K6LQT's Home Page
Welcome to my home page! My name is Lee Hendrickson and I live with my wife, Marcie, on a small farm in Northern California, about halfway between the towns of Lincoln and Auburn. It's beautiful here (I have a view of two ponds from my station operating position) but, best of all, the noise floor is low thanks to the sparse population out here in the countryside!
I've been a ham since 1957 (I was 13 years old then). That was the year Sputnik was launched. I remember being glued to my old Hallicrafters SX-25 receiver and listening to the beep-beep-beep of the satellite as it whizzed over me in Los Angeles. Nowadays, I listen to crystal-clear communications from the Space Shuttle eminating from my pocket-sized dual-band transceiver as I walk around the farm. We've come a long way, baby!
While in high school (around 1959), I became fascinated with VHF and UHF communications. In those days, most hams were using amplitude-modulated transmitters and receivers with fairly high noise floors, so we didn't talk very far. That is, until the first two-meter and six-meter AM repeaters came on the air in the L.A. area (circa 1960).
In 1965, I was introduced to VHF and UHF FM by some friends. The rest, as they say, is history. I simply had to build and operate an FM repeater. Thanks to some smart friends -- Phil (WA6SWR), Hugh (W6WTU), and Norm (K6YPD) -- my dream soon became a reality. It wasn't elegant, and it was only on a small hill, but it was on the air!
In 1967, Phil and I put an elaborate three-band repeater system on Santiago Peak in Orange County. It worked well, but had dozens of tubes, so trips to the hill to replace tubes became a regular occurrence. It also featured an extremely noisy 100-position telephone switch that was part of our remote control system. Later, with the help of Jim (WA6OOU) and others, we added a phone patch and converted to Touch-Tone dialing. We also tied to a repeater on Contractor's Peak in the San Fernando Valley run by my friend Ron (W6AXC).
Eventually we moved the Santiago system to the top of Palos Verdes. It was about that time that I met two very interesting guys: Robin (WA6CDR) and Alan (WA6AWD). They were putting together a linked repeater system -- the Cactus Intertie. Our system became the second affiliate system to join the Intertie. At that time, there were only a handful of repeaters in the Intertie. Today, over 150 systems connect nearly all of the western states.
Phil moved to Seattle, and when I moved north, I left the Palos Verdes system behind and turned over operation to Ken (WA6PYJ). It is now on Mt. Lukens and provides spectacular coverage in the L.A. area. These days, I have a repeater high in the Sierra Nevada range, just east of Georgetown a few miles. It is part of the Sierra Radio Association (SRA) started by myself, George (KJ6VU) and Jim (WB9GVF). SRA has a total of five repeaters in Northern California and links to Cactus in Southern California.
In addition to being radio-active, I'm a senior project manager in a bank's IT division, my wife and I run an organic vegetable farm, we participate in various community activities, and I even try to find a little time to pick my guitar and sing a tune. What a country!
73,
Lee
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