SILENT KEY

I was a proud member of the U.S. Marine Corps serving on active duty from 1962-1987. I served two tours of duty in Vietnam from March 1965 thru April 1967 as a M60 machinegunner with 1st Bn/ 9th Marines until I was wounded and med-evacuated to the hospital ship USS Repose (AH-16). http://members.aol.com/chuckd3871/repose1.htm .

I enjoyed my life in the Corps and had many great adventures as I was assigned to more than a dozen Marine Stations, including tours as a drill instructor at PISC and OSO duty in Minneapolis. My final assignment was with the Scout Sniper Instructor School and the All Marine Corps National Shooting Teams at Quantico Virginia. I was a full time competitor with the All Marine National Rifle & Pistol team from 1977-87 and was a firing member of many World and National Championship Trophy teams.

I am now semi-retired living the good life here in Georgia with my beautiful wife Charlotte, my adult children and grandchildren. I am currently working in the Small Arms repair facility at the Marine Corps Logistics Base building 25mm chain guns for the LAV-25 vehicles in support of the Iraqi war effort. See the base here http://www.ala.usmc.mil/

I am an active member of the Albany Amateur Radio Club and can be found usually monitoring the 146.82 ,146.70 and 146.73 repeaters. I am active in SKYWARN and enjoy working closely with the local American Red Cross chapter during inclement weather. http://www.swgaredcross.org/

We meet on the air each monday at 2100 local time on the 146.82 repeater which is tied in to the tall pines network. This setup allows us access to most of southwest Georgia, the net controller is George Young KE4VPD http://www.qrz.com/callsign/KE4VPD. Our ARES 2 meter net is held at 1600 local time on Sunday and you are welcome to check in with us. Net controllers are Joe Woody WG4JOE and yours truly W4PFC. http://www.w4mm.com/ares.htm

The Albany Amateur Radio Club has been designated a Special Service club due to our integration into the local emergency services. We have a high percentage of members that are ARES designated, and our SKYWARN program is a model for many clubs. If you would like to contact one of our members we have a very professional club homepage courtesy of Bob Smith K4PHE and it can be viewed here http://www.w4mm.com/

I own and operate mostly YAESU equipment, my HF rig is a FT-900 base unit using a pair of G5RV dipoles strung at 45ft, my HT's are a pair of the VX5 Tri-banders and my mobiles are a pair of FT-2600 2 meter units.

I also run an Icom V-8000 75 watt 2 meter base unit powered by an Astron RS 35M, transmitting from a 87ft Rohn 25 tower topped with a Diamond Dual-Band vertical mounted on a 3" 15ft Titanium mast.

I have a complete set of vintage COLLINS HF Radio S-line equipment in pristine condition that I hope to learn to use. This includes a 75S-1 receiver, a 312B-4 controller, a 32S-1 transmitter and a 516-2F power supply.

I am a new member of the Collins Collectors Association ( http://www.collinsradio.org/ ) and would welcome any help you might have in regards to these old tube type Boat Anchors :-)

This W4PFC call sign was previously assigned to the Marine Barracks at Quantico http://www.quantico.usmc.mil/ from the early 1930's to just recently. I am currently compiling a history of this station including photos of some of the Marines and individuals that were fortunate to be assigned to it. I am the only other person to be assigned this FCC call and consider myself fortunate to be granted this little piece of Marine Corps history. I currently have two QSL cards sent by this station dating back 55+ years, and several photos of the station operating during the sixties, if you have a card from the old Marine Barracks I would certainly appreciate a copy of it.

Semper Fidelis,

W4PFC James Bair USMC (ret)

Not as lean, Not as mean, But still a Marine.