Rick Tavan, N6XI, is a Silicon Valley high-tech veteran who loves to contest from his two Northern California contest stations, one in the "valley" and the other in the Sierra Nevada mountains near Lake Tahoe. Rick shares his early beginnings in ham radio from 1961 to the present, his love of contesting, some tips on getting started, operating remotely over the Internet, and the challenges of setting up a proper station and antenna on volcanic soil.