I'm Don Bessee (last I checked anyway) and you are at my personal webpage. I love spending time two ways: Playing with my kids and outdoors, mostly in the mountains of Colorado's Front Range. I work with computers for a living, not PC's but larger systems for the most part, to support my outdoors and volunteer habits. See below for more info on these.
As most of my friends and relations will attest, I am a terrible letter writer so I have started this page to share what's going on in my areas of interest and they can check it any time they like. It's my page so content will reflect my interests and concerns. Views are my own and will be expressed candidly, hopefully people reading them will realize that I have the right to my own view and I certianly would not question their right to theirs. That being said, I also believe that the way we coexist as members of any society is to respect others. That means that while it is entirely OK to disagree, respect for other s should not go out the window when we do. Feel free to look around, I hope you find something of interest to you. The page is family-friendly so you should not run into any unexpected suprises and if you do I'd appreciate hearing about them because I'm not posting anything that I wouldn't want my 11-year old to see/read here.
Getting out - Why I do it.
News with Don
Don's Volunteering
Photos
We'll start with hiking and backpacking. These are a large part of my year-round activities. This includes showshoeing in the winter time. I am fortunate enough to live about 30min. from the Front Range of the Colorado Rockies, this means I get lots of chances to escape from the world of pavement and cellphones and see some stunning country. I try to get at least two or three overnight trips in each year and nothing beats waking up to see a sunrise in the mountains. I'm not sure why this is as I normally sleep through them in a house on the plains unless I need to be up to go hiking or climbing.
Rock climbing is something I've started more recently and I really enjoy it. There is a great deal of satisfaction to be found in ascending a cliff with your hands and feet, at least for me. This ties in well with my passion for psending time in the mountains and outdoors in general.
Search & Rescue, and Emergency Communications. This is where I spend quite a bit of my volunteer time. I do SAR with the Front Range Electronic Direction Finders, a group of HAMs that does searches, and the Civil Air Patrol. I work with the Amatuer Radio Emergency Service (ARES) in Boulder, Larimer, Weld, and Jackson Counties here in Colorado. These groups of Amatuer Radio Operators (HAMs) provide emergency and public service communications services in our communities during special events and disasters that would otherwise overwhelm the communications capacity of the local cities and counties. See more later for links and data on these fine organizations.
Youth Education. Part of my work with the Civil Air Patrol is teaching young people about Leadership, Aviation, Space, and Citizenship. This is very rewarding work and part of my way of helping the future of my nation and world.
Amatuer Radio - I got into radio and became a HAM through my SAR work and discovered a whole new hobby (as if I needed another one!) that I enjoy in it's own right. My call is kc0qzr and I'm working (in all that spare time I have...) toward my General class license.