K4KWM WEB SITE
John Page Somerville, Ohio

Preble County
 
 

         Hello to all. Thanks for stopping by to look at my web page

        First let me share how I came to become an amateur radio operator. At the age of 13, in 1953, my parents took me to the house of a friend of theirs. I didn't want to go because I was building this really neat model airplane and wanted to finish it. 
        My Dad asked me if I would like to see what the man had in his basement. I guess I must have said yes because we went down and there was all this stuff with racks and knobs and meters and ,well you know, I was hooked. It was a 6 foot tall AM rig on 20 meters. All home brew and the receiver was a BC-348. Still have a QSL card from him. His call was W8LCM and he was chief engineer for WLW in Cincinnati, Ohio. I got my license about 8 months later at the age of 14. My call was WN8PKU and about a year later I got my general and became W8PKU. Since then I have been N8BLB, NA8O, and now K4KWM. I used to look at all the new Collins gear in the radio stores in Cincinnati at the time, but at 14  I could barely  afford a Heathkit AT1 and a Hallicrafters S-40B. So my Dad came up with the extra money I needed to buy them. Then he helped me build the AT-1. Still have it. But now that I am retired and have more time than sense, I have managed to collect a few of the things I once could only dream about owning. Below I have a few pictures of some of my toys. I hope you enjoy seeing them. Many of them were piles of junk when I got them and I have had a lot of fun restoring them to what they used to be.

 

                                                      

                                           


                           S-Line Collection                     St. James Gray Collection
                         Heathkit Collection                             More AM Stuff

Finished the National NC-173 the other day. Complete with a new set of knobs. And all recapped with orange drop caps. Here it is all opened up along with a plain 32V (before the V1) which has taken almost 2 years to complete. It was a rusty, dirty pile of junk I found in someone's basement. It has been updated to a 32V2.

Then a shot of the two of them with their cloths on

Plus a Viking II that followed me home a couple of years ago

 

          Here is a shot of the Viking II / 75A4 station

Still have the following left to finish

SX-28A,S-40B

and a Ranger I transmitter

updated 04/12/02