Scott Nacey, KK6IK, President

Scott Nacey, KK6IK, serves as President of the WVARA Board of Directors. He was first licensed in 1977 in Massachusetts as WA1YOJ, later held the callsign W1MVY, and is now KK6IK. Scott first got involved in amateur radio as a way to communicate with high school friends, and later found it was also a great way to connect with college teaching assistants who were hams and gathered on 146.55 at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Worcester, Massachusetts.

Scott became involved with WVARA after exploring clubs around the Bay Area and discovering the club through its Field Day operations. Field Day had always been a highlight of his yearly amateur radio activities, and WVARA’s large Mora Hill operation sealed the deal. He was hooked, and his involvement with the club has grown from there.

Within amateur radio, Scott enjoys travel, POTA, and SOTA with QRP HF gear, but he finds interesting topics in nearly every aspect of radio, licensed or unlicensed. He operates on repeaters, including 2 meters, 70 centimeters, and 33 centimeters, and also enjoys digital modes such as DMR and P25, contesting, satellites, MeshCore, computer programming, automation, networking, and encouraging both new and experienced hams to stay active in the hobby. As President, he hopes to modernize the club’s systems, membership, and activities while enabling more participation and helping build a community of people who can depend on one another as friends and colleagues.

Outside of amateur radio, Scott enjoys travel and exploring new places around the world. During his 40-year career as a computer hardware and software engineer, engineering manager, product manager, and strategist, he had the opportunity to visit many parts of the populated world. In retirement, he is working on reaching more remote destinations, including places such as St. Barts, Svalbard, Saint Helena, South Africa, Hadrian’s Wall, and Pitcairn Island. One of Scott’s favorite radio memories is operating the ARRL June VHF Contest from Mount Equinox in Vermont during high school, combining radio, public service, contesting, and travel while his club supported communications for the SCCA vintage car hill climb. Scott describes amateur radio as more than technology: it is a community that creates real personal connections, both locally and around the world.

Jim Peterson, K6EI, Vice President

Jim Peterson, K6EI, serves as Vice President on the WVARA Board of Directors. He has been licensed for 54 years, first becoming interested in amateur radio through a friend while he was in junior high. That early introduction led to a long involvement in the hobby and a continuing interest in the technical and operating sides of amateur radio.

Jim became involved with WVARA in 2001 because the club had the most active Field Day group in the Bay Area. Field Day remains one of his major areas of involvement, and he currently serves as WVARA’s Field Day Coordinator.

Within amateur radio, Jim especially enjoys HF, antenna design and construction, contesting, and Field Day. As Vice President, his current focus is lining up interesting speakers for WVARA meetings across a wide variety of topics, helping keep the club’s programs active, educational, and engaging for members.

Outside of amateur radio, Jim is retired from a career as an electrical engineer at ESL, TRW, and Northrop Grumman. For those who are new to amateur radio or considering joining WVARA, Jim describes the club as a place for people who want to do “lots of cool fun stuff.”

Clay Couger, N5YJZ, Secretary

Clay Couger serves as Club Secretary on the WVARA Board of Directors. He was licensed in 1992, after being drawn into amateur radio through 6-meter E-skip, kit building, and simple single-band transmitter projects. That early mix of operating and hands-on technical work helped shape his long-running interest in the hobby.

Clay became involved with WVARA through Field Day and other club events, and later joined the Board of Directors to help fill a need within the club. By taking on the Secretary role, he has helped support the club’s operations while contributing to the behind-the-scenes work that keeps WVARA active and organized.

Within amateur radio, Clay enjoys digital modes, HF DX, Parks on the Air, building antennas, and helping others set up digital stations and AllStar nodes. He is especially involved in WVARA’s Field Day activities as Digital Captain and also helps support club POTA events. His goal is to help keep the club active, engaged in radio activities, and focused on teaching and supporting other hams.

Outside of amateur radio, Clay volunteers with the American Red Cross, Los Gatos CERT, and Los Gatos ARES. He grew up as a farm kid in southwest Oklahoma, put himself through college while working as an IT professional, and earned a degree in Electrical Engineering Technology. After moving to the Bay Area, he built a career as a Program Manager managing network software and hardware projects. Clay describes WVARA as a friendly club that offers many learning opportunities, technical talks, and hands-on events for both new and experienced operators.

Max Lanfranconi, W6BG, Treasurer

Max Lanfranconi, W6BG, serves as Treasurer on the WVARA Board of Directors. He was first licensed in Italy in the 1980s as IK2HKV and was immediately intrigued by the ability to reach distant countries by radio. His early interest in amateur radio was encouraged by an Elmer, I2DDR, whom Max was able to meet again years later during one of his trips back to Italy.

Max became involved with WVARA in the summer of 2016 when Jack Brindle, W6FB, invited him to participate in Field Day as a graveyard shift SSB operator. He was instantly hooked. Max later became club Treasurer after the previous Treasurer moved away, bringing with him experience from serving as a volunteer treasurer for several other nonprofit organizations.

Within amateur radio, Max enjoys a wide range of activities, including HF, repeaters, emergency communications, digital modes, contesting, satellites, building equipment, and mentoring. He has been especially involved with WVARA Field Day activities, serving as the club’s SSB captain. One of his favorite radio traditions is making an SSB contact with the same Malawi operator during major contests, an unexpected but familiar “unscheduled appointment” on the air.

Outside of amateur radio, Max works as a sound engineer and stage manager at the Stanford University Department of Music. He also has a musical background, having sung a cappella in both a quartet and a barbershop choir. Max describes WVARA as a friendly and welcoming club that provides learning opportunities for everyone, and he sees the club as a group of good friends eager to share amateur radio and related activities throughout the Bay Area. Given his callsign, W6BG, Max has also been known as “the Big Guy” or “the BBQ Guy.”

Chuck Kamas, AD6CL, Director

Chuck Kamas, AD6CL, serves as a Director on the WVARA Board of Directors and manages the club repeater as Repeater Control Operator. Amateur radio has been part of his life since before he was born. His father, K6UCK, was a longtime licensed ham whose tower on Mary Avenue in Sunnyvale was a familiar landmark for many local operators.

Although he grew up around radios, Morse code was a challenge for many years. When the no-code Technician license was introduced in the 1990s, he took the opportunity and was first licensed as N3QAT while living in Pennsylvania, where his wife, KF6SPE, was completing her PhD. After returning to California, he continued working on code, eventually reaching 20 WPM and passing his Amateur Extra exam.

He became involved with WVARA after using the club’s autopatch to call home during his commute. That practical connection to the club grew quickly, and he soon joined the Board of Directors. He later took over as Repeater Control Operator when the previous operator stepped away.

Within amateur radio, AD6CL has always been drawn more to the technical side of the hobby than to rag-chewing, which made repeater work a natural fit. He focuses on keeping WVARA’s repeater running at peak performance and enjoys digging into the engineering behind the system.

Vince Bafetti, KE6T, Director

Vince Bafetti, KE6T, serves as a Director on the WVARA Board of Directors. He was first licensed in 1986 as KB6NTW after growing up around amateur radio and antennas through his father, who was also a ham. Vince’s first interest was electronics, and after building enough Radio Shack circuit projects, he caught the radio bug. He earned his Novice license at age 13 and his Extra by age 16, captivated by the magic of electromagnetic waves and modulation.

Vince returned to amateur radio in 2021 after about 30 years away from the hobby. When Field Day came around, he toured several local sites and found WVARA’s setup to be by far the most impressive. He joined WVARA in 2023 and now serves on the board with an interest in making the club more fun, active, and engaging for its members.

Within amateur radio, Vince is especially interested in HF, building antennas, Parks on the Air, and casual contesting. He also enjoys using digital modes to study propagation in real time and appreciates CW operating because of its fundamental connection to radio. He is especially interested in WVARA operating activities such as POTA, California QSO Party, and Field Day, and hopes to encourage a club culture built around operating, building, and experimenting.

Outside of amateur radio, Vince is an electrical engineer with more than 30 years of experience in consumer electronics, including system integration work for iPhone at Apple since 2015. He is passionate about helping grow the next generation of engineers through mentoring college interns, electronics demos, and STEM nights. Vince is also a gardener, a member of the California Native Plant Society, and practices native plant gardening to create and restore urban wildlife habitat.

One favorite early radio memory was building a bicycle-powered generator for his HT at age 14 to earn Field Day natural power bonus points, which led to local TV coverage and a photo in QST Magazine. More recently, he visited the Maritime Radio Historical Society KPH transmitter site in Bolinas and operated K6KPH in Point Reyes. To new hams, Vince offers simple advice: We are all here to learn, so ask lots of questions.

Dave Schultheis, WB6KHP, Director

David W. “Dave” Schultheis, WB6KHP, serves as a Director on the WVARA Board of Directors. His interest in radio began in the 1950s with his father’s gray metal Hallicrafters receiver and continued into the 1960s as he listened to San Jose Police communications on a tunable Radio Shack VHF receiver. He later became involved with Citizens Band radio and R.E.A.C.T. before earning his Technician Class amateur radio license in 1975 and upgrading to General Class in 1980.

Dave joined WVARA in 1981, when the club met at the Monte Sereno Red Cross building on Saratoga-Los Gatos Road. Over the years, he has served the club in many ways, including two terms as President in the 1980s and 1990s. He also helped write the club’s Net Control Script and has assisted with repeater maintenance, both on site and remotely.

Within amateur radio, Dave especially enjoys repeaters, simplex communication, and mentoring new hams. He has also helped operators understand how to communicate effectively during emergencies, including giving talks on the best ways to report emergency situations to public safety professionals through auto-patch calls.

Outside of amateur radio, Dave worked for nearly 30 years as a public safety communications dispatcher and also served for two and a half years as a Reserve Police Officer. He brings that practical public safety experience to WVARA and encourages new members to take advantage of the club’s wide range of knowledge, interests, and experience.

Kevin Smith, KK6VF, Director

Kevin, KK6VF, serves as a member of the WVARA Board of Directors, with a particular interest in repeater maintenance. His first Novice license was around 1968 or 1969, after starting out with a three-channel, all-tube CB radio and deciding he wanted to do more. Over the years, amateur radio has remained a recurring part of his life, even as other pursuits occasionally took priority.

Kevin became involved with WVARA through his first license and later joined the Board of Directors after gaining enough experience and knowledge to contribute more directly to the club. He describes his role as helping where he can, often in the background, and he has been involved with repeater maintenance, occasional net control duties, and Field Day.

Within amateur radio, Kevin especially enjoys tinkering with hardware. One of his favorite WVARA memories comes from an early Field Day on the back side of Mt. Hamilton, where the club put up a four-element 40-meter wire beam. The event became especially memorable when raccoons repeatedly interfered with the open-frame generator, apparently attracted by the sparkle of the commutator.

Outside of amateur radio, Kevin occasionally dabbles in astronomy, especially when there is something interesting to observe, such as a passing comet or a planet crossing the face of the sun. His advice to new hams or those thinking about joining WVARA is simple: get involved. Amateur radio is one of the original forms of social media, and it is much more enjoyable when shared with others.

Bert Henderson, W6MSD, Director

Bert Henderson, W6MSD, serves as a Director on the WVARA Board of Directors. He earned the novice license in 1969 at age 13, the general in 1971, and in 1999 he passed the 20 wpm code test to earn the extra class. He has always been fascinated with electronics and radio, and has learned much from other hams about theory and the practical aspects of building home brew electronics projects. He mostly operates CW on the HF bands, and enjoys experimenting with antennas and baluns.

He studied electrical engineering in college, earning a BSEE from UC Davis in 1978, and MSEE from UC Berkeley in 1979. He worked as a RF and microwave design engineer in aerospace and communications with Watkins Johnson, Teledyne, and others, and retired in 2021; he still consults. His last two positions were as a CTO and Director, and as a Technology Fellow. He has also been active for over twenty years with the IEEE MTT society, as a paper reviewer and member of the TC-10 technical committee on signal generation and frequency conversion.

Bert is a relative newcomer to WVARA, becoming active in about 2022. He was drawn by the enthusiasm of his fellow UC Davis classmate, Jim Petersen, who is a long time WVARA member, and who also serves on its BOD as VP. As a radio enthusiast, Bert has enjoyed getting to know other like-minded people in the club, and appreciates the depth of technical and operating knowledge they all are happy to share. Bert has found it to be a friendly and helpful group, that offers a lot of social events and outings including summer and winter field day, POTA (parks on the air), club picnics, etc.

Eric Hendrickson, W6HS, Director

Eric Hendrickson, W6HS, serves as a Director on the WVARA Board of Directors. He has been interested in amateur radio since the 1980s and earned his Amateur Extra license in 2023. His path into the hobby was inspired largely by a desire to maintain communications during emergencies and times of crisis.

Eric became involved with WVARA at the beginning of 2026 after being approached by the board president about serving on the board. With a constant interest in creating, building, and improving things, he saw board service as a good opportunity to contribute his skills to the amateur radio community.

Within amateur radio, Eric especially enjoys promoting the hobby to prospective operators and encouraging others to get licensed. He also enjoys helping fellow hams with AllStar, digital modes, and related technology. As a member of the board, he is focused on redesigning the club website to better promote WVARA, attract new members, and make club information easy to find. He is also working with a board committee to upgrade, enhance, and modernize the club’s IT infrastructure.

Outside of amateur radio, Eric enjoys hydroponics, gardening, cooking indoors and out, fishing, and long road trips. One of his favorite radio memories was making contact through the cross-band repeater aboard the International Space Station while driving on Interstate 80 in northern Nevada. To new hams, he describes amateur radio as a hobby broad and deep enough to remain engaging for a lifetime, and one that rewards integrity, stewardship, gracious operating, and helping others whenever possible.