KY4P Charles L. Lewis West Jefferson, NC QCWA # 35017 Chapter 126

After 18 years working overseas in the the Foreign Service at high power HF and MW transmitting stations of the Voice of America, I retired at age 65 in February 2007. I now live near West Jefferson in the mountains of Ashe County, North Carolina. My QTH is at approximately 3,600' elevation on a ridge that extends from the side of Mulatto Mountain.

Overseas, I was last known as S9SS for 5 years while serving as Station Manager at VOA's Sao Tome Transmitting Station. QSL cards for ONLY S9SS should go to QSL manager N4JR.

Please send QSL's for my earlier DX calls, A25/KY4P, S92SS, A22AA, and SV0LM, with SASE to the address shown here for KY4P. AGAIN, PLEASE DO NOT SEND ANY QSL'S EXCEPT THOSE FOR S9SS TO N4JR!

All logs for A22AA, S92SS, SV0LM, A25/KY4P, and S9SS are now on LoTW.

Here at KY4P, I am set up for CW and SSB on all bands from 160M through 6M. My main rig is an ORION I with an ALPHA 87A amplifier. On 160M I use a home brewed "compact folded T" vertical with 32 ground radials that are about 65' long. On 80M and 40M I use dipoles that are only about 30' up at their centers. For DXing on 40 meters, I use a home built 1/4 wavelength ground mounted vertical with 32 ground radials that are about 33' long. I use the same vertical on 30M by switching in an L network at the bottom of the radiator. A two element SteppIR beam covers 20M through 6M. The SteppIR is supported on a 55 foot telescoping, rotating crank-up tubular mast. I seldom extend the mast higher than 45 feet, because it is often very gusty here on this exposed mountain ridge.

February 8, 2015