- KLM KT34A at 45 feet ( 4-element trapless yagi )
- Multi-band dipole at 50 feet for 12,17,40,80,160 Meters
- Cushcraft 10 Meter Vertical
- Hustler G-6 UHF Vertical
- 2M J-Pole
- VHF/UHF - Yaesu FT-7800; FT-2800, Yaesu FT-90
- HF SSB - Kenwood, Drake, Swan, Yaesu, Tempo, National
My Main Ham Radio Activities
I spend almost all of my operating on the HF bands. I am active on 75, 40, 20,
15 and 10 meters but equipped to operate on all the HF
bands. I prefer rag chewing over DXing these days and
usually avoid pileups. You can usually find me on 14.245 in the early evenings and 14.238.5 in the mornings. When 15 meters is working I can be found on 21.333.
I enjoy collecting and working on my old vintage SSB transceivers and especially enjoy rag chewing about these old beauties from the pioneer days of SSB. I like to categorize them as "real ham radios". They glow in the dark and you have to dip the plates and tune the load and know a little something about how they work.
My antennas are:
In conjunction with my multi-band dipole, I use the Heathkit 2060 Antenna Tuner and 450 ohm ladder line. I use the MFJ 259 Antenna Analyzer to tune the dipole to the required band thru a Daiwa antenna switch. All transmitted signals are monitored by one of two Heathkit HO-10 monitor scopes.
Some of my equipment is:
My amplifier is the classic Heathkit Warrior running four 811A's. Reasonable power and inexpensive tubes.
About the QTH:
Patterson Georgia is 47 miles inland from Brunswick which is on the Atlantic coast. A very small town with a population of approximately 620. The ham radio population is ONE! Savannah is approximately 90 miles to the north east and Jacksonville Florida is only about 90 miles to the south.
The Operator:
Interested in radio from the teenage years, like many, I started my electronics indulgence by examining and attempting to fix defective radios. This interest drove me to study like crazy and obtain my FCC First Class Radiotelephone License. Already being a practicing mechanical design engineer, the communications expertise was really a secondary activity, but one that I enjoyed imensly. So much that I started my own two-way service shop in the converted garage. After several years of servicing and maintaining two-way equipment, I decided to exit that field and allocate the time to the ham radio hobby. This allowed me time to collect and restore some great AM and SSB ham gear. For the past 20 plus years, this is what I have done.
Cheryl, my wife of 40 plus years, has been extremely supportive in my hobbies and interests and has never shown anything but support and encouragement.
Over the years, my engineering,engineering management and consulting career delivered me through the doors of some great companies in the industry. Texas Instruments, National Semiconductor, Atari, Logitech, IBM, Hewlett Packard to name a few. But now I just stay home and work around the house and play on the radios.
The Grand Kits: ( Litter Mates )
| CALI | MISSY & MAX |
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| UNO | LILLY |
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