Welcome to my QRZ page
Here I'm visiting station W6RO in the Radio Room aboard the HMS Queen Mary in Long Beach, CA
After nearly 50 years as a Ham I'm enjoying Amateur Radio now more than ever
Strand Memorial Radio Club Station W6HKV at Kingsburg High School in 1968
The young guy in front is me at age 16 with the call sign WB6YMO, along with friends Robert
WB6PPT in the middle and Rick WB6WKR at the rear - I was privileged to be a part of this
high school radio club in the 1960s, and honored to serve as club president my senior year
Visible in the photo are a Galaxy V transceiver, Gonset GSB-100 transmitter, Hammarlund
HQ-180 receiver, and in the rack is a homebrew kilowatt amplifier and high power antenna
tuner built by Harold Strand W6HKV, the station's namesake. Harold became a silent key in
1967 and his widow generously donated all of his gear, tower, antennas and extensive library
to our club station - and many of us went on to college and into technical careers as a result
14 bands 1.8 - 432 Mc on one tower, 13 bands rotatable, 160/80 meter shunt feeds up the sides
I modified the Mosley PRO-67C 7-band Yagi so it covers all 9 HF bands on one boom and feedline.
It works as a rotatable dipole on 80, 60 and 30 meters, and a 3-element Yagi on 40, 20, 17, 15, 12
and 10 meters. The modified PRO-67C has averaged more than 315 countries confirmed on each
band 40-10 meters, and my single-tower system based on the all-band Yagi has worked more than
2,500 band-countries from my small city lot. I also shunt-feed the tower as a 160/80 meter vertical.
I use every bit of metal in my system to radiate RF on one band or another
Detail of the separate 160/80 shunt-feeds - vacuum-variable series-feed caps, 16 elevated radials
The crankup tower sections are bonded together for RF, and the rotor in the tower is RF protected
With all of the many metal Yagi antennas on top acting as a massive top hat, the 54-foot tower is
actually electically longer than a 1/4 wave vertical on 160 meters, so it can be tuned with simple
series feed caps on both bands. I tune the caps for a purely resistive impedance of some arbitrary
value at the feed points, then use the series-section coaxial matching technique in the individual
feedlines to transform those impedances to 50 ohms on both bands - this is a simple solution that
tunes easily and handles kilowatt power without failure - our mild California weather allows both
vacuum capacitors to sit out in the open - rain has caused no problems in operation
Workroom where I build hombrew stuff and kits, and restore vintage gear
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A1 Operators Club - American Radio Relay League - Central California DX Club - San Joaquin Net 3918 Kc - Trustee, Strand Memorial Amateur Radio Club W6HKV
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ALL-TIME DXCC - 350 CONFIRMED
DXCC MIXED #32,484 - HONOR ROLL
DXCC CW #6,205 - HONOR ROLL
DXCC PHONE #20,574 - HONOR ROLL
5-BAND DXCC #4,466 - ENDORSED 30, 17, 12
160-METER DXCC #2,275
DXCC CHALLENGE - 2476 CONFIRMED
WORKED ALL ZONES #7,797
IOTA - 867 ISLAND GROUPS CONFIRMED
5-BAND WORKED ALL STATES #2,552
VUCC #1,330
ANTARCTIC BASES - 31 CONFIRMED
AMATEUR RADIO LIGHTHOUSE SOCIETY LIGHTHOUSES - 94 CONFIRMED
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My operating awards are based only on contacts made from my home QTH in Kingsburg California USA. I'm active on all bands 1.8 - 432 Mc. CW is my favorite mode. I enjoy keeping up with friends by Ham Radio. I chase new grids on the VHF/UHF weak signal modes, I chase band-countries for the ARRL DXCC Challenge program, and I chase island groups for the RSGB IOTA award program. I find IOTA challenging because island operations are generally low-power, short-lived, single-operator, and difficult to work. I enjoy building homebrew projects of my own design, and commercial kits. I built the Elecraft K3 Transceiver from a kit, and it's now my favorite everyday rig. I use the K3 on HF and 6 meters and on the 144, 222, and 432 Mc bands using transverters and mast-mounted preamps. I have used several of the top-performing and very expensive 50-pound import radios, and at my station the 8-pound K3 beats them all. The narrow roofing filters, digital noise reduction, noise blanker and audio peaking filter in the K3 allowed me to hear a whole layer of DX on 160 meters I had never heard on my old rig, and I was able to complete my 160 meter DXCC using only my shunt-fed tower for both transmitting and receiving. With a rich set of control outputs the K3 automatically band-switches, sequences and controls all of my transverters, mast-mounted preamps, amplifiers and antennas through a homebrew interface. The K3 is one of few rigs that directly reads out transverter bands and frequencies on the transceiver display. I plan to have 902 Mc and 1296 Mc transverters, preamps and amplifiers operational soon. The K3 has the capacity to to control up to nine transverters, potentially making it a 20-band rig. I also enjoy restoring and operating a collection of vintage vacuum-tube radios produced by many of the classic 1930-1970 manufacturers.
My antennas - some people laugh at my Mosley PRO-67C coil-trap HF Yagi until they learn I've worked more than 2,500 DXCC Challenge band-countries using the antenna on a 54-foot tower from my small city lot. The PRO-67C is one of few antennas easily modified to put all 9 HF bands rotary on one tower, and that's exactly what I needed to chase band-countries. Mounted above it are phased stacks of M2 Yagis for the VHF/UHF bands. I also feed the entire tower plus antennas as a shunt-fed vertical for DX on 80 and 160 meters.
When I'm not on the air I'm out in the garage building hotrod cars and trucks. I do all construction tasks myself including design, welding, part fabrication, chassis and suspension, engines, paint and upholstery. These projects include a low, black custom 51 Ford F1 Pickup, a 31 Ford highboy coupe powered by a 392 Chrysler Hemi, and a 28 Ford roadster powered by a Flathead V8. I enjoy taking road trips in my old truck and cars.
