James D. Fish was the original operator/owner of W4FVV, operating from Birmingham, Alabama in 1939. I was born there the following year. During WW 2 this station was shut down/dismantled by the government. Dad's military service was deferred because of his work with Bessemer Steel Industry. His work took the family to Gary Indiana and later to the U.S. Steel Research Center near Pittsburgh Penna. He died in 1976.

160 meters, "the band of choice", as the logbook indicates.

I began my own Ham station as WN3EHN from Irwin, Penn in 1955. Receiver is armchair Zenith mounted in rack with signal generator for a BFO, Transmitter is a home brew 6L6 initially and later an 807 into long wire antenna.

In 1959, in the Air Force operating DSB at Biloxi, Mississippi

In 1962, the White Alice Project stationed on the Aleutian Island of Umnak, the village of Nikolski, operating as W3EHN/KL7

In 1963, after my military services, I moved back home to Irwin, Penn.

Using all mobile equipment, Elmac AF-67 transmitter and PMR-7 receiver. The D-104 is the original microphone from Dad's 1939 operation and my original 1955 station. Although I didn't operate phone until 1959 in the USAF.

In 1964, just after the Alaskan earthquake, I moved to Clear, Alaska as an RCA technician with the BMEWS project. Communications was an important part of my life as I had plenty of time to write foster children in Greece and Hong Kong, family in Pennsylvania and even a pretty young girl that I had met during a mountain hike in the Laurel's of Pennsylvania.

Driving on Alaska's 1250 miles of gravel road, the Alkan Highway gave a new audio feature on the Drake TR-3, (vibrato). Mobiling in Alaska was always a stark contrast from the lower 48, Early morning traffic backed up and stopped on the New Jersey bridge while I too stopped at noon on the road just long enough to allow a moose with her calf to cross my pathway.

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In October of 1966, just before the Nenana River ice stopped all the ferry traffic, RCA government services moved a group of us BMEWS cold weather techs to their AUTEC project on the Island of Andros in the Bahamas. That's where I changed my single status and enjoyed a six month honeymoon at Androstown Yacht Club with the girl that I corresponded with over phone patches and letters since 1964, see her photo on my speaker grill in the picture above.

In 1969, RCA moved us back stateside to their NASA project for the Moon walk. I worked initially during the Moon walk in the Multi-Sat control center as equipment controller. (data handling for about nine different satellite) In 1970 I worked in the Nimbus weather control center transfering the HRIR data and GPS computer generated marks onto film.

In 1971, I moved to South Carolina as K4KFT. I met Jerry C. Garrett living in Anderson on 2 meters while I lived in Easley. After his silent key announcement, I obtained Jerry's (my Daddy's original) call as a vanity assignment and began operating as W4FVV in 1998. Antenna is a Gap Challenger DX vertical. The call sign plates may be seen on my old Honda located in Waynesville, NC as my son Richard has relocated from Thailand.