I was licensed in 1989 with Novice call KB0FJX in St. Louis, MO and was a member of the St. Louis and Suburban Radio Club, and the Northwest Amateur Radio and Electronics Association in Bridgeton, MO. Previous calls also include N0LJG, N5TXP, KE5EFY, and now WV5I. I maintain membership in the Amateur Radio Relay League, the Denton County Amateur Radio Association, the Collins Collectors Association, and the Quarter Century Wireless Association. I'm usually on 20, 40, or 80 meters SSB, have recently taken an interest in improving speed on CW, and learning a little about vintage radios manufactured by Collins and Drake. I also enjoy homemade wine, a little homebrew, and roasting coffee beans.

Primary Station: Elecraft K3, P3, KPA500, and KAT500. The antenna is a home-brew inverted-vee at 35 feet. For a power supply I use an Astron RS-35M. A custom N3ZN paddle is used for CW. I occasionally use a David Clark headset, converted from aviation specs, with an Acousticom 5730-CA microphone and David Clark 19 ohm speakers. The headset has been rewired for stereo to accommodate the two speaker output of the K3.

Vintage Station - Collins Equipment: 32S-3 Transmitter, 516F-2 Power Supply, 75S-3B Receiver, DL-1 Dummy Load, and 312B-4 Station Monitor, all Round Emblem, matched to the antenna with a Drake MN-2000. Also, a 30S-1 Linear Amplifier, and a 51S-1 Receiver paired with a 312B-3 Speaker. The latter three are Winged Emblem. All of this equipment has been restored to original specification as much as possible. No solid-state mods were added. Variacs and bucking transformers are used to reduce line voltage to original specs. The 32S-3 and 75S-3B came with the original purchase receipt and warranty card with serial numbers. These two items were manufactured in December 1969, and sold to their first owner, a Pennsylvania ham, in January 1970. The microphone for this station is usually a Shure 444D.

More Vintage - Drake Equipment: T-4XC Transmitter, AC-4 Power Supply, R-4C Receiver, and W-4 Wattmeter - Ready to go, maybe we'll get it on the air in 2017. As with the Collins equipment, the Drake station was rebuilt without adding solid-state components. Also, a Drake 1A Receiver #1008, which was the first Drake offering for a "ham-band" SSB/CW receiver. An attempt was made to bring it back slowly with a variac, then the fuse blew after a few hours of really good audio on 80 meter SSB. The 1A is estimated to have been manufactured sometime in 1959 and does not appear to have ever been worked on...until it was restored with new capacitors and a few other parts in January 2017.

VHF/UHF/D-Star: Icom ID-880H with an Arrow OSJ 146/440 antenna and a 2 meter/440 three element beam directed south, toward Dallas/Fort Worth.

QRP: Elecraft K1 with the 4-band board (15, 20, 30, and 40 meters) and every option that Elecraft ever offered for this radio including the noise blanker, auto tuner, back light , and wide range tilt stand. The internal battery option is not installed to prevent damage from battery leakage. This radio (in kit form) is still available, but a few options are no longer obtainable due to some components no longer being manufactured.

In my younger years, I worked in the family restaurant, washing dishes, cleaning tables, smoking hams, chickens, briskets, and an occasional goat or pig, cutting up chickens, making sausage, and helping with catering for up to 400 people. Also general maintenance, keeping 21 refrigeration units running. My professional life was spent as a pilot. After soloing in a Piper Cherokee 140 in 1972, I became a private pilot in 1973, then completed flight instructor, commercial, multi-engine, instrument, and instrument instructor ratings in 1974. My first aviation job was in 1974 as a flight instructor for JDJ Flying Service at the Gainesville, Texas airport. Graduated from American Technological University in Killeen, TX (now part of the Texas A&M University System) in 1976 with a B.S. in Aviation Management. Most time building was in light single engine aircraft as a flight instructor for Central Texas College in Killeen, Texas, and Airport Flying School in Addison, Texas. From October 1977 thru February 1979, I flew freight in DC-3 (C-47), and DC4 (C-54) aircraft for Falcon Airways in Addison, Texas, then started with Ozark Airlines in March 1979 flying the DC-9. While furloughed from Ozark from April 1980 thru October 1984, I worked in the oil field, at a Ford dealership, and spent one year as a machinist, then more flight instructor time and corporate flying in a Cessna 421B and Beechcraft King Air F90. Ozark merged with TWA in 1985. I qualified as an MD-80 captain for TWA in 1997, and also flew for American Airlines after American purchased TWA in 2001. Most of my aviation career was spent flying DC-9's and MD-80's. I've been medically retired from American Airlines since August 2001.

73,
Dwayne WV5I
QCWA Chapter 41, #36364

June 27, 2016