Kenneth Kucera, KA0Y of Riverside, Iowa passed away on Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2020. https://www.sandhfuneralservice.com/obituary/Kenneth-Kucera I had known Ken for almost 40 years, he will be missed. Ken was a multi-award winner in Midwest tractor pulls during the 1970s. He assembled his 40 foot (later expanded to 50 foot) EME dish in late 1970s ... using a surplus Navy Gun Mount (James Van Allen, Univ of Iowa surplus from 1970s). The Equipment Racks, in photo below, are the 8877 amplifiers he built for each VHF/UHF band, largely from 1970s Collins Surplus Store parts. Ken was proud of earning Worked All States on 2-meters (#9); 220 MHz (#10); 432 MHz (#9); and 6-meters (#579) He was one of the first radio amateurs (2 meters) to contact Owen Garriott, W5LFL (sk, 2019) on the STS-9 Shuttle Columbia mission (November 1983). == Ken’s VHF/UHF/EME contest station south of Riverside, IA was bought by Bill Hartley, K3JNZ (retired NYC broadcast engineer) several years ago. https://www.muscatinearc.org/bill-k3jnz
