Mel Swanberg, WA6JBD, enjoys 10 Ghz contests from mountain tops in California and Nevada. Mel tells his amateur radio story and his interests in repeaters, remote base stations, the Cactus Intertie, and the San Bernardino Microwave Society in this QSO Today.
That photograph is Mt. Potosi outside of Las Vegas, NV. Gated site and home to many ham, two-way, and broadcast installations. Including the local ATV repeater linked to California ATN via 1.2 and 2.4 Ghz.
Close parallel to my beginnings...as a kid, I used to pull the back off the house TV, just to see the internal workings, remove the front glass.As a kid, I brought a capacitor start motor in for show and tell, then, I was allowed to bring in my dad's helium/neon laser, with lenses, iris diaphragms, and beam splitters to show off a 'real' laser. Most kids did not believe I had access to a real laser, that it was not actually existing. My father was an electrical engineer, and is on the patent for mag-arc welding process he designed while working at Modine, in Racine, WI. I did my apprentice work at radios shops in Racine, that got me started in microwave systems through the Starlink system with hot standby. High school electonics was a class I had already surpassed by performing repairs in front of the other students fixing CB radios. That was the time I learned about the phrase 'golden screwdriver' techs. I despised the ones that claimed added power by this method...which was so wrong. Cellular systems working with Cellcom out of DePere, WI. and later, working as a contractor. My favorite site might still be active, at a truck stop called the PLANEVIEW off I-43 outside ot Oshkosh. I was also a multi-engine rated private pilot, and co-owner of a Beechcraft B55 Baron. I miss that plane. I also owned and flew ultralights....flying a few feet off the deck made you feel like you were flying much faster while looking down. I was involved with setting up the first nav-comm test shop at the local community college in Douglas, AZ. at Cochise college, AKA: Goatcheese. I worked a temp position with TRW at the airport at the school on the IAI UAV project at that time, which were twin boom aircraft using push/pull dual engine systems using moto-guzzi engines, and a host of 2-8 GHz. flight system suites. I was involved with the FTR, or flight termination receiver systems. This was designed to provide a return direction should ground control fail, or be lost and control was not possible to regain, the plane would simply fly the reciprocal and return close enough to regain manual control once again. As for the Cactus system, I never got lucky to be a member, but listened from Mule mountain and other frequencies I found, since 1993. I am close to making my final life change with a special lady, and that will take us both to Idaho, where I will do my best to open a shop servicing small UAVs called drones ( I despise that word). Quadcopters are more precise. I want to outfit mine with ham gear, and use ATV with the camera, not simply take video, but put it on a live platform hams can tune into live. Funny how many different lives can cross paths with so many similiarities. Happy hamming! KA9UCE