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KK5R ROBERT B LUNSFORD, JR 3 May Drive in Dixie Addition, PO BOX 606 Salyersville, KY 41465 USA Lookups:   2558 Ham Member
Email: Login required to view QSL: QSL MAILING ADDRESS INFO: PO BOX 606, SALYERSVILLE, KY 41465

QRZ Record: 395049 Login to manage/edit Lookups: 2558 (2699) Mailing Label... QRZ Admin: KK5R Last Update: 2009-11-08 18:52:58 Class: Extra Codes: HAI Effective: 2008-09-13 Expires: 2016-02-09Apply for a Vanity callsign... Latitude: 37.747592 (37° 44' 51'' N) Longitude: -83.075137 (83° 4' 30'' W) Grid Square: EM87lr US State: Kentucky US County: Magoffin Previous: WB5QGI Born: 1942 GMT Offset: -5 hours ULS Record: 612506 FCC page... Web Page: http://nocrud.com QSL Info: QSL MAILING ADDRESS INFO: PO BOX 606, SALYERSVILLE, KY 41465 QSL by Mail?: No (e.g. Will this ham QSL by Postal Mail?) QSL by eQSL?: No (e.g. Will this ham QSL with eQSL?) Uses LOTW?: No (e.g. Does this ham use ARRL's LOTW ?) Admin For: (1) KK5R

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KK5R -- Former calls: WB4DPG, WB5QGI

OMISS # 6452

NOTE: For QSL mailings, please use PO Box only as follows:

BOB LUNSFORD — KK5R
PO BOX 606
SALYERSVILLE KY 41465

General Background:

Started studying electronics in 1955
Mayo State Vocational and Technical School (Radio & TV)
Lexington Technical Institute (part of the University of KY)
University of Kentucky in Lexington, KY
Central Texas College in Killeen, TX
FCC Licensed Broadcast Engineer (First Class Radiotelephone,
now General Radiotelephone: PG1023110 date converted 03/04/1987)

Lived in Brazil and Peru (son of a missionary on the Amazon) and also in Panama for about six months. Attended three Morse code schools in Brazil and one in Peru. Returned to USA in December, 1961 and joined US Army in 1962 as an ASA Morse Intercept Operator, attaining 28WPM. However, was soon transferred to a language pool to be a Portuguese and Spanish translator/interpreter for remaining time of 3-year Army duty. Still fluent in Spanish and Portuguese and can get lost and found again in French.

Retired from the US Government after 31 years of service. Last duty was as a Telecommunications Specialist for the Television-Audio Support Activity (T-ASA) in Sacramento but that organization has since relocated to Southern California.

Some Places Worked:

IBM Engineering Development Laboratory, Office Products Division

University of KY Physics Department Electronics Shop

US Government as electronic technician, equipment specialist, telecommunications specialist and telecommunications engineer. Worked in systems and production engineering, engineering prototyping and design, procuring and setting up computer systems for other government organizations, programming satellite transponders and installing English Language Laboratories in other countries through US Embassies.

After retirement, I went in China to teach English for four years but I'm now back in Kentucky, at least for a while. Still have hopes of either going back to China to teach or moving to Texas, if that doesn't come about.

Hobbies (including Ham Radio):

My many hobbies include photography, flying, writing books and magazine articles and some others but Amateur Radio remains the most-liked hobby. Antenna experimentation is the main adventure, HF is the name of the game. The present goal is to establish regular skeds with son (N5DIM) in Sacramento. This is why more antenna work is in the forecast.

What's happening today:

Station consists of a Yaesu FT-450AT and a Swan SS200 that I mostly use mobile on 40M and 80M with plans to use on 20M, also. I also have a Heath SB-200 HF amplifier that has been reworked by my friend K4ZHM and has full output on 80M and 40M with less than 50W of drive from the 450. It needs some input tuning for use on 20M thru 10M when using solid state rigs but will perform as designed with older tube rigs. K4ZHM installed on the SB-200 inrush turn-on protection, solid state relay for use with modern solid state transcievers and circuit to bias the amp's plate current to "off" when no modulation is present. Runs a bit over 600W!!! Not bad for an amplifier that is about 40 years old. New 572B's also do not hurt the amp's operation.

QRP: My first radio was a Heath HW-7 followed soon thereafter by an HW-8. I also got some Tentec Powermites. As my appetite grew, I then "progressed" to a Tentec Argonaut 505 and later the addition of a 405 50W output amplifier. Somehow, after all those Tentecs, I got more into Heathkits and bought nearly everything Heath had for the ham including an HW-104 that was completely upgraded in all ways to an SB-104. Amps were the SB-200 and Dentron GLB-1000 (for a very short time!). Mostly, however, my love was with the QRP radios since it more closely resembled my mental picture of a ham, in the middle of the night, huddled over his pile of electronics, working the world. Years passed and so did the radios. Just a few months ago, however, I ran across an old friend, with whom I had been out of touch for many years, at a hamfest. Lo and behold, he had a Powermite 3A (40 & 20M) and an Argonaut 505. Mint condition, too. And, they were on my mind for days... I got in touch with him and now they are mine! Plans are to get them on my station logs and enjoy the heck out of them. In fact, another ham friend (about 70 miles away) and I were on 3636.36 KHz and I switched over to the Argonaut and we talked a few minutes. He said it sounded good with my showerhead mike and I'm guessing it was running somewhere around 2W output at the time, perhaps a bit more, into the B&W antenna. My friend said it sounded just a little weak. Well, OK, a lot weak. But he could still hear me. Yep, those QRP radios can do the job.

I also have an FT-2800M on 2M and usually monitor 52S for emergency needs of anyone passing through. Lately, though, I've been monitoring the local KB4SQI repeater on 145.19 (- 127.3) where there are many interesting people with HF in their blood.

Antennas are a GAP Titan and a B&W folded dipole antenna at 35-ft. The B&W is the most-used (full coverage on all bands from 80M thru 10M resulting in no tune-up when changing bands/frequencies; 160M through the transmatch). Sometimes, especially on 20M (maybe 10-percent of the time), the GAP antenna works a bit better because it is non-directional compared to the B&W antenna. However, the B&W antenna does not show pronounced directivity on HF.

Also have a "hamstick dipole" up about 30-ft for 6M but need a bandpass filter to stop operation on 6M from disturbing the cable TV's in the house. Tried running an outside ground but it did not help. Just another area that needs attention. Surprisingly, though, I found the GAP antenna runs with little interferrence to the Cable TV system but it is only good for the lower 1MHz of 6M, still in the most-active part of the band. Must be the vertical polarization since the feedline is RG-58 -- wonder if the attenuation in the coax has anything to do with it??? Nah, couldn't be!

Antennas are low because I live in a hole... It's in the river bottoms. Used to flood every year but no more flooding after the state cleared out the river beds. The only good thing is that the ground system is great due to being so water-saturated. Still don't know how to make the best use of it yet, though.

Several QRP projects are also in process or the planning stage of building. Had an MFJ 7440 QRP SSB/CW radio but it failed the most-usefulness test. If I'm going to have a radio, even a QRP radio, I want it to cover a whole band and preferibly several bands. Hope to get an Elecraft K1 or KX1 -- it is very hard to decide which one will serve best my interests in QRP. Friends have the K2 and K3 and love them so the K1 is holding strong in my mind but not just for a band or two so accessory options will be the order of the day.

 Having a ball but too much DX has already slipped by! Have to get back to the mike. Later, I plan to get back to the key with equal determination. Not too much later, either.