W3GWM, George Miller, Candidate for Vice President in Dec 2020 Election
Name:
George Miller
QTH:
Wyalusing, PA
ECARS History:
- Member
Since:
2012. Lifetime
member #20743
- Previous
Offices/Duties: Vice President since
Jan 2018, NCS
- Current
Net Control Operator: Yes
Other Amateur Radio History:
I’m currently the ARRL East Pennsylvania Section Manager and ECARS Vice
President. I’m also Net Manager and Net Control for the Eastern
Pennsylvania Emergency Phone and Traffic Net and the Assistant Net
Manager for the 3rd Region Net.
I became interested in SWL using my grandfather’s SW radio when I was
around 10. Ham Radio caught my attention when I was in the US Coast
Guard assigned to an icebreaker in Arctic and Antarctic waters between
1967-1970 when Hams made phone patches home for me. I thought it might
be fun to be a Ham but had no chance to get a license while on duty to
remote areas on the USCGC Southwind. Ultimately, I got my first license
in 1979 as KA3DZD while living in Central Pennsylvania. I began
listening and checking into ECARS when I got my General License in 1980
as N3CJP. As I moved around the country, I was also licensed as KA4KA,
KF8PZ when I earned my Advanced Class License and finally W3GWM when I
became licensed as an Extra Class and received my current vanity call
sign.
I’m a long-time member of the ARRL and have appointments as Official
Relay Station, Official Emergency Station and as a Digital Relay
Station. I am a Volunteer Examiner and a Certified Instructor for the
ARRL. I’m active in ARES and RACES.
I’m the Net Manager for the Eastern Pennsylvania Emergency Traffic Net,
which is the EPA Section SSB Net, and the Assistant Net Manager for the
3rd Region Net.
In 1982, I worked with the Director of the Harrisburg Office of the
National Weather Service to form the first Skywarn organization in
Pennsylvania.
And of course, I’m also Net Control Station for ECARS. I am a member of
Skywarn, ARES, RACES, QCWA (#36618), MUFON (#22102), Ten-Ten Int’l
(#77169), FIST (#18048), SKCC (#16716). Locally, I belong to the Endless
Mountains Amateur Radio Club, Tunkhannock, PA and Murgas ARC,
Wilkes-Barre, PA.
I’m primarily interested in emergency services, traffic handling and rag
chewing. My most satisfying activity is being an ECARS NCS and meeting
so many great people.
Community Activities:
I’m an Electronics Technician, certified by the Electronic Technicians
of America and a retired US Air Force Master Sergeant (26 years’
service) where I served as a Ground Radio Communications Supervisor and
Crew Chief in various Combat Communications Squadrons.
I am very proud of my Air Force service and achieving the rank of Master
Sergeant.
During my early military career with the Coast Guard, I visited both
poles during exploration assignments and sailed around the world.
As an Air Force retiree, I take pride in continuing to serve as the ARRL
East Pennsylvania Section Manager, using my radios for emergency
services and traffic handling.
Mostly because of my background in communications, I was an early
convert to computers and built my first Sinclair computer from a kit. In
the very early days of the computer industry, there was little
commercial software, so I wrote and distributed many different types of
programs for Ham Radio and computers in general. I wrote the first
computer programs for predicting weather from tables of data for home
computers. I taught myself machine language programing for the 80xx,
68xxx and 65xx microchips and then wrote software for the Sinclair,
Apple. Commodore and IBM PC computers in machine language and using a
variety of advanced languages.
I switched career fields from electronics to computers. I was a
Certified Network Engineer for Windows NT, a Certified Network
Administrator for Novell, and an instructor for Windows and Microsoft
Office Products. For a while I was Technical Editor for Compute!
Magazine. I have written more than a dozen books on computer programming
and was employed in various positions in the computer industry.
Personal Comments:
I would be very honored to serve as your
2021 ECARS Vice President.
I’m retired from the Air Force and the computer industry. I’ve got lots
of time now for Ham radio and for reading. I guess my favorite Ham radio
activity is rag chewing. My station is rather modest, I use a Kenwood
TS-480 HX. My favorite antennas are is G5RV and a 1000-foot loop
antenna. I do have some other wire antennas and verticals for HF. I’m
not a “Big Gun” but I get a great deal of enjoyment out of the wide
variety of activities available in Amateur Radio.