~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ W7LZ Biography ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The cat whisker touched the crystal and my earphones produced a loud
signal from WHO, an AM radio station in Des Moines, Iowa. That effect
has caused a lifetime interest in radio.
I was about 12 years old, living on a farm near Swea City, Iowa. I had
seen an advertisement for a crystal radio kit in a Popular Science
magazine. After receiving the parts, wiring them up, and stringing a
wire from my 2nd floor bedroom window, out to a tree, I was surprised
at the AM radio signal. The tuning mechanism was a coil of wire, about
the size of a person's fist, and tuning was accomplished by bending
the coil in different places, like opening a book.
In 1952 while living in Whittier, California I sent for the MRL 1-Tube
all-wave receiver kit from Modern Radio Laboratories in Redwood City,
California, see web site http://www.modernradiolabs.com/. This was a
single tube regenerative receiver. With this radio I was able to pick
up a station in Lima, Peru and became excited about being a short wave
radio listener.
In 1952 while riding my bicycle with a friend, I saw a home that had an
antenna stretched between poles in a back yard. There was a man working
in the front yard of this home so I stopped and talked with Robert
Dailey, W6UKC (later N6AZB), he told me about amateur radio and he
became my Elmer.
During my sophomore year in high school I passed the novice exam and
received call sign KN6BZO. I built a transmitter featured in the
June 1953 issue of Radio & TV News. It was named 'Three watts in a coffee
can'. I used this transmitter until someone loaned me better equipment.
W6UKC was my first contact on August 23, 1953.
My first field day was up on Hollywood Mountain during June of 1954.
Our call sign was W6YAS. I still remember that huge generator that was
located on a trailer, it was about the size of a Volkswagen Bug.
During my Junior High School year I surprised the radio shop teacher by
passing my General Class license, hence the 'N' was removed from my call
sign and I became K6BZO. During those years I remember the green eye on
the 2 meter Gonset rigs and the BC10 military rigs that many hams were
working with. I belonged to the Rio Hondo Amateur Radio Club, in
Whittier. This name was later used by the radio club at the Rio Hondo
Junior College.
During the 1960's, and 1970's family came first and I allowed my license
to expire.
In 1981, while visiting my late wife's uncle, W6GQK, near Lake Tahoe, I
was fascinated with his Kenwood TS820 transceiver, with it's digital
display , and I again became interested in amateur radio.
I attended some radio classes in Tucson and passed my Technician and
General Classes licenses on the same day. I received the call sign of
KC7LZ. I ordered, and built, a Heathkit HW-8 and started a weekly
schedule with my 2nd time around Elmer, W6GQK (latter changed to AE7AA).
We have continued an SSB schedule for over 20 years. The HW-8 was a test
to see if I really was going to stay with this hobby. My next rig was a
Kenwood TS-530 transceiver and now I was really into this hobby. I was
getting interested in DX and needed a beam antenna. I was able to
purchase a used tower, rotor and High Gain TH3MK3 tri-band beam from
one of the members of the IBM Radio Club. After using the TS530 for
six years I purchased a Kenwood TS-940, which I still use.
I was able to join the Tucson IBM Radio Club fairly close to its
inception. I was asked to be Vice President when the V.P. moved away
from Tucson. This automatically put me in the President's seat at the
end of that year. I have also been president of the local DX club.
My year of being president of TIARC was not a fun year. At that time we
had a board to advise the president and the board vetoed every idea that
I proposed. It was difficult to get members to take on projects and I
had to take on the ARRL Field Day chairman's job. That was one of the
years we camped out near the top of the ski lift on Mt. Lemmon.
Remember the thousands of ladybugs that covered the tree trunks!
One of the high lights of my amateur radio hobby has been meeting IBM
hams in other locations. During 1982 Jacques Motte, F6HMJ, sent a VNET
message to IBM radio club around the world asking for help in organizing
an IBM radio contest, that would be called the IBM QSO Party.
Dave Miller, W0GMO, received the message and asked me if I was
interested. I volunteered to promote the contest in North America and
score the logs for the U.S.A. Jacques took care of the rest of the
world. When Jacques retired from IBM in 1992 Ted Stiles, G0BHK, took
over Jacques role in the contest. I worked with Ted until I retired from
IBM in 1993.
During February of 1988 Bettye and I took a honeymoon trip to New
Zealand where we met Geoff Smith, ZL2BDW, and his wife Sue. Geoff showed
us around the Wellington area, we visited his IBM office, and the local
New Zealand Radio Relay League office. The next day we took a ferry with
them to the South Island and visited several hams. We were picked up by
a local sheep rancher and were shown around the local area of Picton.
We will never forget coming back to the ferry terminal and finding that
the evening ferry was out for service. We had to go to a harbor hotel
and spend the night. This was probably the only time in my life that I
will rent two hotel rooms for the same night, hi. It is these kinds of
experiences that one can laugh about for the rest of our lives. Over
the years, Geoff has been a big contributor to the IBM QSO Party. For
the past several years he has traveled to the Quartz Hill Rhombic Farm
in order to get a good signal to the northern hemisphere during the QSO
party.
We journeyed on to Australia and met Ian Neale, VK2BVN, and his wife
Robbie, in the Sydney area. Ian and Robbie took us for a ride and we
saw some beautiful beaches and were able to pet a koala bear. Ian and
Robbie prepared a nice BBQ and we were able to meet their children.
During a trip to England in 1989 Bettye and I visited the Hursley IBM
labatory and several IBM hams came to lunch to meet us. Ted presented me
with my 1989 IBM QSO Party award, a pewter mug. We then traveled to
France where I presented Jacques with his award mug.. We visited with
Jacques and his wife Evelyne for several days. At that time they lived
at St. Paul de Vence, near Nice, France. I was able to sit down and
discuss the IBM QSO Party face to face after all those years of typing
VNET messages. Jacques and Evelyne were able to visit Tucson in 1993
and we visited them again during 2003.
During 1991 we traveled to Stockholm, Sweden. Lars Berg, SM0CCM, picked
us up at the airport and we stayed two nights with Lars and Ingalill at
their home near Stockholm. Lars showed us the sights in Stockholm and
took us to the train station so that we could travel to Norway. After a
trip up the coast of Norway we returned to Oslo where we meet Kara
Bjerke, LA2FF, he showed us the ski jump used in the Olympics and the
Vigeland sculptures in Vigeland park. We had an enjoyable farewell
dinner with him.
During 1983 Paul, AA6Z, and I started the IBM Saturday Net. on 20 meters
SSB, Gordy, WB6OVH, and Neil, WB6VIV were soon on the net with us. This
net is still going strong. Mostly we get IBM check-ins from about Little
Rock, Arkansas and Rochester Minnesota westward.
I worked really hard to get my CW speed up to about 80 % copy, at
30 WPM, and passed the test 100% for the Extra Class license. I am not
good at CW, it just doesn't seem to work for me. When the vanity call
sign came along I requested a whiskey call sign, thus the current W7LZ
call sign.
I have kept on working DX on my TH3MK3 and currently have 314 countries
worked and 306 confirmed. In 1995, after moving to a new QTH, I put up
a 20-meter monobander beam and have really enjoyed the narrow front lobe
on my High Gain 204BA-S. Thanks go out to the TIARC members who helped
me get my tower back up and installing the large beam.
73,
Roger - W7LZ
www.rogerroot.com
Last Updated: 14 April 2012