Thursday, October 6, 2022

The Portable Greyline Map

Knowing where there is daylight and darkness over the earth at any given time is somewhat of a necessity when DXing shortwave or mediumwave. There are online maps, sure. But what if you had your own personal daylight/darkness map you could save to your computer and click on any time you wish?

Look for the newest version download at the upper right of this page.

The Daylight/Darkness Greyline Reference Map is produced by my Radio Data MW program.

Included is a GoogleMap-based, HTML-driven map which shows the current daylight/darkness state over the earth. Being a Google-based map, it is zoomable and scrollable. You may choose map view or satellite view. If desired, a home location may set by scrolling the map and clicking "<<Set Home". This will allow you to return to the same reference point as long as the current map page remains open. Depending on your brower, latitude and longitude may be saved across map restarts.

Draw tracks, check distances and bearings to points, all displayed in the marker tooltip

You must have an internet connection to view the map.

The file download is at the upper right of this page. It's a small 19 KB. For more details on usage, be sure to read the readme.txt file contained in the download.

The Portable Greyline Map

INSTALLING

No install necessary! The map is HTML-based, so no regular install is necessary. Simply unzip the downloaded file and click on the map file to run. The map will open up in your web browser. The map is self-contained. Again, you must have an internet connection to view the maps.

THE NIGHT/DAY OVERLAY OR GREYLINE

Greyline propagation, or propagation along the earth's sunrise/sunset terminator, is very noticeable on the 160, 80, and 40 meter ham bands and lower shortwave bands. Medium wave signals can and do travel that path as well. 

A night/day overlay can be drawn or removed by toggling the Greyline button at the top of the map. The overlay will show the areas of the earth in darkness, including the earth's terminator - the band of twilight surrounding the earth.

The night/day overlay shows the width of the earth's terminator and its transition from total darkness to the sunrise and sunset edge. The actual sunrise or sunset point is the edge where the overlay disappears. The lightest band of the overlay is civil twilight, where the sun is just below the horizon to a point 6 degrees below the horizon. The next darkest band is nautical twilight, where the sun is between 6 degrees and 12 degrees below the horizon. The next darkest band is astronomical twilight, where the sun is between 12 degrees and 18 degrees below the horizon. The darkest area is where total darkness exists, where the sun's position is greater than 18 degrees below the horizon. Medium wave and other signals, as described above, can propagate along the terminator at greatly reduced signal attenuation - and are often received at astonishing distances.

The night/day overlay gets UTC from a software call to Javascript. Javascript calculates UTC from your computer clock, as it knows the time difference in local hours to UTC. So you must have your computer clock set correctly and with the proper time zone. Long story short, the night/day overlay is always synced to UTC (at map page load time). The overlay is static until you refresh the page or press the "Update" button, where it will move to its new position.

For mediumwave enthusiasts: Some US stations transmit at reduced power during a period called "CRITICAL HOURS". The FCC defines Critical Hours as the first two hours of daylight after sunrise and the last two hours of daylight before sunset.


Tuesday, September 6, 2022

shango066's Station Tour Of KYET-1170

YouTube contributor shango066 has produced one of the most fascinating station tour videos I've ever seen. It is of AM Stereo C-QUAM station KYET-1170 in Golden Valley, Arizona. KYET broadcasts daytime 6,000 watts to a 190 ft. monopole tower, omni-directionally, and 1 watt at night.

See AM broadcast radio at its grittiest in the desert of western Arizona!


Wednesday, May 4, 2022

The Loop-on-Ground Antenna For The Noise Challenged

In this article, we'll discuss the Loop-on-Ground antenna and how I've used it to advantage for mediumwave and shortwave DXing in an extremely RFI-ridden environment. We'll also discuss sources of RFI and how they might be minimized.

Those of us who have been in this hobby of DXing for many years are lucky to remember the days of negligible electrical interference. My DXing days go back to about 1959 or 1960. It was about then that the modern-day light dimmer was conceived, using newly-developed thyristors and triacs to vary the "duty cycle" (on/off time) of the full AC voltage. It was the birth of the RFI avalanche.

Electronic hash proceeded quickly. Radio frequency interference (RFI) - the crescendo of noise on the bands - is becoming virtually impossible to identify and corral. Back in the 1980s when it started getting worse, it was still possible to identify sources and eliminate them using time-worn line-choke-suppression methods. Now, not so much. The genie is out of the bottle and it ain't going back in.

One of the best tools I have found to identify RFI is a spectrum analyzer. No, a $2000 unit isn't necessary. You already have one if you own an SDR receiver. I have an SDRPlay RSP1a, purchased at $119 U.S. and it's quite easy to take a look at any frequency from 10 KHz on up to see where the problem areas are. Spread a short wire across the floor in the house, connect it up, and you will see all kinds of mysterious RF. A pocket or portable sniffer receiver can work for this too but it's much easier to see the RFI's extent on an SDR receiver's spectrum display. The sniffer receiver is better used to locate the RFI.

I currently use my RadiWow R-108 as a sniffer receiver when walking around the house or property. This is used once the RFI "problem" frequencies are identified on the analyzer. Your Tecsun PL-380, PL-310, or other portable receiver can do the same.

The next two sections of this article, BIG OFFENDERS and ANTENNA SOLUTIONS FOR NOISY ENVIRONMENTS, are reproduced here for clarity, and as a re-introduction to low noise antennas. They originally appeared in my article The RFI Menace And Reduced Noise Antennas.

THE BIG OFFENDERS

Let's go over the big RFI offenders to our DXing. The big offenders at my DXing home are:

My Hewlett-Packard 24 inch computer monitor. Huge, wideband, low frequency buzzing in a range across the VLF, longwave and lower mediumwave bands, particularly in the 300-900 KHz segment. The switching power supply creates some of this but the majority comes right off the screen's surface when the display is lit. Efforts to reduce this RFI have only been mildly successful, but luckily its range is only about 15 feet. The downside is the radios need to be within 15 feet of the monitor, particularly the SDR.

My laptop's switching power supply. I have a recent (2020) Acer Nitro 5, 15.6 inch, with AMD Ryzen 5 4600H mobile CPU. It generates wideband, low frequency hash between 0 and 600 KHz. Virtually all of this disappears when running on battery only. You can't run on battery forever, however.

Old style fluorescent lighting, particularly the old 4 ft. shop lights. Best is to just keep them turned off.

Light dimmers. Don't use them. Keep them off or remove them.

LED light bulbs for house lighting. The bad ones create a high frequency hiss. For some the range is only a few feet, but the house is full of them now due to power saving measures. Use good quality LED bulbs. Philips has been highly recommended. It has been reported in the DX forums that the GE LEDs (both Classic and Relax series, possibly others) are totally RFI free.

Low voltage lighting used in the kitchen. Lots of wiring through the walls go to a transformer box in the cellar. When the lights are on they inject an additional huge buzz at the lower end of the mediumwave band, peaking at about 550 KHz. The emissions from these range throughout the house. The condition is virtually eliminated by keeping the lights off.

A myriad of switching "chopper" style wall transformers. Some are much worse than others. Try to identify the worst offenders. I try to put all of these on power strips so I can switch them off when not in use.

Unknown sources of frequency spikes. Strong 10 KHz spaced spikes from 9 MHz to 16 MHz, peaking in the 9.5-9.9 MHz and 10.7-12.5 MHz area. This one is intermittent. It can last ten minutes or an hour or more, then disappears. I have not ruled out that this signal may be coming from the mains feed to the house.

**Note: this RFI source just above has been identified. It comes from a $2000 Fisher & Paykel kitchen refrigerator. Fisher & Paykel is a major appliance manufacturer which is a subsidiary of Chinese home appliance manufacturer Haier. It is a multinational corporation based in East Tamaki, New Zealand. In 2012, Haier, a major Chinese appliance manufacturer, purchased over 90% of Fisher & Paykel Appliance shares. Partial solution: wrapping the power line cord through two Workman RFC-1 snap ferrite cores has reduced the problem 50%.

A new 43 inch Toshiba smart TV and DISH satellite box combo. Tremendously strong RFI, a high-pitched squeal in the LW and MW bands coming out of these boxes out to a 6-8 ft. radius, which then couples to lines. It might be possible to put these on a switchable power strip, but then you have the device reboot problem every time you want to use them. Satellite box boot time is often 5 minutes. That's a no-go.

Those are just the biggest offenders. Not mentioned is the RFI coming off the computerized de-humidifier in the cellar, the computerized water conditioning system, and the two computerized heat pumps hanging off the back of the garage.

So you can see the frustration. It's not practical to try to eliminate all of this RFI unless you'd like a lifetime career in RFI removal. I suspect this is the case almost everywhere.

ANTENNA SOLUTIONS FOR NOISY ENVIRONMENTS

Being a ham as well, I've experimented with just about every wire antenna you can imagine over the last 60 years. My days of winding power line chokes are over. Common-mode chokes, current isolators, et al, are the rage these days - these to reduce RF pickup on the feedline and to lessen the possibility of the feedline from becoming part of the antenna system. They can help, but they are a Band-Aid to the real problem. Why not lessen the noise in a different way? My solution is to build inherently quiet antennas which are resistant to noise, and feed them correctly

Three things are important.

1. Get the antenna well away and out of your house.

An end-fed longwire attached to your shack window fed with 15 ft. of coax across the floor isn't going to do it. If possible, on your lot, put the feed point as far away as you can. This, for starters, is one of the most important things you can do. Don't worry about cable feed length. Coax feed at mediumwave or even shortwave frequencies has minimal loss. 100 feet of the old 50 ohm RG-58 on mediumwave presents only about 0.37 dB signal loss, virtually unnoticeable. RG-6A TV coax, 75 ohm, is even less at about 0.28 dB per 100 ft. I use RG-6A here almost exclusively, as it is cheap and readily available through many suppliers.

So, get that feed point as far away from your house as possible.

2. If you can, choose an antenna that is basically a short circuit. What did you just say?

Loop antennas are essentially short circuits to high frequency impulse noise. Long wires, verticals, and dipoles are not. They are RFI magnets, and particularly so if they are not balanced antennas (the dipole is at least balanced). Much of the high frequency noise component of RFI is short circuited in the loop. Small loops are even better for noise suppression, but their drawback is they often need active amplification due to lower signal delivery. Loops work well when placed close to the ground and you don't need high supports for wires.

They can also be laid flat on the ground itself which reduces RFI even more. This is where our Loop-on-Ground antenna will come in.

3. Use an isolating transformer at the antenna feedpoint and at the shack end connection to the receiver. Very important. Feed any antenna with a transformer-balun isolating device, even if it is naturally a 1:1 match. There must be no common ground connection between the coax feedline and the antenna, i.e., between the primary and secondary of the transformer-balun. The antenna should remain floating, and the coax remain floating. This isolating-matching device does three things which help abate noise:

     1) Matching the antenna greatly increases received signal strength. Increasing signal strength often will raise the signal above the noise floor. Remember when receivers had preselectors to peak the antenna, which made the difference of hearing a signal or not? This is what a broadband matching transformer is actually doing - matching the antenna to the receiver across a wide range of frequencies.

     2) The transformer, at least the one we will use, totally isolates the antenna from the receiver, eliminating the direct wire connection and lessening RFI picked up by the antenna from transferring to the coax. Much of the RFI will be consumed in what I call the secondary, or load side (antenna side) of the balun, as it appears as a direct short to the high frequency component of noise.

     3) The transformer/balun reduces antenna loading because it presents a proper load impedance to the antenna. Loading down the antenna destroys bandwidth and lowers signal strength. Take a longwire for example. A longwire antenna has an inherently high feed impedance, generally 450 ohms, nothing near the usual 50 ohms of a receiver. With no matching device, the input signal delivered to the receiver is a simple resistance ratio. The signal is delivered through a 450 + 50 ohm series divider. The receiver gets 50/500ths of the available signal without the proper transformation. That's 1/10 of the signal being picked up by the antenna! No wonder my receiver can't hear!

THE LOOP-ON-GROUND ANTENNA, or LoG

Now we get to the Loop-on-Ground antenna, or LoG. The LoG antenna is another variation of the close-circuited loop, only it lays flat on the ground. It is also best fed with a balun. KK5JY has the preeminent article on the Loop On Ground antenna, with illustrations. Be sure to check it out. It is the inspiration for my Loop-on-Ground which I use for mediumwave and shortwave.

http://kk5jy.net/LoG/

KK5JY's LoG antenna performs best from about 2-8 MHz, at about 60 ft. total wire length. Wanting to try a LoG for mediumwave, I decided to buy a 100 ft. spool of insulated, 18 gauge wire. These are readily available from Amazon for about $9. I ordered one and experimented.

KK5JY, being a ham, based his design on covering the 160, 80, and 40 meter ham bands. We will increase the loop size to cover the mediumwave band. It will be effective all the way up to the 31 meter band and beyond.

The Nooelec 9:1 balun connection

The LoG is generally arranged in a square and fed at one corner. It is somewhat directional, having an extremely flattened hourglass pattern, with slight nulls at the feed corner and the corner opposite the feed. In practice I have found its directionality hardly noticeable. Both high and low angle reception are good, within its range, with high angle being predominant. Studies have shown that the pattern is similar to a big ball set on the ground.

Don't have concerns about low angle reception. As I write, I am tuned to 530 KHz at 3 AM in the morning here on the east coast of the U.S. On the channel fighting it out are CHLO-530, Brampton, Ontario (193 km @ 250 watts), and 530-Radio Encyclopaedia in Cuba (2300 km).

Best results are when the overall loop length is about 15% of a full wave for the frequency of interest. As stated, a 60 ft. total length works well for the 2-8 MHz range. It is usable to about 15 MHz, though sensitivity drops off above the 25 meter band (11.500 - 12.200 MHz).

Initial testing for KK5JY's 60 feet of wire on the ground were not encouraging in the mediumwave band. Signal strengths were down except at the very high end. 100 feet total wire length works out to an optimal 1480 KHz, and greatly increases the signal strengths throughout mediumwave. 120-140 feet should be even better. Ballpark ranges are thus: 530 KHz - 278 ft., 1700 KHz - 86 ft.

Lay your 100 ft. of wire out in a square, 25 ft. to each side, and feed it at a corner. Exact square shape is not paramount, but try to keep it as close to square as possible. Remember, loop area is important - we want as large an open area as possible. The loop can be layed right on the surface of the ground or pinned down with U-nails. Some have even dug it in an inch or two. This winter, mine has even been buried under 12 inches of snow for the last month, and the LoG has still performed admirably.

The loop must be fed with a balun and remain ungrounded. KK5JY's 2-8 MHz loop exhibited a feed impedance orbiting the 400 ohm range. That's about 8:1 for a 50 ohm coax feedline. I'm using a commercial Nooelec 9:1 receiver balun, available from Amazon for under $20. It has proven to be close enough, though I'm planning on experimenting with different homebrew toroid cores and turns ratios. My loop is fed with 100 ft. of RG-6A coax (75 ohm), though I've experimented out to 175 ft. I've found the 100 ft. minimum distance from the house to be adequate in relieving 95% of the noise problem. It is important not to ground any leg of this antenna as that will upset its balance. Also do not earth-ground the coax shield. Early models of the Nooelec 9:1 balun (v1) joined the primary and secondary windings electrically through a center-tapped secondary. Be sure to get the new version of the Nooelec balun. They have eliminated this connection.

The Nooelec Balun One Nine (v2)

The LoG is an excellent low noise performer. My 100 ft. length lying on the ground shows close to 15 db less noise than a 6x12 ft. flag antenna, with about equal signal strengths. Similar results were found with tests in the tropical band (60 meters). The difference gained is in the substantially better signal-to-noise (SNR) ratio. A 15 dB reduction in noise while holding the same signal strength as the small flag antenna is a 15 dB SNR improvement!

The antenna is fairly non-directional, so no competition is claimed with the directional beverage-on-ground (BoG) or traditional above ground beverages. Internet reports have made the claim it works well in some localities but maybe not so well in others. Discussion of ground conductivity under the LoG then ensued, with pros and cons. I suspect many dismiss it outright without really doing a little deeper experimentation. Initial reaction is always "how can this work if it is lying on the ground?"

Signals need only to break the atmospheric noise level by a few dB to be received. But first you must lessen the electrical hash so it is below that level. With the LoG, general atmospheric noise levels here are well under a microvolt from MW through 30 MHz, somewhere in the -110 to -120 dBm area, depending on the band. Remember, -107 dBm is one microvolt signal level, a very small signal. Check out KK5JY's page where he has produced some signal graphs.

LET'S SEE SOME RESULTS

The best way to show off the LoG antenna is to show its reception advantages on an SDR's spectrum and waterfall displays. Using an SDRPlay RSP1a and SDR-Console gives a dramatic result.

BEFORE - SDR using a 100 ft. longwire, run from shack window out to a tree. Longwire fed at the window through an RF Systems Magnetic Longwire Balun to a short length of coax to the receiver. The electrical hash is deafening, as seen in the waterfall.


----------

AFTER - SDR using the Loop-on-Ground antenna and fed with 100 ft. of coax. No hash.


We are tuned to 530 KHz in both examples. It's 3:14 AM in the morning in western New York (display time is in UTC, 08:14). 

In the first example, on the 100 ft. longwire, look at the broadband electrical hash saturating the band. It is running S5 on the scale at left. There are signals there at the S8 level, but they are not intelligible due to poor signal-to-noise ratio.

Now, look at the second example, using the LoG antenna. No electrical hash. What you see on the spectrum display is the atmospheric noise level, just above S1, about 0.3 microvolts. The signals at 530 KHz are at S8, and we have multiple signals. In the headphones are two stations: On the channel fighting it out are CHLO-530, Brampton, Ontario (193 km @ 250 watts), and 530-Radio Encyclopaedia in Cuba (2300 km).

The difference is in bettering the signal-to-noise ratio. In the LoG example, signals are a full seven S-units out of the noise, proof-positive that an antenna lying on the ground can work. Again, don't worry about low angle reception problems. 530-Radio Encyclopaedia in Cuba at 2300 km has a calculated arrival angle of about 7 degrees.

I also enjoy SWLing. My 100 ft. LoG is effective to the 31 meter shortwave band and beyond to 25 meters. Better results for higher frequencies can be had by shortening the wire length some. One of my favorite things to DX is Asia as the sun sets there. If conditions are good, signals just pop on the 31, 41, and 60 meter bands with the 100 ft. LoG. Right now I am tuned to the BBC/English service at Kranji, Singapore on 9580 KHz (125 KW) as I write at 1115 UTC (15,100 km distant). They are arm-chair copy.

An excellent 16 page thread discussing the LoG antenna and matching techniques can be found on the QRZ forums. It is well worth a read.


Testimonial from that thread:

"Give it a try and post back here with results. I would like to hear how it works out for you. Just do not panic when you first hook up the antenna. Initially it will look like a Dumb (Dummy) Load because there is no noise, and signal levels will be down. But SNR (signal-to-noise ratio) levels will more than make up for signal loss. A signal level of -100 dBm is a HOT signal when the noise level is down at -140 dBm, that leaves you 40 dB SNR, a crystal clear signal."

FEEDING A POCKET OR PORTABLE RADIO HAVING NO EXTERNAL ANTENNA JACK

For the MW broadcast band, feeding the LoG or any low noise antenna to a pocket or portable radio is easy. I find inductive coupling best.

Salvage a short ferrite rod or bar from an old pocket radio. Three inches in length is about right. Remove all the magnet wire from it. Using some solid, insulated telephone wire of about 24-26 gauge, wind about 15-20 turns close-wound around the ferrite rod. Solder or clip the two ends of wire from this coil to the coax feeder coming from the antenna, one to the center and one to the shield. Hold the ferrite close to the radio's internal ferrite which will inductively-couple the signal to the radio. The advantage over a passive loop here is you have a broadband antenna which does not have to be tuned.

Ferrite coupling

ADDITIONAL READING

Fabricating Impedance Transformers for Receiving Antennas, by John Bryant:


Broadband Receiving Antenna Matching, by Mark Connelley, WA1ION:


WRAP UP

I would encourage many of you with RFI problems to try the Loop-on-Ground antenna. Don't dismiss it just because it lies on the ground. Cut to the right size, the LoG can be effective anywhere from longwave to 30 MHz. Experiment!

Friday, February 4, 2022

Working Jean Shepherd

Jean Parker Shepherd, Jr. (1921-1999), often referred to by the nickname Shep, was an American storyteller, humorist, radio and TV personality, writer, and actor. With a career that spanned decades, Jean was best known for the film A Christmas Story (1983), which he narrated and co-scripted. It was based on stories from his youth, growing up in Hammond, Indiana, in the 1930s.

Perhaps lesser known, Jean was a lifelong radio enthusiast and ham operator. In his middle years, he regaled his nightly WOR-710 radio audience with quirky social commentary, stories of post-depression life, of early radio, and his Army years.

I grew up listening to the Jean Shepherd radio show from about 1960 till 1966 when I went into the service. His show was carried by WOR-710 in New York. It was on every night, Monday to Friday, from 10 PM till 11. I was a kid and lived in the Philadelphia area, only 90 miles from NYC. I would lie in bed cuddled up to a 5 tube superhet and then later a transistor radio. In between I would DX. Wolfman Jack would boom in from the Texas/Mexico border.

I got my ham license in 1963, and Jean's previous night's monolog was always the talk of the high school radio club every day. He was idolized among the young ham radio crowd because Jean was also a ham. His call was K2ORS.

I had the privilege of working Jean on 15 meter SSB one day in the early 1980s. I was out of the service and married and lived in the Denver, Colorado area. My call was W0OHF at the time. The band was seemingly dead. I called CQ and this voice came back: "W0OHF, this is K2ORS". It took a few seconds to register. I hadn't thought of Jean in quite a few years. Could it be??

It indeed was. He was in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, enjoying a respite of sorts. He was operating portable from the top floor of a condo building with a short stick vertical clamped to the porch railing. We chatted for 45 minutes.

I related the story of my youth to him and how much his radio shows meant to me as a teenager. And I thanked him for that. It was one of the greatest thrills of my radio-life.

His stories of early radio and Army life set the stage for my own life. He was one of my heroes.

If you remember the famed "brass figlagee with bronze oak-leaf palm" or "watch out for live wires", you know of Jean Shepherd.

In 2005, Shepherd was posthumously inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame.

"Excelsior, you fathead!!!", he would exclaim.

Thank you, Shep, for all the wonderful memories.

Bill, WE7W

Jean Shepherd, 1921-1999


Saturday, January 15, 2022

Canadian Graveyard Stations

The other day I stripped off the official list of Canadian graveyard stations, per Industry Canada. Taken from their database of Dec. 21, 2021. All of these still show licensed by IC. One or more of the lower power ones may be inactive. TIS stations? The database doesn't indicate it.

Call    Frequency  Power  Location

----    ---------  -----  ----------------

CBPD    1230       5      Glacier Park, BC

CHFC    1230       250    Churchill, MB 

CFNI    1240       1000   Port Hardy, BC 

CJOR    1240       1000   Osoyoos, BC 

CKMK    1240       1000   Mackenzie, BC 

CJAR    1240       1000   The Pas, MB 

CKIM    1240       1000   Baie Verte, NF 

CBLE    1240       40     Beardmore, ON 

CBLO    1240       40     Mattawa, ON 

CINL    1340       1000   Ashcroft, BC 

CJEV    1340       50     Elkford, BC 

CFKC    1340       250    Creston, BC 

CBLB    1340       40     Schreiber, ON 

CHNL    1400       1000   Clearwater, BC 

CIOR    1400       1000   Princeton, BC 

CBG     1400       4000   Gander, NF 

CBOF    1400       40     Rolphton, ON 

CBMD    1400       40     Chapais, QC 

CBKA    1450       40     Stewart, BC 

CFAB    1450       1000   Windsor, NS 

CBLF    1450       40     Foleyet, ON 

CHOU    1450       2000   MontrĂ©al, QC 

CBPC    1490       5      Glacier Park, BC 

CFNC    1490       50     Cross Lake, MB 

CHTO    1490       23     Mississauga, ON 

CBPP    1490       20     Prince Edward Island, PE 

CJSN    1490       1000   Shaunavon, SK


Friday, January 14, 2022

Visiting Barry Goldwater

Remember Barry Goldwater, K7UGA? Yes, that Barry Goldwater, the senator who ran for president against Lyndon Johnson in 1964. Barry was a ham operator.

When I was a kid in 1964, the year Goldwater ran for president, my high school friend Jeff and I took the afternoon off from school and went to the local W.T.Grants store parking lot and watched him speak during a campaign sweep through Warminster, PA. I was thrilled. Of course, all my other ham buddies were there to cheer him on. There wasn't a teenaged ham who wasn't for Barry.

In 1987 I moved to Phoenix, Arizona, where I spent a couple of years before moving on to smaller digs. Now, many know that Goldwater was from Arizona, and specifically from Phoenix. I remembered one time when I was a kid seeing a picture of his house in QST magazine. It was the perfect DX location, high on a mountain overlooking the city, with a huge antenna array on a tall tower. Barry was quite active in the amateur MARS service too and ran many phone patches for GIs overseas, especially during the Vietnam era. I decided it shouldn't be too hard to find that house, if he was still in the same one.

So, one day I was running around in my car and found myself in north Phoenix. Now in north Phoenix, there are several little conical shaped mountains. Understand too that there was housing all around them, even on the tops of these things. So, I started looking around. Sure enough, on the highest one right off of Lincoln Ave. stood a huge antenna tower and array. Something came over me and I thought - what the hell - I'll drive up there and see what happens. So, I did.

I snaked up this road, past lesser housing, and found myself at the top of this small mountain at the entrance to a large, gated property and 1950s style house. There in front of me was the huge antenna array. I just knew this had to be Goldwater's house. The gate was open, so....

I drove in and parked by the garage, which was separate from the house, but connected through a covered walkway. Well, I had come this far and not gotten arrested, so I walked up to the front door and knocked. An elderly woman came to the door. In my most innocent voice, I identified myself, told her I was a ham, and asked if Mr. Goldwater was in. She replied she was the housekeeper and that no, Mr. Goldwater was in Washington on business. She then asked me if I would like to see the station!!! I about wet my pants, and of course I said YES!!! She took me into the garage, which Barry had remodeled into a first-class ham station, all in cherry wood paneling. The entire thing was expensive Collins equipment. All of it!!!! All set into a custom-made desk/wall in the middle of the room. On the outer walls were dozens of 8x10 pictures of Barry with every leader of the world you can think of, from Nikita Khrushchev of the USSR, King Hussein of Jordan, to Kennedy, to Nixon, and Eisenhower on down. In front of the huge radio desk/wall was a giant coffee table with a glass cover. In that coffee table were keys to the cities of the world. There had to have been two dozen of them in there. What an experience!

The housekeeper let me wander around and look at everything. When I was done, I said thank you and goodbye and drove back down the mountain, flying about 100 feet off the road. I had been to Barry Goldwater's house and had been given the tour!!

Thought you might like this story. People have told me that it took balls to do that. But to me it seemed like one ham visiting another. I'm sure if Barry had been home, he would have given me the tour, just the same. Hams are like that.

Bill WE7W