"Jim"

Originally I was licensed in 1954 as KN6GLC, and as K6GLC three months later. Since 1957 my focus has been on DXing, and from 1980 I have enjoyed a few DX contests. 95% of my activity is CW on all HF bands, 160 through 10 meters.

Previous licensed calls were KC6SZ (Truk), VP2GLC (Grenada), 8P6GA, S79YA, ZK2XD, 5W1YA, KH8/W6YA, 3D2YA, YJ0AAY, KC6YA (Palau), OK8YA. The tropical trips were to combine diving and underwater photography with casual operating on the HF bands. Some other tropical trips (Indonesia) did not include ham radio. Guest operations were at HR, 9Y4, HK0, VP2S (St. Vincent), 4U1ITU, F8ZF, 3B8, OH0/W6YA, OH/W6YA, ES/W6YA. Overall, travel has included visits to 59 DXCC "countries."

I saw a lot of WWII history on the Pacific island trips, mostly at Truk, Palau, and Vanuatu. For more information, Google:

I-169 (Truk, dived on this submarine in 1972 with the people who discovered it several months earlier). This submarine had been in the attack of Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.

Palau Tokyo Rose broadcasts were made at the top of Babeldaob Island. Palau provides spectacular diving.

Vanuatu The USS President Coolidge is the world's largest diveable shipwreck. It is 2/3 the size of the Titanic. A 120ft deep night dive was made on the MV Henry Bonnaud to see the school of flashlight fish. When we turned off our lights, it was like being in outer space, seeing millions of twinkling stars.

Also see sections of the photo website at w6ya.com

As a Navy dentist in Vietnam during 1966-67, I spent a fair amount of time as a SWL. I remember hearing W6AM when no other CA stations were coming through on 20 meters. There was no way to get a ham license, even though there was an active MARS station along the path to the chow hall. At Danang some of us were fortunate enough to see one of Bob Hope's 1967 USO shows that included Joey Heatherton, Martha Raye, Henry Fonda, while sitting in the rain along with thousands of Marines.

We've been in the present QTH in Leucadia (part of the city of Encinitas) since 1979. QTH is 20 miles north of San Diego.

Equipment consists of a K-3, FT-1000D, and Ameritron AL-82 amplifier. A Ten-Tec Centurion is the spare amplifier.

Computer logging is limited to contesting with N1MM, so I upload to LOTW once or twice each year. Antenna rotator is a Green Heron, with the Global Beam Display map on the wall.

All antennas are on one 70ft crankup tower. There are 19ft of mast out the top, on which are these antennas:

10-15-20m These are 4 element "homebrew" yagis, designed in 1987 by K6JRF, using Mininec.

WARC antenna is a Cushcraft D3W dipole

40m antenna is two delta loops hanging from the extended boom of the 20m yagi. One of the loops is a reflector (See ON4UN's Low Band DXing for details).

80/160m for these bands the feedline of the driven loop for 40m is shorted and tuned remotely as a vertical. There are about 25 nonresonant radials (see ON4UN's Low Band DXing).

For 10/15/20m there is a trap dipole that can be power split with the yagi in use, using a Stackmatch. It is parallel to their booms, so provides 3 directions of use in contests. This is especially useful for S&P in contests.

The WARC dipole can be remotely tuned to 80m for use as a receiving antenna (Also see ON4UN's Low Band DXing).

At the top of the mast is the 2m collinear vertical for local ragchewing.

In 2009 I submitted my last CW contest log because the skimmers have trashed CW contest scores, created instant pileups on top of the DX and ruined multiplier hunting for those operators who actually believe contesting is a sport. Watching a screen and clicking a mouse is not hunting multipliers. WRTC is a true contesting sport because skimmers and spotting networks are NOT ALLOWED. The skill requirements to excel in CW contesting and even daily DXing are now gone. I believe skimmers are the worst thing that has happened to ham radio since I started in 1954.

Maybe the skimmer developers could come up with a box with sensors that could be placed in front of a golf ball at each lie. It would measure everything needed for a perfect swing, then hit the ball perfectly. Think how much better the golf scores could be. Just push the right buttons. No skill needed.

These are the antennas as of January 2011. If you look carefully, you can see the wires of the delta loops.

Sunset from the base of the tower                                1955 photo after one year as a ham

This is a 1974 photo of the Christmas meeting of the Southern California DX Club