Talked to a long lost friend today

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67Dart273

67Dart273

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This started as sadness for someone.

I was reading my amateur radio mag, "QST" and looking through the "silent keys" the guys who have gone "SK"

And I see a familiar name, but I wasn't sure.

So I did some Googling and it turns out NOT to be my old friend, but I DID find him and a phone no. so called him up and we proceeded to yak for 2 hours.!!!

This is one of the guys who went to Navy Electronics Technician "A" school at Treasure Island in the SF Bay. We knew each other through the station amateur radio club, K6NCG

http://www.qsl.net/w6cp/k6ncg/k6ncg.html

A photo I'd never seen before, skinny young "me" headed S from N. Idaho to NAS Miramar, spring of '70. I had just bought the 63 327 SS

Last Chivy before the Mopars, LOL

Hams_011.jpg


k6ncg_hams.html
 
Very cool Del! :thumbrig:. It's amazing how today's technology can hook us up with things/people from the past.
 
Nice story, glad you made an old connection Del, BTW, cool picture :glasses7:
 
Best part is, he knows some of the guys I'd forgotten, I'll have to look them up as well.

I can't tell which guy is which, but one of 'em goin' up this tower is me. Today is the first I've seen these particular photos. I thought this tower was 120' but it's only 110, LOL. Notice the lack of full body harnesses. Only belts. Notice we are "free climbing," something that is frowned on today and has cost lives.


http://www.qsl.net/w6cp/k6ncg/k6ncg_tower.html

Tower_001.jpg


Tower_002.jpg


Yurs truly on top of the tower. I don't remember Bob taking this

Hams_018.jpg
 
Cool! My Dad went through that school - about 25 years before you, though. :)
 
Great pictures, Del. Thanks for sharing.
 
I read the Sk list every month before anything else in QST. Are you still active and what is your call? Call here is K9RO and spend most of my time on the low end of 160m,although it has been VERY slow this season.

'73,Bruce
 
Wow, that is very cool! I love those pics.....free climbing and snapping a few pics too? Priceless! Nice to see you found a long lost friend.....that's neat.
 
great pics Del bet there is not enough money in the world to make me go up there.
 
BARNEY'S CAR said:
I read the Sk list every month before anything else in QST. Are you still active and what is your call? Call here is K9RO and spend most of my time on the low end of 160m,although it has been VERY slow this season.

'73,Bruce
Click to expand...

I have not been very active last couple of years. I "was born" WN, about 1965, then WA7CGX at the time of my Navy years. That lapsed, then I got retreaded as N7JAU, and finally, W7DJM

(Don't look for me on QRZ, "I ain't there.")

I have some fairly serious power lines down the alley, and live on a small lot. With the advent of all the microprocessor controlled crap, and the non-caring attitude of the local utility (Avista) and the FCC, the RF noise floor has become very bad. Most of the time I cannot hear anything on 160, or even 80/75. This is a change in the last 10--15 years. I used to regularly contact guys in the evening on 75.

I bought a Yaesu "Mark V Field" to try and combat the noise, but it's largely ineffective. It distorts signals so badly that it takes all the enjoyment out. I really should sell it before it drops too much in value.

And as you know the last cycle didn't really get off the ground. I've been "doing other things" and missed some sporadic openings. The irony is that I finally a few years ago got a good tower up. Have a nice old 6M beam, and a big Wilson "System One" that I got...................sadly..............because of a


TOWER CLIMBING ACCIDENT

The victim was climbing a tower for another amateur in Spokane which turned out to have been improperly guyed by a huge degree. Evidently he was part way up and the tower came down. He was killed. His widow had my then boss and two of us take down his tower. She told us to divide it up between us


My tower. I made a homebuilt Glen Martin "Hazer." I ordered the six pieces from Martin which wrap around the tower, cost me about 50 bucks, and built the rest

Like this one, not mine

IMG_3259.jpg


Cushcraft 6M is six elements, Wilson tri bander is 4 + 1 more on 10M

attachment.php


6ycmy1.jpg
 
Have been pretty active here on the low bands the last few years (281 worked on 160 and 300 on 75/80) but the quality of operators and the low bands being so bad has slowed me some lately. On 65 acres here 140 ft rotating tower with kt34xa 3 stack and 3el 40. Have a 7el 6m beam at 100ft and a 6el at fifty on a separate tower along with a th7dxx. Four square for 80 and 130 ft vertical for 160. A few years back myself and K9DX (John Battin) built the first 9el receive only array out back about 1700ft from the house and it switches receive in 8 directions.Since then a couple different companies now offer them for sale but we were a couple years ahead of them.Not sure what is a bigger waste of money the cars or the radio's.

'73
 
LOL You're the guy "I love to hate." Lots of land and room to farm antennas, LOL

Noise floor is so bad here I can't even find the source. It radiates up and down the alley on the power lines, so finding the source is nearly impossible. About 10 years ago I spent months fiddling with loops and other DF stuff trynna track it down. I soon found out our POS power company just won't stand up on their end. Obviously, if I had the money I'd either sue them or move.

FCC is about useless. In the late 90's I worked for a Motorola SS for awhile, installing and upgrading E911 telco/ radio and other special projects. We had a "big box" store move to Spokane, and they hired a guy for security who went out and bought a bunch of junk on ebay and put it on the air. Took us MONTHS of letter writing to them and the FCC to get them the hell off the air. They were illegally on one of our customer's frequencies.
 
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