March 1958 - Poplar Bluff, MO. Licensed as KN0OQA. 15 years old. Rig was S-38D and a converted ARC5 on 40 meter CW, then a Globe Chief for 40 and 15. There were only three Novices in our small town so we were outcasts. KN0ISE, KN0TPY and myself. Novices were despised at that time and were thought to be the beginning of the end of Amateur Radio.

March 1959 - Do or Die for Conditional (General) license. At that time the Novice license expired after one year and wasn't renewable. You either upgraded or you were off the air! Code was no problem after a year on CW, but the theory was a killer. "Draw a schematic of a Class B amplifier using push-pull modulation and explain your work". Passed! Got a Hallicrafters S-53A. Wow. Three inches of bandspread. Traded in the Chief for a Globe Scout 680A kit. Got chased off the bands trying to run 50 watts of Amplitude Modulation. Back to CW for the next 10 years.

1961-1968 US Air Force. College. Engineer @ McDonnell Aircraft.

1968 - Back on the air. Built a Heathkit SB-101. SSB for the first time. That was great. Apartment in St.Louis, MO with a 40 meter diople in the attic. Worked about 50 countries in 3 months on 40 and 15 meters before heading to Edwards Air Force Base.

1970-1989 - Married. Career. Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego. Off the air for almost 20 years!

1989 - Stopped by HRO in San Diego. Where is the Collins, Hallicrafters, National, Hammurland equipment? No more World Radio Labs? Walter Ashe? What is all this new stuff? Icom, Kenwood, Yaesu.My license was expired, but I found I could start over. Do it right this time! Studying for license, bought a Collins S Line, passed Novice test and Extra CW. What a wonderful 1st year back on as KC6EYZ. Sunspots going wild. If there are 10-10 numbers on 10 meters, why aren't there 15-15 numbers on 15 meters? Thanks to Harry W6LKC for so much help during my first year back on the air. Discovered contesting and DX'ing.

1990 - After a year as a Novice upgraded to General, Advanced and then Extra. Got a new call KK6XN in March of 1991. Have recently (Nov. 1996) changed call to W6KY.

Member: Southern Calif Contest Club(SCCC), San Diego DX Club, Trustee for KK6XN Hidden Valley Contest Club.

Collect Collins. Prize piece is a 52S-1 that belonged to Art Collins. Also own several complete mint S-Lines, KWM-2, 30L-1. Assorted Collins S-Line bench test equipment.

Use Icom computer controlled tranceivers for contesting.

Recent Award: 1st Place 40 Meter Single Op USA(Low Pwr & High Pwr) WPX Phone contest 1997. Holder of USA record high score for 40 meter SSB Low Power for the WPX contest.

For contesting, CW, SSB and lately RTTY, I especially enjoy Sweepstakes, the North American QSO Parties (NAQP),the California QSO Parties (CQP) and of course WPX. C U in the Pile-Ups. 73, Art

Rev: W6KY - Fri Sep 18 1:30:35 1998