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Here I am at around 16 or 17 years old. I am now a General Class. I spend quite a bit of time on 10 meters AM during these days with my DX-40 and my NC-57. I was also very active in NTS on the QKS CW traffic neet at 3610. The VF-1 had its own power supply which was regulated. The VFO ran all the time when I was in transmit so I would not chirp. My Knight T-60 is above on the shelf which was retired because of harmonic issues. Also there was a RCA VoltOhmist meter which I put together in high school electronics class. The antennas were dipoles and a longwire. Later on, I modified the DX-40 for linear operation and added a SB-10 for SSB. I also added an old TH3 on the roof of the garage. The TH3 was purchased used and was originally built in Duncan, Oklahoma if I remember right. It had the "blue" traps covered in fibreglass. Later on, I moved the antenna to Salina and retrapped it with Hygain traps. This picture was taken by Bob, WA0OUS, who was fooling around with photography as well. He is now W0BH. |
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This is W0QQQ around 1974 or so. The two hams in the picture are Rod Bloxsom, K0DAS, (left) and Scott Casey, WB0JDK (right). The station was located in the elevator head house of Seaton Hall. We had a direct access to the roof where we have a plethora of antennas. Rod is working the Collins S-Line station, whild Scott is working RTTY using the Heathkid SB-Line. A Novice station used a Collins 75A4 and a Collins 32V1 Excitor. There are amps in the back using two 4-400As. Eventually the antennas included a TH-6DXX on a 50 foot tower atop the 75 foot building. Various dipoles were used for 80 and 40 meters. No 160 meter antyenna was used during the time for some strange reason. |
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This is the W0QQQ Heathkit SB-Line station around 1974. Yours truely was at the microphone. Pretty natty haircut and spiffy clothes. I sure had a lot more hair. My call at that time was WA0SWC. |
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This is me around 1970. I just got the 64 Chevy and was selling the 57 Chevy. Both these cars had mobil installations during my tenure driving them. The 57 had a Heathkit Twoer mounted in it using a surplus DC Dynamotor and a quarter wave for an antenna. Mobile on 145.35 AM. What fun! The 64 had a Heathkit HW100 mounted in it with some Hustler antennas. Lots of miles and lots of fun! My parents house is in the back. I had a TH3 mounted on the garage using a 8 foot "quad-pod" tower. Notice the Newton High School letter jacket. |
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This was my station in Salina, Kansas around 1978. SB-102, SB-200 to a 14AVQ. I made a separate VFO for the 102 using the design out of the HW-101 manual. Even purchased all the parts from Heathkit. Used knobs from Drake. The antenna tuner in the back is a Ultimate Transmatch built in a SB-200 cabinet. I still have the tuner. E.F. Johnson capacitors and a hugh roller inductor. The knobs were taken off old military surplus tuner. |
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Again, is Salina, Kansas around 1980. I had moved to our first new house and the shack was in the basement. The rig looks like a TS-830S which had replaced the TS-820S which had replaced the SB-102. I had sold the SB-200 and got an SB-220. I was enamored by RTTY at the time and CONTESTING. Notice the two rotor controls? The top control was to my old TH3 from home mounted on the side of the garage at 40 feet and the bottom control was to the TH6DXX at 50 feet in the back yard. This was all on a normal city lot at the time. Look at the hair and mustach. Big glasses! |
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This is in Salina, Kansas again around 1980 with the operator being Sugar Dog. Ruby and I were married in 1972 and Sugar Dog was our first born child. She did everything and went everywhere with us. Sugar was our experiment to see if we could raise kids. Well, at the time of this picture, Sara, our first born Human, was on the scene already so the experiment was a success. Sugar was a great dog. Right out of the dog pound as a puppy. She was a poodle/spaniel mix. She was good with the Sara and later on with Dan teaching Dan how to crawl She slept on the bed and was really the first born in the house. She lived 16 years and died out in the back yard where she liked to run. She has never been replaced. That is all I have to say about that! |
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This is such a cool picture. Sweepstakes contesting. Left to right, Tim Kresky, AB0S, Dean Lewis, WA0TKJ/K9SV, and me. Tim and I are still contesting together. Dean is out of ham radio, but I bet he is still known in contesting and DXing circles. Dean was the cosumate operator and showed be a lot of tip and tricks to operating. Dean had about every contesting and DX award in the country. He moved to VHF/UHF and did well there too, inventing the ROVER catagory. He did most of his work at WB0DRL's station. This picture was taken at Dean's station in Salina. Notice the 807 on the desk? |
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AB0S - Tim This is a very old picture (circa 1980s) of a very great guy. Tim is a great contester and a first class CW operator. Tim and I have been doing contests together since the late 70s and have missed very few Multi-Op Sweepstakes attempts. Although we not longer live in the same town, we still are close friends. Tim and I have operated from my home station, his home station, and also the stations of John, W0CEM and Al, W0NO. |
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This was in 1993. Location is my station in Manhattan, Kansas when I was a professor at K-State. That winter we had an ice storm that was real severe. The storm destroyed a commercial TV tower in Topeka. The tower was designed for 1 inch ice and engineers found 3 inches of ice on the legs. This is my TH7DXX at the time. It survived. |
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Johm, W0CEM, started contesting in the earlyt 80s and a group of contesters travelled to Junction City to contest. Computer logging is here and we had a great time. Many people went through this station which feature at TH6DXX, a 40CD2, verticles, dipoles, etc. We started contesting on 160. John at a 90 foot top load verticle on 160 and got out very well. Contesters were AB0S, WA0TKJ, K0WA, K0UR, K0TQ and NW0W |
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Serious operation at W0CEM. |
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Late night on Sunday after Sweepstakes. Looks like a bunch of amatuer radio biker types. John, W0CEM, on the left is taking a minute off from cooking steaks, then AB0S, K0TQ, and then K0WA
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K0WA's contest station in Shawnee, OK in 1990. I was teaching at Oklahoma Baptist University in Electronic Media. The antennas were a Butternut verticle and a 80 meter inverted-vee. I was also heavily into packet radio mostly using the DX cluster in OKC. Ruby and I were in Shawnee for 1 year and move to Newton, KS. |