Anna's impression of daddy's offbeat humour.

Greetings!

Make yourself at home.

Just a little about myself: I had my first go 'round with radios as a kid living in Germany with my parents. I was given my first kit in 1966, a diode AM broadcast receiver, which, when coupled to a steam radiator, picked up Bayrische Rundfunk pretty good. Upon coming to the U.S. and re-culturing, I had the use of an Allied Radio Shack DX-150, and got to hear first hand the transmissions between the coast guard and the foundering "Atlantic Cloud" during rescue operations, which really sparked my interest. By 1968, my parents bought me a one and a half watt Sears Walky-Talky, which to my utter amazement enabled me to reach beyond our suburban Philadelphia neighborhood, and sometimes into the neighboring town. Of course, this was on the Citizens' Band, but it was all new and exciting to me! I only used the telescoping whip, but because we lived on a second floor apartment, I had decent range, at least 2 miles.

Because that walky-talky kept me off the streets, my parents bought a regular CB base station, which opened a whole new world of friends and excitement for me. Of course, much before 1969, Citizens Band was not the over crowded gaggle of heterodynes it has since become. Local Hams were also dabbling some in CB at the time, and as I met them, I became introduced to Amateur Radio. The radio you see on the right is a Lafayette Telsat 23. My first CB base was a Comstat 23 Mark VI. Wish I had one now. It might be fun to make it talk on 10 metres.

In 1970, I moved back to Florida and joined the amateur radio club at Winter Park High School, operated by a novice classmate Charles Lindahl, WN4TJZ. It was here that I began to learn code and get a grasp of Real Radio. By 1977 I received my own license, WD4NKA, which I kept ever since. Homebrewing was necessary if I wanted to be on the air, so I built my first transmitter, with a friend, WD4NFU, Ron. Within a few years the both of us wound up maintaining sort of a joint station comprised of an array of surplus and stuff from the 40's, 50's, and early 60's which were being almost given away at hamfests and swap-meets. Those were the days, when you could pick up an SP-600 for 25 bucks, get it working (and modified, if needs be) and use it on the air.

As I upgraded, I did finally buy a "modern" tranceiver, a Kenwood TS-520, which was a great rig. But my greatest enjoyment was still derived from homebrewing. Especially designs from the 1930's. I made a two stage regenerative receiver to go with my 6AG7-6L6 MOPA, (see photo above) and later, after picking up a BC-453, built a receive converter for 40 and 80. I continued to construct various types of regenerative receivers, largely because their performance was facinating. In the mid 1990s, I designed a hybrid autodyne superhet borrowing from Frank Jones' Super Gainer idea. I dubbed it the "Regenerodyne". Details can be seen by clicking either the name or the link above.

Today, I am still homebrewing and messing with my beloved Boatanchors. My current QTH is Deltona, Florida. I am active mostly on 40 cw, although I am making plans to get an AM signal on the air. Locally, you might find me on the Daytona 147.240 repeater or on simplex 146.550 .

Well, by now you know more about me than you probably want to know, so I'll sign, and bid you best 73 and good Providence in all your endeavours. (Hopefully, soon I should get a more current photo of my shack: right now it's more of a storage room with a desk.)