I started in Amateur Radio in 1990. I had wanted to for a while, knowing that both of my grandfathers had been very active many years ago. My first call was KC6QFS. After moving to Colorado in 1992, I changed my call to N0VLF. In April, 2008, I obtained my grandfather's call, W6ANF, and then upgraded to General on April 19, 2008. On March 31, 2009, I finally upgraded to Extra Class.  I am a member of El Paso County RACES and serve as their Station Manager.  See K0EPC for more information.  The photo at the very top is me on top of the 120' CMRG tower at the top of 9,500' Cheyenne Mountain near Colorado Springs (visible in the distance below the mountain).

One of my grandfathers was Erwin Holcomb 6CCY-SK. He was very active in the 1920's. He also used the call 6APJ for portable ops.  I still have most of his original licenses and ARRL certificates. I also have a couple of hundred of his QSL cards from the 20's. He started at age 14!  He was active from Riverbank, California.  One of his "U6CCY" QSL cards is shown here.  The treaty signed in 1928 that formally established call sign prefixes for all countries put an end to the "U" prefix for United States call signs, and his call was changed to W6CCY.  I have no records of him actually being active under that call sign, though.  When he was around 15 years old (1923), he built the little wooden box seen here to keep in QSL cards in.  I still have the box and am still using it for that purpose.  He hand painted his home call, 6CCY on the front.  On the back he had his portable call, 6APJ.

My other grandfather was Rollo McMorran W6ANF-SK. He was active in the 1930's and 1940's, with a break during the war. I have several photos of his shack, a collection of his QSL cards, and some of his equipment including a big boat anchor RCA receiver (an AR-88) and his morse code bug.  The photo at the top of this narrative is of his station in the 1940's, after WWII. I still have the headphones at the left corner of the chair, the CW bug at the right edge of the desk, and the "W6ANF" name plate on the radio, which now sits on the top of my radio! (see photo of my station)

I'm running a Kenwood TS-2000 barefoot, with a DX-EE multi-band dipole in the attic (have worked New Zealand, ZL3RG, with 50 watts, 7,680 miles). For 2m and 70cm I use a Cushcraft AR270. I also run a Cushcraft 124WB 4-element beam for 2m ssb.  No need to rotate it in this neck of the woods.  We all just point our 2m beams at 14,115' Pikes Peak and let it reflect the signal for us.  Works sweet!  No antenna for 6m yet...

I also am using a Yaesu VX-8R handheld set up to run APRS as well. 

I enter most HF contacts into LoTW. All direct QSL's will be answered with a QSL!  Foreign QSL's may be sent either direct or via the burro.  I do appreciate collecting paper QSL cards.  Someday passing on a link to some website or an electronic spreadsheet to my sons or grandkids just doesn't carry the same thrill as a nice box of QSL's from strange and exotic lands far, far away.  If you have an old QSL collection, I would be interested in knowing if you have any old cards from W6ANF, 6CCY or 6APJ.  I'm also willing to go through all of mine (around 550 mostly from the 1920's and some from the 30's and 40's) if you are looking for someone in particular.  You may also view my collection by clicking here.

73's Rick