ABOVE: My hamshack / office mascot, "Molly". (The Unsinkable Brown Molly!)

[Sorry - Molly now SK (She was caught "pounding the brass" more than once!!) - Note date on photo -2004!  But have Felix ("Turkish Van" Cat), Sheba (European Shorthair), and - my "Rig Warmer" - the little "Tortie" Cat - Sasha (She's the "Baby")]  2015  - Sad to report, Felix now SK - joins his brother, Oscar.

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JAMES (ABOVE) - FORMAL NAME - BUT I GO BY "JIM" ON AIR.

If I don't come back with your name - please forgive me (& give it to me!)  PC in another

room, and memory is poor!  Paper logs here.  Real "OT" - hi!

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I QSL100%. Trying to catch up on bureau and eQSL's after job which included extensive travel and time from home. If you have not gotten a reply to a direct QSL, or need a quick reply to a bureau-sent QSL or eQSL, please e-mail me.  I will tend to it immediately.  Otherwise, it will remain in the "queue".

IF YOU SEND ME A QSL DIRECT, I WILL REPLY ASAP (Print QSLs in blocks of 4 - may take a day or two.). SASE, IRCs etc. NOT Required!!! Domestic or DX. Just send me your card!!

MORE ON QSL POLICY: Please see "P. P. S." at bottom.

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SORRY - NO FACEBOOK, LINKED-IN ETC. NOTHING PERSONAL.  BURNED OUT ON ALL THIS NEW SOCIAL MEDIA STUFF - ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!!  I DRAW THE LINE AT E-MAILS - AND WAY, WAY TOO MANY OF THEM! (All ham radio related e-mails welcome though!) (And I bet CW outlives all this internet stuff!!! Yes, we dinosaurs still roam the earth!!)

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DENTON ARTS & JAZZ FESTIVAL - 2015 April 24-26

SPECIAL QSL for this SPECIAL EVENT

See www.dentonjazzfest.com

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Born May 1945.

Got into our hobby as follows: When I was a third grader in Fresno CA, my folks gave me an old "All-American Five" AM radio - you remember - all the filaments added up to 120 VAC! (12SA7, 12SK7, 12SQ7, 50L6, 35Z5 - if memory fails me not!) One nite, was tuning for some good music - found some Dixieland jazz. Announcer sez: "You are tuned to WWL New Orleans!!" Got Dad to help me find it on the map - grabbed a sheet of paper, and marked down all the data: CBS, 870, 50kW (they gave you the specs at midnite in those days!). That was the first of many entries. Then, my older cousin gave me a crystal set. Dad helped me put an "aerial" on the roof (he called all capacitors "condensors" too!!) - pretty neat! Listened to the FRESNO SUN SOX (In between Cardinals and Giants) on KYNO (I think it was the same 5kW station in Fresno some fella on the Mary Tyler Moore show got his start in broadcasting with!! - later got my start there as "babysitter" with 1st 'fone working my way thru college.  Still later, was engineer at KWIP and KYOS, both in Merced.). Thought I was pretty coy, sneakin' the old single Trimm earphone under the pillow after "lights out"!! Didn't find out for decades later that Dad knew all along (did the same when he was a kid, listening to KFI Los Angeles from Rochester, NY)- but he never let on to Mom!! Well, I figured that, if that "aerial" did so well on that crystal set, how would it do on my AM radio?? Somehow, in hooking it up, I managed to short out part of that loop antenna (which doubled as the mixer coil), and got up on the other side of the local oscillator - or harmonic thereof - 'cuz I heard "CQ 20!" (most guys on AM - not SSB - back in '56!). Heard KG6AAY on Guam working a local chap - decided I was gonna get in on this some day!!!!! Someone gave me an old ARRL Handbook - read it cover to cover one summer, making sure I fully understood one paragraph before moving to the next. Took longer to find someone to practice CW with - was just a hurdle to pass - but finally got connected to an "Elmer" to give me the test (Lloyd, W6CUL, came over under pretense of giving me code practice. Took my copy, congratulated me on passing CW portion of novice, and handed me the written exam!) - licensed Wv6TZN back in '61. First rig was home brew 6AG7 - 807. (Couldn't afford to buy one!!) First RX was RME-69. First antenna - 40M dipole - 14 gauge copper wire courtesy of local electric shop (screwed up motor rewind - said if I could untangle the mess, the wire was mine!!) Those were the days!! Once I got on CW, I really enjoyed it - got into NTS (NCS on NCN, liaison NCN/RN6 and RN6/PAN back in 60's - W6YKS (now K6YK) and K6LRN were regulars on NCN! - now QNI TEX CW) and CW contesting. Been 95% CW ever since!!! Went thru a spell of repeater building (2M & 440 /r's back in San Jose from old discarded MoTracs, RCA-700, etc.) but got burned out on that and came back to CW with a new twist - QRP!! Those first few QRP contacts had the same thrill as my first novice QSO's!!! If you haven't tried it - don't wait!!

"Old guy" - OT - now! After college, spent 6 years in USN ("Nuke" "rod-puller" on submarines). Retired USNR as ETC(SS). Settled in Silicon Valley - raised 3 kids, have six grandkids, one great-granddaughter, and wonderful XYL, Shirley. Life has been good, the Lord has blessed. Moved from 6-land to TX for job in '93 (Arlington first, then Denton in '99). Now "Semi-retired" as manufacturer's rep for industrial instrumentation on part-time basis from small office in home. Treated the "empty nest" syndrome by filling the house with four cats (what can I say - XYL & I just like the li'l critters. To me, they prove that God has a sense of humor!!!) & young people from local universities (two in Denton - U of NT, and Texas Womans U.) - they like the XYL's FB cookin' & li'l Bible study afterwards.

So listen for the ol' "Low Flyin' Buzzard's" li'l peanut-whistle sig on the QRP part of the CW bands!!! (FISTS #8597 by the way - more fun!!) Also SKCC (#445), NAQCC (#498). Pumpin' old Navy J-37 off old WWII minesweeper!  Or my Vibroplex Presentation "Bug" (S/N 262859) acquired from the old ham radio store in the Ala Moana Center in Honolulu during my stint as KH6HAM (see below).

Former calls: WA1KQN, WA6TZN, WB6JLX, K7UHM, KH6HAM (Original issue: opr. from Navy Housing, Pearl Harbor HI - 1969-72.  The chap listed for KH6HAM on QRZ.com came much later, long after I left KH6.).

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ALL OPERATIONS LOW POWER, 75 WATTS OR LESS (90 watts if needed in real nasty pileups!) - OFTEN QRP - SIMPLE, LOW-COST WIRE ANTENNAE:

G5RV - 80M INV. "V" DIPOLE - WIRE V-BEAM (Aimed Northeast, but also major lobe to SW - no resistance termination) (See March, 2011 QST - P.30) Erected in a couple hours just hours before the start of the Feb. 2011 DX 'test. (Added NW x SE V-beam later). Modest city lot. High DX: $ spent ratio (Kinda like Texas Rangers - as vs. New York Yankees - hi hi!! : ) - Sorry, W2 folks!). Rely on patience & skill built up over 54 years, and just plain luck. One is forced to develop skill and patience when one doesn't have a PA and ten elements up 100 feet!!!!!!

(Don't get me wrong - I appreciate the chaps who have the youth & energy to put up the big "sky hooks" - allows us "little guns" to rack up a lot DX QSO's in the log while running QRP!!)

UPDATES:  OCTOBER 2014:   Took down antennae for new roof (replace one damaged by spring hail storm).  G5RV (purchased in 1994 after move to TX - only antenna here for many years) ready for retirement.  Removed.  Re-installed wire "V" beams.

NOVEMBER 2014:  Assembled "TexHex" by Textennas of TX.  (29th).  Placed atop roof tripod (30th - in time for HALF of CQ WW CW 'test).  FIRST "ROTATABLE" HF ANTENNA in 53 years as "ham".  Very pleased with it - recommend it to all.  Wire V-beams were big improvement over G5RV (in direction aimed).  But with Tex Hex can now work stations received S3 to S4 while using QRP here, whereas in past, usually could work only stations S6 and up with QRP here (unless QRP also) on the wire V-beams.  Working a lot of DX with as little as HALF A WATT now!! 

Also added 4-element 6M yagi (on roof tripod, apx. 20 feet above ground). 

Wire V-beams damaged by storms - converted to OCF dipole for 30-40-80-160M (avg. 10-12 feet above ground). Plan to replace with delta loop (270 feet to include 160M).

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73, Y'all!!

Jim

P. S. If you have a copy of "Your QRP Operating Companion", check out page 3-12, Fig. 1. Don is knockin' out QSO's on my ol' HW-7!! (QTH in the Santa Cruz Mountains between San Jose & Santa Cruz - not far from epicenter of Loma Prieta "Great 'Quake" of '89 - yep - survived it!!!).  (Circa 1990. Don, W0BXS, now SK, 2013.  RIP / RIJ, Brother.)

P. P. S. - QSL's: I reply 100% to all QSL's received. By direct mail: within a day or 2 under normal circumstances (Travel often in my job as Mfr's rep -industrial instrumentation). FISTS bureau - now officially closed. DX Bureau: Trying to catch up. Some cards / logs temporarily "lost" during last move. Also use e-QSL, but falling behind: can't find time to print 'em all out with current travel sked. Troubles with LOTW - will try it again if & when I ever fully retire! Now also use 3905 CCN QSL Bureaus (Inactive during sunspot cycle peak- mainly "chasing DX"). Will also respond to QRZ.com QSL's. Oct. 2011: Will make a concerted effort this winter to catch up on all bureau QSL's waiting for reply. Then will go to all incoming eQSL's for same. Oct. 2012: Efforts failed: sunspot activity and hot 10 / 12M bands too great a lure! But still slowly whittling away.  Nov. 2015 - STILL whittling away.  Riding out sunspot cycle peak too tempting ("making hay while the sun shines!" - or sunspots prevail!  Plus - possibility of being SK before next peak.)  Wishing I had moved PC into shack with logging program!  But expect to make some real headway once the higher band activity drops off (poor antenna 160-30M - plan not to improve them until all bureau cards - and all others- answered).

Felix and Oscar - RIP, Li'l buddies...