KW6G

Charles has been licensed since April 1971. Novice (WN6IYM); General Sept 1972 (WB6IYM); Advanced Aug 1976 (WB6IYM); Extra Feb 1991 (WB6IYM). He obtained the vanity call sign KW6G Dec 19, 2009. Charles is an ARRL Life Member, DXCC (278 mixed, WAS, WAC, WAZ, RCC. He will QSL 100% direct or via W6 Buro.

First licensed in High School back in 1971; Charles got the General License about 18 months later and went to College. He took the Advanced test during the summer of '76 between his Junior and Senior years at UC Berkeley studying Civil Engineering. In 1991, he went for the Extra ticket. Good decision, the extra CW privileges really opened a lot of DX doors!

Charles claims a modest station due mostly to CC&R's in a typical Northern California upper middle class neighborhood. He currently runs a Icom IC-7610 & IC-7300 transceiver; amplifier is an Acom 1010. He claims to have managed to install 2 HF antennas without incurring the wrath of his neighbors

He has a Butternut HF-9V vertical that is ground mounted with 22 - 25' long radials tied to an 16" X 18" copper plate with a 4-foot ground stake at each corner. He also has an 80 - 10 meter EFHW (End Fed Half Wave) wire antenna from My Antennas. The feed point is located about 9 feet off the ground and the 135-foot wire slopes from there up about 30 feet into a large pine tree on his property, takes a 90 degree bend through a 3-inch diameter plastic pulley and traverses the back of his yard for 95 feet at an average height of about 25 feet

Although his "antenna farm" may be simple and basic, it provides fairly good coverage on the HF bands with both vertically and most recently horizontally polarized antennas.

Charles is primarily a DX hound, but also likes QRP work. He recently added an Elecraft KX3/PX3 combo to the shack for low power operations.

VHF/UHF is accomplished via a Yaesu FT-7800 and a Diamond X-50A vertical on the roof.

He also has a Drake TR4, TR4CWrit & a Collins KWM2A for vintage SSB operating and a National NC-303 & Johnson Ranger II with a Johnson Courier linear when he operates vintage AM.

If you are interested in Drake gear, please feel free to join the Drake West Coast Net on 3895 KHz, Thursday Evenings at 8PM local time.

Charles is an active participant of in the Coffee Mug Net @ 9AM Saturday mornings on 7185 KHz for West Coast hams who are interested in good fellowship; there are no dues or assessments and visitors are always welcome..

He can also be found most mornings on 7046 KHz @0715 (local time) doing QRQ CW practice sessions with N7HRK/m, W7XP, and WI60. Please feel free to join in as all are welcome; no special QRQ skills are required, just a desire to improve what you can already do.