I became a Novice ham in late 1959 (8th grade), after being inspired by George Botsford, K0UWK, of Ainsworth, Nebraska. I was active on 80 meter CW, 75 meter AM, ragchewing after school and handling traffic in the national traffic system. I was net control for the NEB CW traffic net for several years, and occasionally went to TEN, the tenth region net.
In graduate school I became active on 2 meter FM in Southern California with the call WB6NXE, and participated in some public service events with the Baldwin Park AREC/RACES group. My gear was the Hammarlund FM-50 rockbound business band radio suitably modified.
I started to get active again in 2005 and now have a Yaesu FT897D and Kenwood TH-D7A(G). I listen a lot to 75 meter SSB, 40 meter CW and 2 meter/70cm FM repeaters in the Denver area. The narrow city lot we live on isn't conducive to a fullsize 80m dipole, so I have the Alpha-Delta DX-DD 80-40 dipole in inverted vee configuration. For VHF-UHF I have the Diamond X-50 gain antenna.
I have several Iron Horse ham sticks for mobile work with my 86 Jeep Grand Wagoneer. One contact I particularly valued was one on 20m SSB with K9MOT, a special event station celebrating the 75th anniversary of Motorola.
In addition to the HF ham sticks, I have a magnet-mount dual-band 2m/70cm, and an experimental NVIS antenna. Below are photos of my antennas.
Stations: First, high school in the 60s; Second, current in
portable operation
Very first station, in the basement of the Ainsworth, NE,
Methodist parsonage, 1960
