Roger J. Wendell
Defending 3.8 Billion Years of Organic EvolutionSM
Club Stations
This page is dedicated to some of the Ham Radio club
stations I've been associated with over the years!
(Click on any Thumbnail" images for a larger view)
W6ZZM
Coast Guard Training center ("TRACEN") Petaluma, California
 W6ZZM circa 1971 A6ZZM MARS station |
 Me at the front door, Sept '75 Above me is a TH6-DXX |
 Click Here for a trip to my Wooden QSL page... |
 Inside W6ZZM, May 1975, Left to Right: Joe Styels, Me, and Steve Chandler |
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Click Here for QRP and amateur radio! |
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Click Here for my tribute to Morse telegraphy |
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Click Here for the International Morse code alphabet and phonetics |
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Click Here for "Q" and "Z" signals |
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Click Here Wooden QSL cards! |
My High School's Club Station
and the Colorado QRP Club
During the early 70s I was a student at Cherry Creek High School southeast of Denver. My
friends and I helped maintain the club station throughout our tenure there. In the early
90s some other friends and I founded the Colorado QRP Club - a low power group that remained
active well into the second decade of the second millenium!
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WBØECQ Cherry Creek High School Englewood, Colorado  That's my future brother-in-law, WBØIEA, with me on the left. The photo is from page 77 of the High School's 1973-74 Year Book Less than a handful of us kept our high school's club station active, operational, and on the air. Back then, in the early 70s, the Cherry Creek School District allowed a week of intellectual/artistic/athletic exploration that they called "Wing Spread" in which students could select a topic of interest and pursue it for the week. I think all of the radio club members spent the week either on the air or repairing equipment and organizing the shack! |
WØCQC & NØCQC Colorado QRP Club www.CQC.org (Founded in 1994 by WØHEP, WBØJNR, KEØAZ, WBØREB, KGØPP, KEØER, NØXDA, NFØZ, KBØHPH, NNØC, KSØW, W2ZGB, and NØZKM)
CQC has been one of my favorite Clubs, since its founding in 1994, so it's appropriate to recognize them here. In this particular photo, from the club's 1998 Field Day effort, ABØCD shared his "Shack in a box" to add yet another operating position to our station. Dick's contribution, here, is just one example of the dozens and dozens of gear, antennas and other equipment people have loaned or given the Colorado QRP Club for its on-air presence! |
KH6UL
NAVCAMS EASTPAC, Wahiawa, O'ahu, Hawai'i
The club station at NAVCAMS EASTPAC - The Navy's communications facility in the middle of O'ahu, near the town of Wahiawa. The Coast Guard shared a small corner of the base, therefore, I was authorized use of the station. In actuallity, I became the "manager" of the station since I was the most eager user. The TH6-DXX, along with a Henry 2K3, allowed me to easily work the world and I often became the center of pile-ups for those interested in Hawaii for their Bicentennial Worked All States award and other goals. Even during poor conditions I'd simply beam north and work Europeans just about anytime of night or day on 20 meters - I was 19 at the time and the world was my oyster!
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 KH6UL tower and TH6-DXX December 1975 |
 Click Here for a trip to my Wooden QSL page... |
 KH6UL was also used as MARS station NNNØNPM |
 I was the "Manager" of KH6UL from late 1975 to early 1977... |
In addition to the amplifier (my QRO days), the photo at right also shows a dial telephone - not too many of those around any more!! As the only user of KH6UL, during the mid 70s, I was able to keep the shack pretty clean and orderly. Shown here is the Collins KWM2A and 30LI along with a Healthkit keyer and other stuff. Not shown, down along the desk's right side (by the fire extinguisher!), is a Henry 2K-3 amplifier...
In Feburary 2014 I received these emails, and detailed contest report
at KH6UL, from Jim White, WDØE, of Elbert County, Colorado:
02-22-2014
Roger, I tripped across your KH6UL pages today. Loved the pictures. I was a CT2 and operated from UL during 1966 and 67. My call then was KH6GGU. I think it was 66 or perhaps 67 I operated the ARRL DX contest from there and placed 4th in the world. Nosi, KH6IJ beat me out by a few hundred points. I met and married my wife there when she was brought to the base Labor Day party in 1966 by a CT1 who lived in the same building in Wahaiwai she did.
Jim White, WDØE
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Click Here and Here for the 1967 Trade Winds (NAVCOMSTA Wahiawa) article about Jim White KH6UL! |
02-24-2014
HI Roger,A bit more info on my operation of UL.
I operated 48 hours straght for that contest. I had been married about 6 months at the time. My wife brought me meals and drinks, including a plate of chicken and rice I kept warm on top of the 30L1 until the pileup thinned and I could eat between contacts. The second day she brought me one of the $1 Chinese lunch plates we could get at several places in Wahawai at the time. We loved those and they were quite economical an filling. So I was taking bites with chopsticks between contacts.
The bands never closed, although it got a bit slow in the wee hours of the morning when Europe was out of range and nothing had opened to the US yet. At times the pileups were very thick. I could only work simplex so couldn't spread them out. At other times I was doing as many as 12 a minute for several minutes. At that time I was young and my brain worked fast.
Nosi, KH6IJ, was the preeminent contester in Hawaii at the time. He routinely placed very high among DX stations and nearly always won Hawaii. Of course my goal was to beat him. I ran across him several times on the bands and he was knocking them off very quickly. I redoubled my efforts. About 6 hours before the end I ran across him again during a bit of a slow spell and, trying to be friendly, told him how many contacts I had, and he gave me his number. I was ahead by about 20 contacts. About that time 10M opened up to the east coast and we both went there. I banged away but was feeling pretty good about my lead. When results were posted he beat me by something like 10 contacts. I had 1702. It was pretty obvious he sand bagged me and gave me a low number. Two Mexican stations were number 1 and 2, Nosi was 3 and I was 4. A lesson learned from a wise old timer.
On the first evening I was working JAs at a fast clip and there was a loud bang and a flash from the 30L1 and it quit. All the lights went out. I jumped out of the chair thinking the world had ended. Then I settled down and figured out the amp just blew, but had that sinking feeling that was the end of my chances of placing high. There was a pretty bad smell so I opened the top of the amp. I figured I had blown a cap or perhaps the transformer. Then I noticed a black blob burn mark on the top of the internal chassis. Looking closer it had a shape like a cigarette with branches. It dawned on my the shape was a lizard. I changed the fuse and it fired right up. It was clear a Gecko had crawled into it and met a very fast demise across the high voltage. The amp worked fine from then on. It probably still had that burn mark when you were there.
In mid 66, before I was married, I was living in the barracks on base. I fell into the habit when off shift of checking into the Pacific Maritime Mobile Service Net. I often relayed for cruisers in the South Pacific and occasionally ran phone patches. On that net I heard about the Trans- Pacific Catamaran Race that was under way from the west coast to Hawaii (many boats were then continuing into the Pacific or around the world). They had a 20 meter frequency and their own net and were on pretty much 24 hours a day. I helped out there a couple of evenings and got to talking with a DK6 on a 40' cat out of Hamburg. Seemed like a nice guy. He had a crew of 4 including two girls along for the ride. He as having trouble with his rig and seemed pretty un-technical, saying others had rigged the loaded back-stay and tuner and the like. He invited me to come look at it and do some trouble shooting when they pulled into Waikiki a couple of days later. They were to be there only a day, then go to Maui for a few to pick up another girl, then head for Tahiti. I went to my Chief, explained my plan to go fix the guys radio and sail to Maui with them as a testg, then fly back. He granted me two days leave.
I found the boart that evning pulled up onto the sand in front of the Waikiki Yaught Club bar and resturant. The crew as inside drinking maitai's. Hans took me to the boat and showed me the transceiver and how it was hooked up, then went back to the bar. I fired it up and did some testing and wasn't getting out very well. But he said it worked better on the water so I went back to the bar, had a beer and got to know the crew a bit. Real party animals having a blast. We pushed off and I stood on deck as we motored out through the channel and raised the sails. When we got into the waves I started to get a bit sea sick but went below to try out the radio. Below decks I was instantly very very sick and didn't even try to transmit. I turned off the radio, ran up to the deck and heaved over the side. As we sailed up the Molokai channel throughout the night I lay on the deck with my head hanging over the side and heaved for 8 hours. One of the crew tied my belt off to a stanchion so I wouldn't go overboard. I was in shorts and a tee shirt and got very wet and cold. I must have slept for a while because I don't remember much of the trip.
As we pulled into the harbor at Lahina I woke up, washed out my mouth and tried the radio. I found a bad connection on the ground which seemed to improve it a bit but ran out of time as we tied up at the dock. I grabbed a very light breakfast with some of the crew who were quite sympathetic but I think were laughing at me the whole time. In talking with Hans that morning it turned out he wasn't a ham at all but a buddy in Germany had 'loaned' him his call for the trip around the world. That put me off a bit but mostly I watched with some amusement and a bit of envy as one of the hot girls from Germany left to head home and 4 more lined up in the bar trying to talk their way on for the Tahiti run. I bid the crew good luck and hitch hiked a rid to the airport where I was looking for the cheapest way back to Hono. There was an old guy in the lounge in a captains uniform and a twin turbo on the ramp. I approached him, bought him coffee and told him my story. Turned out this was a commuter airline that ran Hono to Maui and back 5 times a day. He was very friendly and said the fair was $35. I only had $18 in my pocket so he said that's OK, I just take you back. There were no passengers so he put me in the co-pilot's seat and I had a wonderful view of the islands for the hour flight. I had to pay $8 for a taxi from the airport to Waikiki where I had left me car. I drove like mad back to the base and checked in off leave with about 20 minutes to spare.
I never did hear Hans on the air again even though I had told him about the mobile service net and wrote the time and frequency on his operating table. I suspect he got nervous about bootlegging the call after he told me about it. I didn't hear him on any of the maritime frequencies either. But I never saw anything about problems so I assume they completed their circumnavigation. And probably had a different 'crew' of girls for each leg.
My operating at UL slowed down after we moved to the north shore and I built a Heath SB102 and put it in my old Scout. Most of my operating was mobile then. I took a discharge in November of 1967 and went to work at Wheeler, then on Eniwetok Atoll, and back to Wheeler in 1970, supporting missile testing and the Apollo program. Never went back on base. But I'm sure my log books were still in the shack when I left, including the contest.
Jim
(WDØE)
On 10-29-2007 I received a great email from WA2HLI, Bob, a former Navy
Communications Technician that operated KH6UL during the early 70s.
Here are a few quotes from Bob's email:
"I arrived at what was then "Naval Communication Station Honolulu" in the summer of 1970 and I operated from KH6UL until September of 73. When I first arrived on station I was assigned barracks directly across from the building (bunker) that housed KH6UL.""It was great to see your pictures of the inside of the station. It appears some improvements were made to the operating area although I think that old grey desk was there when I was operating from "Uncle Louie"... hi hi. Anyway, when I left Wahiawa to return to civilian life in 73, the club station was still enclosed in a wire "cage" that roughly divided the interior of the building in two. The operating positions consisted of two complete S-Lines and yes.... that good ole' Henry 2K3 you mentioned. Some buddies and I actually erected that brand new aluminum tower and placed the pre-existing TH6-DXX at the top. It seems to me we also had military style "tunable" vertical up there and assorted dipoles that we used as a backup antenna."
"As you know it was a great experience operating from "Uncle Louie" and I spent many hours on the air from that QTH (I also enjoyed running many phone patches in those days and spent a lot of time on the "Confusion Net ... 21.400 as I recall??). We had several great field days out on Eva Beach at the NAS over there. Our official "trustee" at the time was actually my duty Chief at the time.... Gary Ellison (can't remember his call but he is now retired and living in the northwest)."
"Thanks for posting the info on "Uncle Louie" Roger, it certainly brought back some fond memories of hamming from paradise! Hope to run into you on the air one of these days (if I ever get that beam back up in the air.. hi hi!) Take care."
Best 73,
Bob - WA2HLI
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