Ham Radio

Here are pictures of Nancy and I in our ham shack.

The radios on the desk allow us to contact friends all over the world. It is a fun hobby that we both have enjoyed for many years.





The picture on the left is our antennas which are located about 90 feet above ground. This is a commerical tower and is motor operated. The tower weighs over 2000 pounds so a motor is required to raise and lower it. This can be done either at the tower or the ham station control point. The picture on the right is the tower base. We used over 11 yards of concrete to secure the base, motors and tower.
The white tube contains the cables to our ham station.
The rating on this tower, with a full complement of antennas, will withstand over 100mph winds. The antennas are rated at 120mph winds.
Ham operators are patriotic and all of their skills and equipment are always ready for service to country and community.

During the year Ham Operators, world wide, using all of his equipment and antennas, participates in International events to further his operating and technical skills.


The picture to the right shows our award for
making contact with all 50 states during our
bicentennial year 1976. I am very proud of this
award as we were number 27 of thousands of hams
that were in the contest.


In the above picture there are certificates for making contact with the Fishpedition of Wallon Lake and the USS Arizona Memorial. The Arizona certificate is in the upper left of this picture. The Wallon Lake is bottom left and upper right. The upper right is Nancy's Certificate for this contest.


The picture on the right is for the first year we worked the
US Navy Museum ships contest. That year we made contact
with 18 Ships. In June 2010 we worked 30 US Navy Memorial ships. There were about 80 ships participating in the contest. I was in the Navy 10 years, so this felt like home talking to all the sailors. Lots of fun.




The Amateur Radio Relay League, our International Ham Radio Organization sponsored an emergency preparedness exercise. Our station along with many others were "on the air" and activated on New Years Eve and New Year's Day 2000. Many of us were concerned that the software we were using might not work after midnight. Remember all the talk about computers crashing at midnight New Years Eve 2000. Our system preformed flawlessly.

The two middle certificates are the FCC license for Nancy and Myself. The far left certificate is for making contact with the Trenton Mid Summer Festival in Trenton Michigan.


The picture on the left is a certificate that Nancy earned as the 57th checkin for the Old Buzzard First Day First Net Award. There were a total of 67 checkins that received these certificates. My certificate is on the right. Number 35.






The Picture on the left is in celebration of Americas 400th anniversary. This award is from Jamestown VA and their statewide partners. They were celebrating Jamestowns existence from 1607 to 2007. It is hard to see but the background of the certificate is a 1612 Map of Virgina drawn by Captain John Smith

The certificate on the right is our membership to the Famous Rooster Net. This net has met for over 50 years at 6AM every morning. That's right just about every day we are up between 5am and 6 so we can check in and talk with hams everywhere. My member number is 1205.

This certificate is positioned right above my operating position, and next to my favorite train clock. The exact position is shown in the picture just above.


The middle certificiates are from the Department of the Navy awarding me for perfect copy of CW and Radio Teletype during armed forces day 1962. What is especially nice is that both certificates were personnally signed with a note to me, by Commander Kunz, Office of Naval Communications. The certificate on the right is for perfect copy of 30 words per minute CW (Code) by the ARRL.


The certificate on left is from the Laura Ingalls Wilder Special Events station in South Dakota. She wrote a series of books including "Little House on the Prairie"

The certificate on the right represents our stations contacts with foreign countries. The ham calls these countries DX and we currently have over 240 confirmed. This is a small number when compared to those who actively pursue DX Contacts. At the moment there are about 340 countries on the DX list. Many ham operators have worked all of them. Some only need one or two.

To confirm contacts with any amateur station we exchange QSL cards verifying the contact. The picture to the left is a small sample of the ones we have received. Today many hams use the Logbook of the World. This is a electronic method of confirming contacts and is managed by the ARRL. The Amateur Radio Relay League provides many services for Hams Worldwide.

In my ham shack, next to our operating position, are examples of tubes that were used in my Broadcast Engineering Days. The red. socket tube in the back on the left is a Image Orthicon. This was one of the very first camera tubes I changed. This one required a lot of engineering setup to make it work perfectly. The other tubes represent all the cameras from 1960 until present. The only tube not here is a High Definition Tube. Those tubes are new and had not worn out before my retirement.

The two awards on the right I am extremely proud of. These are Good Operating Awards issued by Official Amateur Radio Observers. These observers scan the amateur bands looking for exceptional operating procedures by Hams World Wide. These awards were issued in 2002 and 2004 and they have a special spot on our wall.

Thanks for letting me show off some of our ham radio stuff. I have enjoyed this hobby for over 55 years. I started in High School and our Physics Teacher Mr Rhoton helped us along. Nancy has been an Ham almost 30 years.

Look at our introduction page, in the June entry, for other web sites we have created.

Have a great day

73