long Island CW Club has been one of my favorite parts of the hobby lately.
I'm an ARRL Life Member, ARRL Instructor, and accredited Volunteer Examiner, and I've run VE teams in both Cheyenne and now the Coolidge/Florence area — email me if you'd like to test, in person or over Zoom. Radio is part of the day job too: I maintain Pinal County's P25 public safety system, and I exclusively confirm contacts through LoTW.
100W HF/6m SDR transceiver paired with an Icom AH-4 remote antenna tuner, fully automated using Ham Radio Deluxe software.
A single 265-foot end-fed long wire running around the eve of the house and matched with an Icom AH-4 for effortless tuning and band-hopping from 80 through 6 meters.
A dedicated desktop runs the digital suite during good propagation, logging weak-signal contacts that voice could never pull out of the noise floor.
Every contact is logged digitally and uploaded to QRZ Logbook and ClubLog — confirmations are handled through LoTW only.
Earned DXCC on both Digital and Mixed modes, and closing in on 9-band Worked All States.
Rather than contesting, I focus on adding to my DXCC, WAS, and chasing grids and counties.
Check-ins on the local 447.725 repeater on Monday and Tuesday evenings, and always glad to elmer a new ham or teach a class.
Registered with ARES for local served-agency support and drills — radio is a hobby, but it's also a backup when nothing else works.