Hello CQ-CQ-CQ de N6THN,

Here's my mug shot, yep, that's me Bruce N6THN and more photos below. I'm holding a 2 element 2 meter DF antenna on the shores of the San Francisco Bay.

Why holding an antenna you ask, because I was helping a friend do some direction finding and he took my picture while I was in the process.

I still have my original call from my Novice-Technician days in the 1980's at CW, 5wpm. Studied the code harder and got up to 13wpm and passed the General, then Advanced, and lately made Extra.

I never changed call signs because I have a poor memory, HI-HI. So I guess I'm stuck with the one by three "N6" call.

On HF I cover (poorly) 160M, 80, 40, 20, 17, 15, 10 and 6 meters. I'm running an old IC-706 HF rig into a Hustler 5-BTV vertical and a home brew 4 band dipole up 40ft in the back yard. Also have a modest 2M - 440 vertical for VHF-UHF local QSO's. You may hear me on quiet nights just under the static at S-Zero, but I'm trying.

Send me an email at N6THN@pacbell.net to QSL. Hope to hear you on the air. If you feel like rag chewing about stuff like: solar power, boats, flying model RC planes, electric cars - hybrids, old motorcycles, slow computers, bulky inverters, giant DC power supplies, heavy generators, strong wind power, alcohol fuel (for cars too), BBQ's, fishing, travel, men from Mars, women from Venus or even ham radio, give me shout on the radio or email.

73's de Bruce N6THN in Vacaville, California, near Sacramento, USA.

N6THN with Miss Kona Koffee.

Rainbow photos during trip to Clear Lake, Ca.

General Electric engine outside of the Sacramento train museum.

Sacramento River Capitol Ave Bridge

Be careful while on the water ways!

N6THN with the 80' Honda

The Shark got me

Everyone needs to un-wind sometimes.

The 2M-440, VHF-UHF setup and the 4 Band Dipole and balun just below the rotor.  Base of the rotor is at 40ft. Dipole is 10-20-40-80M full length. See details below.

Horrible airshow disaster. Aircraft hits four buildings during crash.

Barbie jumps from the bomb drop of my RC airplane, floan on 2.4Ghz, 6 channels, builder and pilot, Bruce N6THN.

N6THN goofing off at Lake Tahoe, nice pine cones.

Method of coupling 4ea 10ft sections of 1-1/2" pipe to make the mast. Use 4ea sections of 10ft x 1.5" mast with couplers made from 1.25" mast inserted inside. Compression couplers complete the external fit along with self taping sheet metal screws. Each joint is overlapped 16" total.

Four sections completed. 4ea 10ft sections of 1.5" pipe with 1.25" pipe inserted inside, 16" length, with compression fitting to make things tight. See below.

The rotor and pulley for the dipole balun.

Four pipes to hook to the chimney with couplers installed. Note 1-1/4" pipe fits inside the 1-1/2" pipe at the coupler.

Six of these brackets attach from the bottom to the top of the chimney, made from Unistrut and concrete anchors.

My tower is almost ready to go up. 2ea 20ft sections plus a 10 ft mast = 50ft. Notice ladders holding tower up to help lift it. 100ft of coax cable on the sawhorse.

The rotor and thrust bearing are installed, ready to clamp the mast to the rotor.

The tower is up but the StepIR antenna is not attached yet. For now a nice Diamond 2M-440 vertical sits on top.

Building the 3 element beam, boom, motors, fiberglass tubes, clamps. This took 6 weeks to arrive from my order date.

Inside the StepIR motor, lots of copper wound tape and a toroid transformer, balun.

Running the coax up to the top.

Bruce N6THN working on the mast thrust bearing, wearing a safety harness too. Putting some extra electrical tape on the coax so the service loop doesn't get caught on anything while turning the rotor.

Bruce, N6THN mounting the boom, Bill is standing on my roof with the rope, block and tackle lifing it up. This took a while to assemble and lift.

Finally got the beam up and working, also 5 element yagi and Diamond X200A vertical up there too.

I shot this of Miss Budweiser at an airshow.

A pillar block bearing froze up on a large cooling fan at work, notice how it grooved the shaft to the right of the bearing. Lack of grease caused this. The bearing really did a nice job of machining away the shaft material. We had to replace the whole shaft and bearing.

My experimental 100cc bicycle with double reduction gears, all home made. Notice custom exhaust and big sprocket.

Boating on Lake Berryessa, good old summer time fun.

Travis AFB, 4360 cu in, 28 cyl engine on display. This has 54 spark plugs and is super charged. Prop mounts on the shaft to the left.

Cut away view of some cylinders.

Crankshaft, rod and timing cam rings of a radial engine.

Top secret circuit still under development. I plan to use 3-phase DC to power it. See if you can use ohms law and caculate the equivalent resistance of all the 1ohm resistors just below the magic smoke and fishing float. Hint - brown-blue-orange is 16K ohms.