Ray zinn K7ZIN

Ray's Helena shack above. His California shack at right.

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   “We wanted a ranch,” said Ray K7ZIN, when asked how he and DeLona K7YMZ decided on the Helena area to establish a second home. In 2003 Ray felt that he and DeLona needed a retreat away from the San Francisco Bay area, where he was the well-known founder and CEO of Micrel. They looked in several Western states but were drawn to Montana. Ray liked a property in the Swan Lake area, but that fell through. DeLona loved the Keckley ranch, just below MacDonald Pass, but Ray hated it. To please her, he made a low-ball offer, and to their surprise, it was accepted. Realizing that it is, after all, a beautiful 500-acre property on Walker Creek with ponds dotting the landscape, Ray began the work of transforming it into more of a hobby ranch. He had the pig barn, the chicken coops, and a silo removed. He added a pond. He had the interior of the house remodeled. Soon their ranch became their beloved family refuge. In 2015 Ray retired, having been the longest-serving CEO of a Silicon Valley company. In 2017 he and DeLona became Montana residents.
   One day in September 2017 a woman in their Helena church talked to the congregation about emergency preparedness. She wanted to establish a church net and told everyone to buy a Baofeng radio. Ray ordered two. He contacted Gina Newby, at that time a member of CCARC, to find out how to use the radios, and she referred him to Jeff N7JFF. Jeff informed Ray he would have to first get an FCC license to operate an amateur radio. So, Ray studied the Technician license manual, and made arrangements with John KS7R to take the exam. As John, Ken AF7QP, and Rich N7GC arrived at the Zinn Ranch to give Ray the exam, Ray’s son David was just leaving. Ray insisted that David take the exam, too, and they both passed. David’s call sign is KM6OZV.
   Then Ray became “hard core” – his words. He started buying radios and antennas. He bought the Yaesu 7900, then discovered that there was “nobody on the Belmont receiver.” He earned his General ticket in March 2018.  Next, he tried DMR and liked digital to digital radio. Talk group MPRG1 is busier, and he often chats with friends there. One day a friend in Bigfork, Neal NE7AL, said, “Ray, you gotta try AllStar!” So, Ray jumped into AllStarLink* and set up a Nano-Node AE Portable AllStar HotSpot.  Now AllStar is where he spends most of his time.  He says it is more fun because there are more people.
   Never one to stop learning, Ray is also trying HF on his Icom 7300. Jeff N7JFF and Darrell K7IUI set up his Windom 50-foot offset dipole antenna. He also has a QRP radio he can take out in the field. His QRP antenna has a mast base he built that he can park one wheel on to hold in place.
   Ray enjoys participating in three nets: Montana Net every night at 6:30, AllStar at 7:00 and ARES at 7:30 pm, both on Tuesday. Both he and DeLona are CCARC members and participate in club activities when in town.
His amateur radio goal? Earn his Amateur Extra ticket! 

   For more about Ray go to: https://helenair.com/news/local/silicon-valley-s-longest-serving-ceo-retired-to-helena-but/article_11a59875-4911-5d71-ac4b-35b7596c2950.html

*AllStarLink is a network of Amateur Radio repeaters, remote base stations and hot spots accessible to each other via Voice over Internet Protocol. AllStarLink runs on a dedicated computer (including the Rasperry Pi) that you host at your home, radio site or computer center. It is based on the open source Asterisk PBX running our app_rpt application. App_rpt makes Asterisk a powerful system capable of controlling one or more radios. It provides linking of these radio "nodes" to other systems of similar construction anywhere in the world via VoIP.
AllStarLink's primary use is as a dedicated computer node wired to your repeater or radio. Connections from Echolink, other VoIP clients and telephone calls are suported. We also have a Java Applet which can be used on older computers to access AllStarLink nodes.
AllStarLink has 17,654 users and 13,391 nodes. From https://web-tpa.allstarlink.org/ Accessed 10/17/19.

Photos by DeLona KI7YMZ and Marla KM7LIB
November 2019
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DeLona and Ray at Saturday coffee

2 meter/70 cm Diamond X300 mounted at the very top and a HF Windom off-center dipole in an inverted V configuration.

Ham Shack: Top shelf: Yaesu 8900-Icom 7300 Bottom shelf: Power supply - MFJ Deluxe VBRSA Tuner II