Dad - K8HHZ (SK) and I got into ham radio when he took a job at the White Pine Copper Mine -- two of the other industrial electricians were hams. Arne Kangas - W8DCD was the 25th guy to work all USA counties. The other guy was Ensio Suhonen - W8FYZ, a distant relative of Vic. When these guys found out that Dad knew CW from being a combat op in WWII, of course they bugged him until he got a license in 1957.. A year later I wound up taking my Novice test from Ensio Suhonen, and one year after that my Conditional exam from Arne Kangas! They both lived in the little town of Trout Creek, a statewide basketball power, much like my home town, Mass MI.

Incidentally, the grandson of Arne Kangas now holds the call W8DCD and he is on the verge of finishing up all USA counties himself. Somebody also took W8FYZ as a vanity call for some strange reason -- I should investigate to see if it was a relative of Ensio.

By the way, the very first ham rig I ever saw was Ensio's -- B&W 5100B and Collins 75A-4. It was quite a letdown to use a Heath AT-1 and Hallicrafters SX-99 at home!

Here is a picture from last week of my "barn station" .. 75A4 that formerly belonged to W4QM ... Drake 2B that belonged to W8CTY (the Elmer of Saginaw) .... Drake R4C originally owned by K8ZH ... and a Johnson Viking Ranger II, owned by a Novice who never used it, and sold it to me in 1975. Until the last couple of years it had less than 25 hours of time on it. Now I use it all the time. The barn station does not use my "aluminum jungle" -- I put up a BUXCOMM Windom high in a tree and can work darned near anything I want. JT1CO didn't know I was running 40 watts to a wire when responded to my first call, did he?

73, Don K8MFO

Photo and info courtesy of K8MFO
2010