Dale: WG5N G# 2575

Dale was first licensed in 1976, with the call sign WN5UCQ as a Novice. Like many Hams, Dale ran into life situations that took him away from the hobby for several years, but he never lost the interest in Ham Radio, and took the test again in 2009, this time receiving the call sign KE5YUG.

He recalls tuning around the bands with this new call sign and hearing the GERATOL Net in the Extra Class portion of the band. He says listening to the net was one of the motivations he received to upgrade to Extra Class. He did just that, and was issued the call sign WG5N, and he’s been a regular check-in to the net ever since. Dale received his GERATOL Number, 2575 in 2010.

HENRY TEMPO ONE

During his early years in the hobby, Dale’s first station consisted of a Henry Tempo One with a
couple of Inverted Vees for antennas. Dale says he was not very active in those early years, but the FCC had changed his WN call to WB5UCQ. As was the case with many wood-be Hams, his interest in two- way communications began on 11 Meters. Many of the so-called Old Timers, recall a time when the 11 Meter Band was an Amateur Band, prior to 1958. Looking back at it less emotionally now, it truly did become more of a breeding ground for new hams as a CB band, than it ever did as an assigned Amateur band.

His current station consists of a Yaesu FTDX 3000 with an Ameritron AL-82 amplifier. He runs (2) Inverted Vees for 80 meters – one oriented Northwest to Southeast and one East to West. This explains the great signal he puts out on the GERATOL Net. He also has a Cushcraft A4S for 10, 15 and 20 meters, as well as a 160 Meter Inverted Vee for the top band. For picking out those weaker signals, he uses a Shared Apex Loop (by Array Solutions) as a receive only antenna.

Dale’s Current Operating Position

Note the Unbelievable Operating Achievement Award on the wall

Dale’s Elmer was a REAL Elmer. Namely, ELMER Poteet, K5PMR Elmer Poteet who is now an (SK).
His best friend at that time was Mr. Poteet’s son Bruce WN5UCP. As the similar call sign suggests, Dale and Bruce tested together and had consecutive calls. Bruce is also (SK) now. His call was changed to
WB5UCQ by the FCC and he later obtained the vanity (initial) call of AB5CP. As Bruce’s friend, Dale used to visit Bruce’s dad Elmer (K5PMR) and his first experience of talking on a Ham radio (prior to getting his own license) was on one of those visits.

Most recently, Dale has become very active in digital communications, using the new FT-8 digital mode and spends a lot of time on various bands using it. He says the digital modes are a really good way to work DX stations without a lot of power. As a former PSK user, I would have to agree. Low power, great contacts, and a lot of fun.

In the area of Ham Radio achievements, Dale has WAS (phone) on 80 meters through the GERATOL Net. He has 132 (mixed) DX entities worked with 126 confirmed but has not yet applied for DXCC. He also has WAS (mixed) on 20 meters confirmed with paper QSL cards but has not applied for the award. He has 48 states in the log toward WAS with FT 8 only with only two to go: WY and ND.

Dale has also taken a few turns as NCS for the GERATOL Net, filling in for AI4IL this past season, for which us GERATOLers are grateful, as is Bob I am sure.  Also, in the area of Ham Radio, while he is not currently active in any of their various activities he does remain available in case of emergency to the local Choctaw County, OK Emergency Management team.

Outside of Ham radio, Dale is actively involved in his home Church at Valliant, OK.  He also likes to custom smoke meat and assist in providing meals to and for Church activities and dinners. He does support and volunteer work, to assist the Southern Baptist Association’s Disaster Relief Team as needed by donating his time and talents.

Dale also has several other hobbies in addition to Ham Radio,  including hunting, fishing, traveling, reading,
photography, gardening, raising cattle and birdwatching. Wow, I get tired just looking at his list of activities. But for those who may wonder how you can have a hobby of raising cattle, we have attached a few pictures of his efforts he was willing to share. I can only imagine what his hunting and fishing trophies look like !!

Dale says he currently runs a small herd (approximately 30 head) of Black Angus cows in a cow/calf operation. In between ham radio and other interests he says it keeps him active tending to them and taking care of their pasture.

My thanks to Dale for taking the time and for making an effort to provide us some information about his interest in Ham Radio, as well as his other interests. As we can see by Dale’s write up, we have some very interesting and multi-talented folks as part of our GERATOL Group, Dale being one of them.

Feel free to post a COMMENT and thank Dale for his dedication to the hobby, and his support of our GERATOL group.

Kevin N1KL

Featured GERATOL Member – Leon K0LU G# 2330

Many of the regular check-ins to the net have had the pleasure of working this gentleman, not only from his home QTH station in Regent, North Dakota, but from his rather “unique” mobile station.                                                 Namely, Leon’s “Tractor Mobile”

Leon’s Latest Mobile Unit – 600 HP Quad Track

As a grain farmer in North Dakota, Leon spends countless hours keeping his family farm in working order.  However, he gets creative during those night farming chores, by running his TS-480 with a screwdriver antenna in  his tractor as he completes his farming duties.

Leon was first licensed in 1966 as WN0NZO.  His first station was comprised of a Knight Kit T50, CW crystal controlled 50 Watt transmitter, in line with a Hammarland HQ110 receiver.  Leon got started in the hobby with a little help from his Elmer, Jim WA0LEU, now W0LU.  The lifeblood of the hobby remains in how we help each other through Elmering and supporting the interest level of the new folks.

Knight Kit 50 Watt Xmtr and Hammarlund HQ110 Rcvr

Over the years he remained very active in the hobby completing several milestones, including:  WAS, WAC, WAZ and DXCC Honor Roll.  He was also active with the YLISSB System, SkyWarn and Navy Mars as:  NNN0QDH for 40 years.  Like many of us, Leon recalls his first DX QSO, with VK3RJ on 15 meters in 1966 using cw and a vertical antenna with 50 watts xtal controlled transmitter.  The moons had to align to accomplish that back then, the DX needed to be on the same frequency where you had your xtal !!  No VFO, no DX Spotting Network, just patience and some decent band conditions.  Leon has worked a ton of DX since that first DX QSO, but his most enjoyable he says, have been from his Tractor Mobile.  He recalls working both England and Ireland from his Tractor Mobile on 80 Meters !!!

While he does enjoy DX, he also likes other aspects of the hobby, including a good old fashioned rag chew, meeting with his local club group and checking into some nets once in a while.  We are certainly appreciative of his participation in the GERATOL Net,  putting North Dakota in many log books over the years, getting those working on the basic one step closer.

Outside of Ham Radio, in addition to working with his family on their farm, (Yes, Leon’s XYL also operates some of those massive farm machines – check out Leon’s QRZ page to see some of the equipment), Leon enjoys downhill skiing and traveling with his XYL.

In addition to farming, Leon also had a side line operating two-way radio shop.  He’s married with 2 children and 7 grandchildren, and he’s been married for 48 years and he really likes living in the country on the farm.  Checking out those pictures on his QRZ page, we can all see why he enjoys it so much.  Absolutely amazing scenes from the farm, and talk about wide open space for antennas !!!  WOW !

If he wants to put up a tower and the xyl is ok with it, he puts it up. No zoning ordinances or association hassles to deal with.   He says he only have 5 towers!  ha ha…..I guess 5 and counting eh ?

FEATURED GERATOL MEMBER – Tom, W4WLF

If we ever had a story of “Perseverance and Persistence” on the GERATOL Net, this may be one of the best. While I am sure there are many of us who took years to complete the requirements for the BASIC award, myself included, this is a story about one of our own who stuck with it for 13 years, before earning his Basic Award. Congratulations to Tom, W4WLF on completing, and receiving his Unbelievable Operating Achievement Award, and obtaining GERATOL # 2667 !!!

Tom was first licensed in 1952 at the impressive age of 13 !! Back then it was no walk in the park getting a ticket either. I believe even Novice licensees had to pass a 5WPM code requirement back then, I know I did when I got mine.

Tom writes:

“We had a cartoon similar to this on our refrigerator when Katrina hit. The refrigerator floated up and turned over when the house flooded. In digging the place out, I found it and put it in the yard to dry. It sort of summed up our attitude.”

When Tom got his Novice, you had to go before an FCC Engineer to take the test. They gave it 4 times a year in Birmingham, Alabama which was the nearest testing site. He had been sick (a bug of some kind) and missed being able to go two times in a row. By then he had turned 13.

His family took a vacation to visit relatives in Texas in 1952. Since the only testing site that was anywhere near their route was Dallas, and they had no plans to go there.  At every stop he would pick up brochures for any attractions he thought might entice them to go to Dallas. After the third or fourth time he did this, his Mom looked back at him and said something to the effect that … what is it about Dallas?  He told her that the FCC gave the amateur radio test every weekday in Dallas. Her reply was …why didn’t you not say so? We’ll go to Dallas.

They got there early and filled out the necessary paperwork. The next step was to receive code at 5 WPM for five full minutes. You had to get at least one solid minute of copy, out of the five minutes of receiving. This was accomplished without much difficulty other than a bad case of nerves. That allowed him to move on to the next step which was to send CW to the examiner for five minutes, at or above 5 WPM.

Of course, you had to wait your turn for the others to send. (Not good for the nerves) Tom says, he finally got in there. After sending a couple of words, the examiner said “Stop!!”  Tom inquired as to what he had done wrong? The examiner said, “Nothing, you passed.” Tom said that he thought he had to send for 5 minutes. The examiner pushed back in his chair, crossed his arms and sternly said … “well if you insist on sending for 5 minutes, I’ll listen, but as of now … you have passed —- I’m not sure what my answer will be after 5 minutes.”     He told him very quickly that he would be pleased not to not make him to have to listen to me send 5 full minutes of code. If he was happy, Tom was happy !!!

After that, he took the written test. (Tom says he was pretty sure of the sequence of events, but that 1952 was a long time ago.)    He received his ticket in the mail several weeks later, after checking the mail box every day until it arrived !!

W4ELX, Phil Mentz had resurrected an old, old Super-regenerative receiver (National SW3) and had built Tom a crystal controlled transmitter in a surplus WWII aircraft antenna tuning unit. He used the roller inductor as part of a Pi network antenna tuner. It ran about 40 watts. (Crystal control was a requirement for the Novice of course, back in those days) Tom recalls, that transmitter was the first rig for many new hams in Tuscaloosa.

When the FCC gave the novice a little part of the 40 meter band, we found that the roller inductor would allow the rig to tune to 40.

Tom mentioned that you can still see some RF burns on his fingers from tuning up and from throwing the transmit/receive knife switch and holding a Neon bulb to check the tuning.

Tom’s primary interest in Amateur Radio back then, and to this day is in the area of Emergency Communications, MARS and Disaster Response. Tom actually did some serious search and rescue work at the Woodstock, Alabama train wreck in 1951, where he met some Hams, who were using a portable station and sending messages for needed equipment, along with health and welfare messages from survivors. There was only ONE telephone in the entire area. Seeing the Hams sending and receiving those messages over the portable radio triggered his desire to become a Ham.

In later years, as an Air Explorer Boy Scout, he did cross country and river search and rescue. As an adult, he’s been involved in Fire/Rescue and even taught EMT Paramedics at the University of Alabama (aka: The Crimson Tide), in Birmingham and then started the degree program at Eastern Kentucky University.

As mentioned, Tom launched his GERATOL efforts in 2005, along with finally going after his WAS and DXCC. He might have started a bit sooner than 2005, but some of his records were lost or misplaced after Hurricane Katrina took its toll on his home town, his house and even destroyed his son’s house.

Some of his hard copy QSL cards were saved, but many were not readable due to water damage. In true GERATOL fashion, some of his damaged cards were kindly replaced by our fellow GERATOL’ers. Another fact that proves, the GERATOL Net is comprised of a great bunch of ops.

They spent three years in what Tom calls their “Tin-Can-Do” instead of “condo” for three years while he and a countless Church volunteers from around the country and the world helped them rehab their house. They even had an Astronaut show up on one of the days, to help with the repair work.

Between the disruptions caused by Katrina, and having to care for his ailing wife, Tom had to keep putting his quest for a GERATOL number on the back burner. He says he would of course, gladly trade his GERATOL number in, if it meant he was still caring for his wife.

Tom was wondering if anyone out there has taken longer than the 13 years it took him to achieve getting his number. If it did, feel free to reply to this post, or send him a note.  If anyone reading this, took longer than Tom’s 13 years to attain a “G” number,  make a COMMENT on this post and let him know.

With the completion of his quest for a GERATOL number in March of this year, he also finished up his Worked All States. Congrats on that one as well Tom. He achieved DXCC on August 17, 2016 and WPX on August 18, 2016. Both big milestone for many of us Hams.

Tom’s wife was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 2000, and the disease finally took her away from him three years ago. He says he had only been married to her for a short while, 50 years and 6 months. He says, with her, that period of time was a short while. She was a big supporter of his radio and his disaster work. She told him she truly understood it when he left the house in the Birmingham, Alabama area with food, water, radio gear and generators to aid her family and Civil Defense in Gulfport, Mississippi after Hurricane Camille in 1969. When Tom arrived to provide support, he relieved another dedicated op, W5BW, with a heart condition who had been on the air for 72 hours straight !!

A few years ago, Tom finally got a chance to attend Dayton for only the second time, and by chance was staying in the same hotel where a group of GERATOLers were also staying. He made contact with them in the restaurant, and a couple of them took Tom and his co-driver to the restaurant where all the GERATOLers were gathering. Turns out the folks who gave Tom and his driver a ride, were none other than Dave (KJ8V) and his wife Sandy (KJ8W).

Again, CONGRATS to Tom on his new GERATOL Number, and let’s hope his story will help to provide inspiration to those tenacious folks working toward their own numbers this season !!
Feel free to comment on this POST, and add your congrats for Tom, and to thank Tom for his Search and Rescue work over the years.

Also, Tom thanks for taking the time to provide me the data and graphics to complete this posting.

Kevin N1KL

Posted by Jeff – WE0A

Here’s some tools/websites I’ve found useful in planning then making those last few QSOs on an award.  If you’ve got suggestions to add, please, let me know.  Add them to the list.

• VOACAP – Point to Point
  Propagation prediction
  https://www.voacap.com/p2p/index.html
• Proppy – Point to Point
  Propagation prediction
  https://soundbytes.asia/proppy/p2p
• HamSpots
  Spotter network
  Use this to find someone to email, bring them up to the net.
  https://hamspots.net/
• PSK Automatic Propagation Reporter
  Automatic Propagation Activity
  Use this to find someone to email, bring them up to the net.
  https://pskreporter.info/

Congratulations to Dave KJ8V for finishing Endorsement #4 Initial Calls & the 50/50 Award. Congratulations to Frosty on finishing the 50/50 Award and Joe WW8X for finishing the 50/50 Award. Also congratulations to all that finished their basic award after working Hawaii & Alaska. All certificates will be mailed tomorrow 4/10/18.  Sandy KJ8W

04/02/2018

ARRL and CQ magazine have announced the launch, effective immediately, of Logbook of The World (LoTW) support for CQ’s Worked All Zones (WAZ) Award program. The goal of the project, under way since last year, has been to create the proper technical support system to enable radio amateurs to submit LoTW confirmations for WAZ credit, and that has been accomplished, CQ and ARRL said in a joint statement. LoTW already supports CQ’s WPX Award program.

“We are very pleased that participants in CQ’s WAZ award program will now be able to use their LoTW confirmations for award credit,” CQ Editor Rich Moseson, W2VU, said. “CQ WPX Award participants have found it very helpful, and we are sure it will be equally helpful for those pursuing WAZ and its many variations.”

ARRL First Vice President Greg Widin, K0GW, concurred. “Users of LoTW have been telling us for some time that they would like to use QSLs from LoTW to apply for the WAZ award,” he said. “They will now be able to select confirmations to be used for WAZ credit.”

Beta testing has been under way since mid-December 2017 to bring the WAZ Award program into LoTW, and the LoTW technical support team has addressed any problems in the implementation that testers uncovered. Documentation also was improved through feedback from beta testers.

At the same time, each LoTW user was given an additional WAZ account. Standard LoTW credit fees and separate CQ award fees will apply.

LoTW — ARRL’s electronic confirmation system for Amateur Radio contacts —provides contact confirmation when both stations upload their logs to the system, and a match between the logs is confirmed. LoTW has supported the CQ WPX Award program since 2012.

Source: ARRL Website

N1KL  Kevin