Thank you for visiting the amateur radio station of Kilowatt Three Delta Yankee United. This site is dedicated to a dear friend and mentor going as far back as 1964, silent key Ret. Lieutenant Colonel Ed Lukas from Kingston Pennsylvania ( shown in photo below dated 1974) who was assigned the station call sign of K3DYU / AA3DYU and it will now be my honor to continue to broadcast his call over the great airwaves with equipment that he once operated himself. It gives me a great feeling when I key down on some of his radio equipment that I obtained from him over the years. Ed’s dedicated involvement with the community, civil defense, emergency management and Army MARS network to name only a few and his fast paced forward movement of the advancement of amateur radio was relentless.

     Prior to meeting Ed my interest in radio communications had well begun. I built my first crystal set at the age of 10 using a double edge razor blade and the lead from a pencil for the detector. I acquired an Allied R-100A communications receiver through Ed at the around the age of 12 ( to me at the time this set was better than a collins ) and started working in a Radio / TV repair shop at the age of 12. Was an avid SWL up until 1995 when I obtained my Tech licence and then went General in 2008. I have spent 36 years of my life working in the field of electrical construction and electronic repair and hold a degree in electronics engineering. Due to the past history and the never ending changes regarding the field of electronics I will always be stuck in the learning mode with radio communications being my number one hobby.

      I found out when I was 13 what safety really meant while attempting to ground out and disconnect the fly-back transformer output anode lead from the CRT which was still carrying a charge of 25,000 volts DC. The method of performing this task of removing the stored high voltage charge from the CRT at the time (and which was taught to me) was to use two insulated long shank steel screw drivers for your only tools. The method called for touching the blade of of one screw driver blade to the grounded metal TV chassis while holding it vertical and than slide the second screw driver shank in a horizontal motion while making contact with both screw driver shanks and than to touch the high voltage anode connection on the back of the CRT with the other screw driver blade for proper high voltage discharge. When I made the unfortunate mistake of becoming part of the ground path, I cleared another full size 28 inch floor model console TV at the time of blast off that was behind me which was also awaiting repair. My advice to anyone working with live voltage is to keep one hand in your back pocket when you find yourself having to work alone or taking readings on killer circuits but also try to have someone standing by to provide first aid or call for help if needed.

     At the moment you will find me on 80 through 10 meters, SSB, using an assortment of equipment. On the main desk at the time is Yaesu FT-101ZD (thanks Ed), a Swan 700CX, a Icom IC-729, a Ten-Tec Triton II, and a Heathkit HW-101 which are all locked and loaded and ready to go or whatever I find, repair, align and put on the air. Nine out of ten times it will have tubes of course.

     Matching networks consist of a MFJ-949E deluxe versa tuner II, Drake MN7 and a Dentron super tuner ( still working on getting the system to work without the tuners but I have not been able to get it just right). Antenna’s in the air at the time consist of a center fed 4 to1 dipole for 80 meters and a 1979 era Butternut HF5V-III vertical from off the ground with 16 radials for 80 through 10 meter work.

     Just over the last year I have able to make 524 contacts in 34 states and 43 countries running a maximum of 300 watts PEP and with 50 % of the those contacts being made running 100 watts PEP or less. There have been less than ten stations that I was able to receive but I could not talk back to and around 50 % of them were in pile up’s.

     The vintage test equipment below is what I keep my vintage communications gear up and running.

     Hope to work you again down the log and continue to work safe.

     73's. Jim