Member Pics & Bios

WB4OMM in two episodes of his favorite contest—SS.

I’m quite certain this was 1979 CQWW SSB which W9OFV (now K9BO, but lives in Weekie Wachee) and I multi-op’ed. This was back in the stone age when we logged with chisels on stone tablets. "Duping" was, “ah, hell—work ’im again—sounds new.”

As I recall, Bill had a TS-820 and a home brew amp (3-5gazillionZ as I recall). Note to multi-op’ers, take extra underwear—the diode array in the power supply popped off while I was operating. I had to borrow a pair of shorts, and Bill was a big guy.

I believe he had a tri-band quad up not very high for 10-15-20M and he built a half-square just for the contest for 40M. I can’t remember what he had up for 80—neither of us were very well versed on 80 at the time. We were told we were really loud on 40, though.

None of us had a clue about running, so the complete ’test was S&P. We still did around 1K Qs, with Bill and I doing most of the operating. N9CD and I believe K9UN did short stints, too. I was N9AKE at the time.

I’m sure the results are still extant, somewhere, but even though Bill and I had probably 15 years each licensed, we were pretty raw at contesting, and didn’t make much of a dent in the MS category. I had dabbled in a couple other contests and with my ATC background, was able to do pretty well S&Ping, but as I said, we hadn’t learned the value of running yet.

A younger, lighter, hairier K4QG cavorting at W9OFV and sporting N9AKE, the call held for nearly 20 years.

We lived in Aurora, IL (about 40 miles west of the Loop) from 1978 until 1999. I had at least 60' of tower up from the first Spring. Initially, I had a bare bones TA-33, and after a year or so folks suggested I go up another ten feet, so I did (approximating a wavelength on 20M—a significant factor in takeoff angle). A couple of years later I bought a friend’s TH6DXX and sold the Mosley. I have a picture of the TH6 going up and you can still see the difference in color from the "old" Rohn 25 and the new (the old was less than two years older than the new).

The pictures I uploaded of the array represent what I had up from about 1981 until about 1990. I added a CC 4218XL near the top (80’ due to the mast), a CC 147-4 modified for 220 MHz fixed to the NE for the local Packet Cluster, and a CC A4 at the lower guy attachment point fixed to the Caribbean.

As I reflect now, what’s labeled as a 160M Z didn’t come until the early ’90s. The actual antenna was a loaded 160M inverted V. Worked All States with it, so it was okay, but the Z was much better.

I started with a 20 length of 2" Schedule 40 water pipe (don’t do that, I learned). Later I bought a modified BG18 mast from IIX Equipment (he was local to us) which more than accommodated what ultimately wound up on the tower. I also started with 3⁄16" EHS galvanized for the guys, but bought some new Phillystran when it first came out for the uppers. Later I found some used, with potted ends already on and just the right length for the lowers.

A complete description of the antenna set up can be seen at one of my websites. Elsewhere on that site (my personal site) is a whole bunch of other ham radio stuff—my story, my equipment, etc.

The antenna farm at N9AKE, Aurora, IL, for >20 years. Missing is the Cushcraft 4218XL at the very top—84'.