PHOTOS

In this section are posted some photographs of my Shack, antennas, astronomy activities, and other items down through the years.  It continues to be a work in progress.

I hope you enjoy these photos and maybe get an idea from some of them as well as perhaps a memory or two of your earlier days ...

IN YEARS PAST...

(Click thumbnail photos to enlarge)

1956 - KN5DZE - I was 16 years old and was using a Heathkit AT-1, NC-98 and and a Windom antenna from my home in Columbus, MS.  You can tell how new I was from the QSLs on the wall...that's all I had at the time!  Hi  Along with W5WQQ and KN5IJG (now K7WAH), we were the only (3) Hams in our town's High School. The next year I became K5DZE and 'moved up' to the newly introduced Heathkit DX-35 and 60 watts of AM/CW.  Boy, that was high cotton as we used to say!

1958 - My mobile rig with an Elmac A-54H 50 watt AM transmitter, Gonset Super Six receiving converter and a Webster Bandspanner antenna in my 1957 Chevy Bell Air hardtop.  I spent a lot of time operating 10 meter mobile which was a great band for mobile operation at that time.

1963 - By this time, I had moved up to a 60 watt Elmac AF-67 on AM/CW transmitter and a Hammarlund HQ-100C receiver. Note the little grey rig on the left...It was one of the first 27 MHz CB rigs to hit the market.  I picked one up and quickly, changed crystals and retuned it for 10 meters to make some good 10 m QSO's!  

1972 - By '72, I had been off to college, spent a tour with the Marines, then joined the Army to go to flight school and had already spent 2 years in Vietnam flying helicopters.  After 2 years at Ft. Rucker at the Army Aviation school as an instructor I was now stationed at Ft. Benning, Ga.  A new Drake line and SBE linear amplifier graced the Shack.  The desk was homemade from hollow core doors and French louver shutters to close up the rig when not in use (to keep little fingers out of the rig!).  

1973-74 - The Army sent me to Louisiana Tech University for additional study.  While there, I set up this rig, played around with RTTY a bit and then got into Amateur Satellites.  I built this 144 MHz/10 meter quad antenna from wood and aluminum wire for OSCAR 6 & 7.  The version shown is a homebrew 16 element (4x4) circular quad on an AZ-EL mount.  The antenna frame sat level by its own weight and tilted up using a standard TV rotor that wound a rope around a pulley (old child's buggy wheel!) to elevate it to the desired angle.  The 10 meter portion of the antenna was a simple dipole made from two whip antennas mounted on the back of the frame so every time the antenna was pointed at a satellite, the dipole was broadside to it as well.  The quad was circular polarized using a feed line scheme suggested to me by the well known Kat, KH6IZ, who designed many NASA antennas of that period.  It was a VERY good antenna and let me hit OSCAR within 1-2 seconds of predicted acquisition times.  Tracking the satellite could keep you busy with such a high gain antenna, but it really was effective. 

1975 - Off to Stuttgart, Germany for 3 years where I operated as DA1EZ on HF and 2m SSB again.  This time I used a pair of homebrew 6 element quads on a 5 story apartment building shown here used for 2m SSB work.  

1980 - After Germany, I returned to the States as Army Aviation Advisor to the Arkansas Army National Guard in North Little Rock and it was a great tour of duty back in "5" land.  Once more I built a 4 bay quad antenna...this time a circular polarized array with 28 elements (4-7el quads) for 2m SSB.

1990 - In 1987, I retired from the Army and became VP of Finance and Administration (Operations) for Central Bible College in Springfield, MO.  This was home for the next 14 years and where I developed a real interest in QRP operations.

Photos of the Patterson Science Building at Central Bible College (CBC) in Springfield, MO.  While there as VP of Operations, I designed this building to house the college's astronomical observatory, a classroom, and an Amateur Radio Club Shack for the college club, W5CBC.  The "Shack" is the left part of the classroom in the first picture, and the roll off roof observatory is on the right side of the building. You can see the roll-off frame on the right  in the center photo.  The small outside building in the second photo is the "original" Shack that has been converted to a storage building. The observatory housed two Meade telescopes...a DS 16" reflector and an ETX-90 Maksutov-Cassegrain. The Ham Shack (right photo) supported as many as 6 operating positions using a KW to QRP on HF, VHF, and UHF.  (This made Field Day THE annual big club event for the college club.)  Antennas included a G5RV, a 7 el log periodic at 50' for 14-30 MHz, a full size 5 element yagi at 50' for 15 meters, a 2m cubical quad, and a VHF/UHF Discone.  At one time, the 15 meter beam was on an AZ-EL mount for use in Amateur Radio Astronomy to listen to 21 MHz signals from the planet Jupiter.  A short range 440 MHz repeater rounded out the club set up.  In 2000, W5CBC was selected by the ARRL as the top college/school club in the US for the year 2000.

2003 - After retiring a second time, the XYL and I moved to Huntsville, AL for what we thought would be our final move and 'home'.  My rig here had become a neat set up from that first Heathkit AT-1!   Some serious health issues dictated it was time to move near family so it was off to northern Kentucky where we are now.

2009 - Current Shack in Kentucky.  I spend a lot of time on 10 meters and also on 40 meter and 20 meter CW.  Another interest is LF (below Broadcast band) listening for Aviation Beacons (copied 241 to date) and general shortwave listening on HF where there are a l-o-t of interesting signals to catch! 

The "DZE BOX", a CW key switch box to connect any of my keys/paddles to any of my rigs.  See details of this great CW accessory on the PROJECT page.

In my just completed new Shack, I had 3 double 120 AC outlets installed 39" from the floor behind the rig.  There are 3 sets of these for a total of 18 outlets on two different circuits just for use in the Shack.  I considered adding a 220 AC outlet, but since I don't now use or plan to use anything needing that voltage, I decided to stay with just 120 AC outlets.   I also had 3 coax cables built into the walls which go from the Shack through house and then through the outside wall providing 3 antenna feeds at that point.  Along with these internal SO-239 connectors is a ground lug (1/2" braid to ground) and an 8 wire rotor cable (for future use).  You can see all these are mounted on an heavy duty wall plate that is also at a 39" height behind the main rig desk.  One of the coax feed lines goes to a VHF/UHF antenna, while the other two coax cables are for my S9V 40-10m vertical and a 284' Full Wave Loop.  These last two antenna cables feed into a dual antenna switch that lets me select either of the antennas for a 6 position switch that which in turn can connect any of the rigs to any antenna.  All this has worked out very nicely.  Finally...no coax cables running all around the room, and everything switchable!  Hi!

And I'm still workin' on it...