tIM sowa kb7DMK

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Tim near minefield at Bagram Air Base, 2003
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Tim's shack
   Although he had been introduced to amateur radio earlier, Tim began using his mobile radio regularly when he got his General license, as a way to stay awake on the highway. Back then he was in Glendive, MT, and working for IBM as their Service Rep, repairing typewriters and copiers. Next he started to work on their midrange computer systems in the 14 eastern Montana counties. The Century Club net was a favorite in those days, and a friend logged his calls while he was driving. In his truck was a Kenwood TS 120 with a ham stick antenna. At home his base station was a National NCX-5 radio with a MFJ 986 antenna tuner and a G5RV antenna. 
   Tim was one of those lucky young men whose first receiver was a gift – from his Elmer. It was 1967, he was a sophomore in high school, and very happy to have a Hallicrafters S-20R. Within a year he had passed the CW exam and gotten his first Novice ticket. His first station was a Globe Master, a 60 watt AM/CW transmitter along with the S20 R and a dipole 40 meter antenna, and his first call sign was WN0SLD. A year after that he met a pretty girl named Cindy, who was quite a bit more interesting than radio.
   Since the Novice license expired in one year, in April 1971 when Tim got back to radio, he had to take and pass CW and the Novice exam again. His new call sign was WN0CVZ.
Later that year Tim joined the US Marine Corps. He was deployed to Okinawa and Thailand from 1972 – 1973 as a military generator repairman. While stationed at Futenma, Okinawa, he planned to take the test for his Conditional License.  But then he was deployed again and his FCC Novice expired again.
After this active hitch in the service, he did more than 10 years in the reserves, transferring to the Montana Army National Guard. It was 1984 and Tim was in Glendive, MT, working for IBM. At last he returned to ham radio, listened to code tapes as he drove in his territory, and passed the Novice for the third time in 1986. In 1988 he earned the General and took his present call sign, KB7DMK. While in Glendive he was active in the Lower Yellowstone Amateur Radio Club and attended the Father’s Day Picnic each year at different locations in Eastern MT. Cindy and Tim enjoyed the Ham Radio Christmas parties in Dickinson and in Glendive.
   The Army National Guard sent Tim to sniper school in 1989 and trained him in marksmanship. During his three week active duty stints from 1999 – 2002 he taught sniper school in Little Rock, Arkansas to a combined group of Air Force and Army National Guard.  But that’s only a small part of his life in the National Guard.
  • He participated in an exchange between NCOs and members of the 5/8 Battalion of The Kings Regiment, similar to our Guard, in 1992. The Brits came here to observe, and our NCOs went to England to see their operation. While in London his group was on the parade ground during the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace.
  • In 2002 he was part of the security detail for the Olympics in Utah. But when he returned home, his IBM boss laid him off. Unbelievably, this supervisor was a junior high school friend of Tim’s new supervisor at the Guard.
  • That same year the Montana National Guard hired him full time as a hardware specialist.
  • He was deployed to Qatar in 2003 and Afghanistan in 2003-2004.  He was attached to the Air Force, and his job, in Tim’s words, was to make sure the Air Force did not drop bombs on the Army troops.
  • He trained Air Force security forces in observation skills.
  • He trained a Provisional Reconstruction team from New Zealand to acquaint them with our Air Force’s close air support.
  • He ran pistol and rifle ranges for the Guard 2003 -2011   
  • He trained Soldiers of the Kyrgyzstan Army on how to conduct UN Peacekeeping Mission in 2010.
  • He continued working full-time handling computer issues for the Recruiting force until October 2011 when he retired with over 40 years in the military, including 10 in Marines and Marine reserve and 27 years Montana National Guard.
Tim keeps up his work in marksmanship, regularly participating in military matches. He placed fourth in the whole Army in a sniper competition in 1994, and in 2009 his MT National Guard marksmanship team won first place in the MAC 6 Match against competitors from 8 states.
   Today Tim still uses his National NCX-5, a tube transmitter that is highly-rated by reviewers on eHam.net.  He has a much-traveled TS-440S that works well as his base unit, with a Gap Titan DX antenna. His shack is in the computer room, where he gets so involved that his wife Cindy flashes the lights when he is needed. Yes, the same Cindy that that distracted him from ham radio back in 1969! Now they have time to travel, and Costa Rica is in the near future.
   He enjoys tinkering with his DMR handheld, and currently his goal is to learn how to configure digital mobile radio.
   Along with his many other activities and interests, Tim has a deep love of Montana history and finds time to serve as the current President of the Sons and Daughters of Montana Pioneers.

Photos by Tim KB7DMK
February 2019
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Another view of Tim's shack.
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At Park City, Utah, for 2002 Olympics