First licensed in 1968 as WN7KBR, most of my early ham activity was CW,although I sometimes operated on AM with a borrowed DX-60. In college, I upgraded to a Heathkit HW-101 and an assortment of 2M FM gear. I was the only full-time employee of the company that produced the Magnum Six RF Speech Processor for Heathkit, Collins, Kenwood, Yaesu, Drake and Swan SSB rigs (does anybody remember it?). We were a small operation, so I did everything from stuffing PC boards, testing and repair, to shipping and customer service. After that I worked as a technician at Icom America in Bellevue until I finished school. I graduated from the University of Washington with a BS in Electrical Engineering.

In May of 2005 I put up a 6M beam and 6M rapidly became my favorite band. I'm also interested in weak signal VHF operation and EME (moonbounce) using JT65. My first 2M EME QSO was on April 19, 2008 with K6MYC and I've made124 initial contacts since then in 29 countries and 106 grid squares. On 6M EME, I've made 43 initial contacts in 25 countries. I recently added elevation control to my 9el 6M yagi and hope to increase that number over the next few months.

Transceivers:

• FlexRadio 5000A (HF-2M & 70cm)
• FlexRadio 1500 (HF-6M, 5W)
• Kenwood TS-2000X (HF-2M,70cm & 23cm)
• Icom IC-746 (HF-2M)

Transverters:

• Down East Microwave 222-28CK (125cm)
• SSB Electronics LT33S (33cm)
• Homebrew 2.3G/3.4G

Amplifiers:

• QRO HF-2500DX (HF, 1500W)
• Expert 1K-FA (HF-6M, 1000W)
• Lunar-Link LA-62A (6M, 1500W)
• TE Systems 0552G (6M, 375W)
• Lunar-Link LA-22A (2M, 1500W)
• TE Systems 1452G (2M, 350W)
• Lunar-Link LA-135 (125cm, 1500W)
• TE Systems 2252G (125cm, 225W)
• Lunar-Link LA-70B (70cm, 1500W)
• TE Systems 4452G (70cm, 180W)
• Motorola Cell Amp (33cm, 225W)
• W6PQL Amp (23cm, 150W)

Vintage Equipment:

• Johnson Kilowatt Desk with Johnson Ranger Exciter
• 1940's Collins 300G AM broadcast transmitter (250W on 160M)
• Two 1950's Collins 20V-2 AM broadcast transmitters (KW, not converted yet)
• National HRO-60 receiver

Antennas:

• SteppIR DB18E triple trombone yagi for 40-6M (first prototype)
• 168' center-fed dipole with homebrew balanced tuner @ 110' (160-40M)
• M2 6M9KHW @56' with elevation (6M)
• M2 6M7JKV @95' (6M)
• M2 2M18XXX @55' (2M)
• M2 222-10EZ @ 58' (125cm)
• M2 222-7EZ @49' (125cm) - Vertically Polarized
• M2 432-9WL @ 52' (70cm)
• M2 902-17 @ 64' (33cm)
• Pair of KLM 1.2-44LBX 44element yagis @ 61' (23cm)

I've worked 183 countries on 80M and 50 countries on 160M using only the dipole.

Pictures of my vintage AM gear and the new SteppIR DB-18 antenna design can be seen at www.w7ce.com

73, Clay W7CE

Johnson Kilowatt Desk, Viking Ranger and National HRO-60 (circa 1958)