W6IWI, Tucson AZ

We moved from Arvada CO to Tucson AZ in 2021. An archive of the Colorado station is here. This page describes the current station in AZ.

The call letters W6IWI were first used by Kauko Hallikainen in the 1930s (1933 license, 1937 ARRL membership). See the 1934, 1936, 1937, and 1938 Amateur Radio Callbook. The 1930s QSL card was similar to that shown above (I may still have one of the originals somewhere). By 1952, the call had been reassigned to Carson Donaldson in Inglewood CA. He held it through 1977. I acquired the call in 2016. Prior to that, I held the call WA6FDN, and prior to that, WN6FDN. The WA6FDN license was first granted in 1969, with WN6FDN in 1968. WA6FDN shows up in the Summer 1969 Callbook. In December 1969, I took the exam for the First Class Radiotelephone License with Radar Endorsement at the FCC office in San Francisco. That license was later replaced by the FCC with the General Radiotelephone Operator's License. NL7XM offers a great service. He has over 100 years of Radio Amateur Callbooks and will find the first appearance of your callsign in the Callbook. For a reasonable cost, he'll provide certified copies of these pages verifying that the callsign was held by the particular person on this date. This is what he sent me for WN6FDN and WA6FDN.

WN6FDN started with a Heathkit DX-60 transmitter and a National NC-300 receiver running CW on HF. WA6FDN used a Viking Ranger transmitter running AM, CW, and RTTY on HF. RTTY used a Teletype model 15 printer (also see a slow motion video of a model 15 in operationg), and a model 14 typing reperf and transmitter distributor. W6IWI now uses an SEA 245 with a Dentron Clipperton-L amplifier running RTTY, CW and SSB into a Zero Five 30 Foot Flagpole Antenna. VHF and UHF FM are covered with a Baofeng UV-5R and a Wouxun KG-UV-6X. The Wouxun KG-UV-6X normally drives a Diamond X50A vertical antenna at home. Mobile info is here.

HF Station Details

• Teletype Model 15KSR Printer
• Teletype Model 14 Typing Reperf with keyboard
• Teletype Model 14 Transmitter Distributor
• Flesher TU-170
• Homebrew DSP Terminal Unit
• Seacom SEA245 HF Transceiver - Seacom SEA 245. This runs 150W CW or SSB between 1.6 MHz and 30 MHz.
• A - 1 meter of RG-8/U 50 ohm coax
• SEA 1630 antenna tuner
• B - 3 meters of RG-8/U 50 ohm coax
• Daiwa 501H HF/VHF cross needle watt meter. This meter monitors the power into the Dentron Clipperton-L Amplifier.
• B - 1 meters of RG-8/U 50 ohm coax.
• Dentron Clipperton-L Amplifier - A 1 kW grounded grid linear amplifier using four 572B triodes.
• C - 1 meter RG-8/U 50 ohm coax
• Daiwa 501H HF/VHF cross needle watt meter. This meter measures the amplifier output power and the reflected power from the selected antenna.
• D - 1 meter RG-8/U 50 ohm coax
• E - 10 meters RG-8/U 50 ohm coax
• MFJ-998-RT
• Inverted L Antenna - Previous temporary antenna
• Zero Five 30 Foot Flagpole Antenna
• Instructograph Morse Code training machine in collection.

Maximum Usable Frequency (17.42 MHz at 16 Apr 2024 2300 GMT)

The graph shows the MUF and OWF for the past two days. Drag right to see previous values. Use the mouse scroll wheel to zoom in and out. Right click to get back to the original view.

W6IWI HF Activity

The table below shows recent contacts logged on qrz.com.

RBN Report

The table below is generated by a PHP script that pulls JSON data from the Reverse Beacon Network, parses it, calculates distance and bearing based on latitude and longitude, then shows data for the last 100 spots. Frequency changes greater than 1 kHz or time changes greater than 1 hour are shown in bold. The Rx links link to the QRZ page for the station. The SNR links link to a graph of signal to noise ratio versus time for that receiver, mode (CW or RTTY), and band (data limited to 100 spots from RBN)

The background color is green if the distance is greater than 3,000 miles. The Relative Distance column has a * for every 200 miles.

The plot below shows a historic plot of W6IWI HF CW and RTTY activity.

Also see here for a graphical representation of all RBN data. There is also a new version under development that shows similar graphs but also paths between transmit and receive sites on a map.

Search RBN for Your Station

NOTE: RBN only reports CQ or TEST. It does not report every QSO. Send one of the following (I use CW and RTTY) to generate RBN spots:

• CQ CQ CQ CQ DE CallSign Callsign
• TEST TEST TEST DE CallSign CallSign

You can also use the form below to get a more detailed RBN report.

More RBN Fun!

Voice of America Coverage Analysis Program

Find Hams in your Neighborhood

The Ham Shack

Operating Position The image at the right shows the operating position. Left to right, the following items are visible. Teletype model 15 for Heavy Metal RTTY Top Shelf Dentron Clipperton-L HF power amplifier Daiwa CN-501H RF power meter between the output of the Clipperton-L and the line to the antenna. Behind the CN-501H is an MFJ 4117 power injector to put 12VDC on the outgoing coax to drive the MFJ 998RT remote antenna tuner. Above the CN-501H is a Wouxon KG-UV6X VHF/UHF handheld transceiver. It is driving an external VHF/UHF vertical antenna Middle Shelf Seacomm SEA245 HF transceiver control head. The transceiver itself is on a shelf under the table Daiwa CN-501H RF power meter on top of the Seacomm SEA245 HF transceiver control head. This wattmeter is on the input to the Dentron Clipperton-L and after the SEA 1630 antenna tuner as shown in the block diagram above. Battery operated digital clock set to UTC. Line operated clocks are often reset by RF. EM63 TX Android tablet running DroidRTTY and Morse Code Reader. Driven by the Seacomm SEA245 unbalanced low level receive audio output (on the transceiver itself). This output is run through a voltage divider with a series 100k and 2.2k to ground to reduce the level down to microphone level suitable for the audio input of the tablet. See here for information on the TRRS audio connector used on tablet computers. An adapter cable similar to this adapts the tablet audio input to an unbalanced shielded line to the transceiver audio output. Bottom Shelf USL CM-8E cinema booth monitor. The CM-8E is across the SEA245 audio bus. The DSP in the CM-8E is configured to act as a narrow CW filter. The headphone output of the CM-8E is used to listen to the filtered audio. In front of shelves Vibroplex Blue Racer Deluxe bug with Round Arm Vari-Speed Accessory to slow the bug down to about 15 wpm. MFJ 557 straight key with code practice oscillator. The code practice oscillator provides CW sidetone since the SEA245 does not provide sidetone. A pair of diodes prevent interaction between the code practice oscillator and the SEA245 PTT circuit. Netgear WN2000RPT WiFi Extender used to bridge WiFi to Ethernet equipment in shack. CZUR ET18PRO scanner. Used to scan manuals for Saving History From The Dumpster. Samsung 55 inch TV used as computer monitor. Tecsun PL-310ET DSP-based portable multiband radio. Covers LW, MW, SW, and FM broadcast bands. Uses the SI4734 single chip receiver. Very impressive! Shure 522 PTT microphone used on Zoom and similar calls.
RTTY Corner For more on RTTY, see here. Teletype model 14 Transmitter Distributor (punched paper tape reader). On top of the TD, there are a couple patch boxes. Each of these has four 1/4 inch TRS connectors in series (tip and ring connections in series, shell grounded). Each jack has a shorting switch shorting tip to ring when no plug is inserted. The back patch box is connected to the Flesher TU-170 terminal unit. The front patch box is connected to a Teletype 152950 loop supply with a series 2.2k resistor, setting the loop current at 60 mA. Each piece of Teletype equipment (TD, reperf, 15KSR) has a cable with a 1/4 inch TRS plug on it. These can be plugged into either loop (that sourced by the TU-170 or that sourced by the Teletype 152950). Each piece of equipment with the TRS plug has floating circuitry (selector magnet, keyboard, distributor, etc.) with no internal voltage source. There is no voltage on the unplugged TRS connectors. Teletype model 14 Typing Reperforator. This punches "chadless" tape to be read by the TD. It also types on the tape so tapes can be read by humans. Flesher TU-170 Terminal Unit (modem) with WAVE2 oscilloscope used as a tuning indicator. The TU-170 receives audio from the SEA245 transceiver audio bus. When transmitting, it drives the audio bus with Audio Frequency Shift Keyed tones (2.125 kHz mark, 2.295 kHz space) and pulls the PTT line low. The TU-170 also has an autostart switched AC outlet. The model 15 printer is plugged into this outlet so the printer motor starts when RTTY tones are received. Teletype model 15KSR page printer.
Test Equipment and Parts! Piles of stuff! Test equipment includes a digital oscilloscope, audio generator, audio THD analyser, audio voltmeter, FM modulation monitor (Belar FMM-2), antenna analyzer, regulated variable DC power supply, USB-based logic analyzer, etc. Below the desktop there are boxes of manuals to be scanned for Saving History From The Dumpster.
More Stuff! Shelves with more supplies, equipment I designed, a Houston Instrument DMP-29 plotter, Ampex reel to reel tape recorder, and a Webcor wire recorder.

QSL Cards

I will always send a QSL card on receiving one. Recently received QSL cards are here.

RF Safety

Calculations on RF Safety are located here.