Picture here is installation of one of my towers. I hand dug the hole It was all large potato-sized basalt rocks. It was originally for a Rohn 25 tower. At that time of the project, I found a localclub website adfor used Rohn 45 tower so I enlarged the hole to accomodate a larger hole for 45 vs. the original 25.

Main top picture is new Force 12 Magnum 620 yagi which is a pile-up breaker. Cool clouds at sunset.

QSL POLICY: NO EQSL or QRZ.com exchanges, only ARRL LOTW or regular QSL cards which the ARRL DXCC/WAS/VUCC program will accept.

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I MOVED IN MAY, 2006 - 25 MILES NW OF MY PRIOR ADDRESS ON 27TH AVENUE IN SPOKANE VALLEY, WA. I WENT TO 20 ACRES TO GET AWAY FROM THE PREVIOUS POWER LINE INTERFERENCE.

Married to Peggy - W7PEG.

First Licensed as KN7AWB in Osburn, Idaho in July, 1957 using a Knight T-50 transmitter & National SW-54 receiver. The Novice test was given by Al William Beck W7EQM of Page, Idaho whose initials are, yes, AWB. What a coincidence.  See the statiion circa 1958 in B & W.

I was spending too much of my study time with amateur radio at the University of Arizona when a friend said I should use my knowledge to make money. I decided to study at dinner in the Student Union and passed my Extra Class ham exam. Also, I passed the Radio Telephone First Class exam (May 13, 1965) and Radio Telegraph 2nd class exam, both with radar endorsements.

Later, I got a job using my commercial ticket at my home town AM radio station in the Summer of 1965 at KWAL, Osburn, Idaho (620 KHz); then on to KHOS AM radio (940 KHz) in Tucson from September 1, 1965 to March 1, 1966,and KGUN television (channel 9) in Tucson from January 24, 1966 to March 17, 1967. Finally, 6 years at KREM television (channel 2) in Spokane.

Would you believe that sometime in 1965 or 1966 from Tucson, AZ, I picked up KREM TV (channel 2), located in Spokane, on my color tv set hooked to the biggest VHF TV antenna made at the time up on a 50 foot slip up mast. That preview of KREM brought me the job in 1967, 1400 miles away. Of course, we know now it was Es prop on 54-60 MHz, channel 2.

Regarding my previous power line interference, the power line noise got up to S9+5 on HF frequencies. When one pole's hardware was fixed, another one of similar age took its place.

At one time, all my four children had call letters so all 6 of us were a 100% Ham Family. Still licensed are Michael N7LIT & Steve KA7DFJ. See Feb 1993 QST, page 11.

Current major interests are getting up some towers for future Meteor Scatter and EME, grid collecting on 6 meters, finishing up for my 5BDXCC,and contesting. Picture below is the Force 12 6-element Magnum 620 yagi in a wind storm. Antenna above it is a M2 2M5WL 17-element 2-meter yagi.

Past President of: Spokane DX Association K7SDX --- http://www.sdxa.org

Member of: Pacific NorthWest VHF Society PNWVHFS (member #114) -- http://www.pnwvhfs.org/

AWARDS:

5BWAS #126 - Got the plaque on August 23, 1972.

WAS - 17 METERS - Got the certificate on 05/31/2005.

WAS - 160 METERS #1034 - Got the certificate in May, 2009.

WAS - 12 METERS - Got the certificate on July 28, 2010.

WAS - 6 METERS #1353 - Got the certificate on July 28, 2010.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

VUCC - 6 meters #1321 (for 477 grids)

DXCC

mixed #38292

phone

cw

10 meters

12 meters

15 meters

17 meters

20 meters

30 meters

40 meters.

ARRL DXCC Challenge Award for 1000 band countries on August 19, 2010

10-10 #73457

SMIRK #6596 on 6 meters

ARRL - life member - and 50+ years of continuous membership!

 

CONTEST PLAQUES WON:

NW Division 2009 June ARRL VHF contest - 1st place Multiop category

7QP (7 land QSO Party) 2012 - High power, Single Operator - 1st place Digital category

 

Glad to QSL, but please SASE (USA) or $1 (foreign) as I am retired!!! NO EQSL or QRZ.com exchanges please. Also, I use LOTW always.

See another picture of me in the September, 2005 QST, page 105.

Occupation: Retired on July 7, 2004.

QSL manager for W2SS and W7PEG.

Hondo the Dog