Welcome To
KB6RKR's
Amateur Radio
Home Page
Updated November 22, 2004

(February 9, 2003)
My Ham radio station with me & my 2nd operator - my dawg Chena (American Eskimo) She was good with the microphone, but never quite mastered the telegraph keyer.
Chena was born Feb, 5, 1987 & became a Silent Key May 3, 2004. 		Tower maintenance on my 3 element, 3 band HF beam and 8 element VHF vertical YAGI
(upper antenna)

Gary L. Rodgers' HAM RADIO Portfolio
Getting started:
By 1948, at 9 years of age, I was fascinated with listening to Short Wave foreign broadcasts on my folks' multi band Philco console broadcast radio and began trying to improve reception by experimenting with antenna designs. By age 12 I had built a Crystal set and a one tube AM radio receiver. A neighbor boy's, John Hobson, father bought him a state of the art Hallicrafter S-38C short wave receiver and I built antennas for his radio. It was on this radio I discovered Ham radio operations and I sure wanted to become a Ham operator as they could broadcast as well as listen. Ham radio would also open up an entire new experimenting opportunity to me.
    Well, I was First licensed as KN6TPR/K6TPR at age 16 while a Junior in Santa Rosa High School, CA. (1956). My "ELMER" (mentor): was my Electric Shop teacher Mr. Robert Nichol, K6MIE; Now A Silent Key (SK). Mr. Nichol persuaded me to set up my station in the school's science exhibit in 1957.
1st Receiver Hallicrafter S-53A.
1st Transmitters 50 watt Johnson Viking Adventurer Kit (CW) & converted WWII surplus Collins' ARC5s
Accessory equipment consisted of "Home Brew" projects and WWII surplus electronic equipment conversions. Trips to War Surplus shops on Market Steet in San Francisco with my school mate Ron Nord, K6OLJ (now NE3A), was like making a treasure hunt adventure.
Antenna was a 1/2 wave Wire Dipole tuned using a 100 watt light bulb.* My one and only FCC ticket was for broadcasting on a harmonic frequency right in the middle of the Portland Oregon airport's flight frequencies in 1956.
ALSO HAD A FAN TO KEEP THE VACUUM TUBE EQUIPMENT AND THE ROOM COOL!
Mobile unit was a 40 meter ARC5 receiver and transmitter mounted side-by side in my lowered baby blue 1949 Ford (I Used to RF modulate the juke box in Gordon's Drive In restaurant in Santa Rosa after "crusin" the strip.) The ARC5's and a six volt buzzing vibrator power supply took up most of the center front seat leg space and my girl friend, Nicole (Nicky) Jack, wasn't able to sit too close to me. (Her mom & dad thought this radio arrangement was Okay!)
  • Ham radio in my teenage years launched me on my career in electronics and education.

    CURRENT EQUIPMENT:
    Transceivers Kenwood TS570S & TS711A,
    VHF Packet radio (computer controlled digital radio transmission).
    Primary Antennae: Cushcraft A3 3-element beam w/ Hy-Gain rotator, G5RV, A7 vertical & VHF/UHF yagi & verticals.
    Mobile unit in my 1998 Dodge Dakota P.U. is a 40 watt 2 meter Icom IC228A transceiver

    Member of Quarter Century Wireless Association (QCWA) No. 21630  QCWA Web Site
    Member of the George S. Ladd Telephone Pioneers Radio Club   Ladd Radio Club Web Site
    Ten-Ten International No. 43529, BA 360
    Member of the American Radio Relay League (ARRL)  ARRL Web Site

    Awards:

    Education & Occupation Background: U.S. Navy Duty:

    Thanks K6HIO,
    my web site "Elmer" in constructing my website.
    ***  K6HIO, Jim Williams, became a Silent Key on November 20, 2004.   -   -.   -..-

     

    This site is
    still under construction
    Last tuned up January 13, 2003

    Please visit my other sites

     Cazadero, CA 
     Genealogy Site 

     

    Copyright © 2003-2004 by Gary Rodgers - KB6RKR.  All rights reserved.