I was first licensed in Lexington, KY in 1961 as WN4CTC and upgraded to General a year later. In 1974 I upgraded again to Extra class. My first rig was a Hallicrafters S-120 and a Johnson Viking Adventurer. It was fun staying up all night to work DX ( California ). I later upgraded to many different Heathkits and finally settled on a Drake C line while in Lexington.

In 1976 I transfered to Ft. Lauderdale, FL as a Customer Engineer with IBM. In Florida I joined the South Florida DX Club, put up a 70' tower and several antennas. After a lightning strike, I upgraded to a Kenwood TS-940 sat. In 1990 I transfered again to Atlanta, GA with Service Education and retired from IBM in 1993 after 28 years of service. In Georgia I put up an 85 ft. tower with a KT34XA and 402CD. I moved back to FL in 1995, acquired a 2 acre plot of land in West Palm Beach, build a house and put up a 100' tower with the XA and 402. After passing up the vanity call allocation in 1976, I decided to apply for a vanity call in 1996 and received K4LM, my first choice.

In 2005 hurricane Wilma hit West Palm Beach ( I even went out side when the eye was over our house ). The front side of the hurricane did no damage, but the back side folded my 100' tower at the 60' level dropping the afore mentioned antennas. My smaller 50' tower did OK but the wind stripped the elements off my KT34A. I left the tower at 60' and salvaged enough KT parts to make a KT34A and put it on the 60' tower.

I added a Kenwood TS-590s to the station in 2012. My amp is an old Denny Amp (LK-500) made for a local radio store owner WA4RFC. It has a pair of 3-500s that are over 30 years old and a weak power supply, but it still puts out 1000 watts. Using Yagi for Windows I built a 5 element beam for 6 meters, raised the 50 ft tower to 60 ft and put the 6 meter antenna on a 10ft mast with a TH6DXX under it. The 6 meter antenna works great.

I raised the 60 footer to 70 ft and put an old Force12 12/17 up at 80 ft and put a Yagi for Windows designed 4el 20 under the 12/17.  On the low bands I use an extended double zepp for 40 meters (165').  It works great on 160 thur 30 meters.  I built a Waller Flag and put it on a 24 ft tower (now raised to 35') and now have to find all my noise sources.  Installed an inverted "L" on the 70ft tower for 160 and have 2 raised radials so far, need to add 2 more.

I now have 9 band DXCC (160-10) and the honor roll with 335/347.  Still working on the Waller Flag but it does help on 160 - 30 meters.  Still climb towers but don't know how much longer.  At least the WF is on a 35' tower.

73, Vant K4LM