ABOUT WB6CDF

My name is Chris Nichols. I have lived in the Morongo Basin for about 12 years. I have had an interest in all forms of communications since the age of 5. Primarily due to growing up around my Grandfather (WB6QFE). I became a technician class Amateur Radio Operator on February 8th, 2007.

Although communications are a big part of my life, my true calling is in the fire service. I am a firefighter for the California Department of Forestry (CALFIRE), stationed in Yucca Valley. I also work part-time for San Bernardino County Fire in Needles. I started in to the fire service in November of 1996 with County Fire. While working for County Fire, in 1999 I accepted a full-time position at the County Fire Communications Center also known as "COMM CENTER". I worked at COMM CENTER for almost 1 year but realized that my true calling was with CALFIRE. In 2000, I accepted a firefighter position with CALFIRE. I have been with CALFIRE since then and don't plan on leaving.

While working for CALFIRE as a firefighter, I had the opportunity to work in the CALFIRE Command Center in San Bernardino on an "as needed" basis. Over the past 7 years I became qualified as an initial attack dispatcher, incident dispatcher, and incident communications manager. CALFIRE is a very diverse department which utilizes its personnel in many ways such as in my case, in communications.

While working for CALFIRE, I was asked by a friend that is a Fire Chief for a department in Mohave County, Arizona to look in to establishing a new communications system for them. I was hired part-time by this department in 2003 as their Communications Coordinator. Although I was very busy with CALFIRE,  I spent the majority of my time off working in Arizona. I established all aspects of communications for this department including radio communications, phone systems, computer networks, and wireless data systems. I recently assumed a new position in Arizona as a Communications Consultant which doesn't require 100% of my time off anymore.

Now that I have more time for myself, I have been able to enjoy life a little more. I recently relocated to a new home in Flamingo Heights which is a great location for an Amateur repeater. I have been very interested in ECHOLINK for some time and just recently acquired a 2 meter repeater from Glen N6GIW. With this repeater up and running, I have tied it to my ECHOLINK node. I plan on establishing a 440 repeater in the near future and some other odds and ends related to Amateur radio and possibly GMRS.

Thank you for visiting my site and feel free to send comments anytime!

Take care and 73's

Chris

WB6CDF