Burt Weiner, K6OQK, Los Angeles repeater pioneer and creator of the second repeater, WA6TDD, on Mt. Wilson, to serve Los Angeles in the late 50’s through the late 1970s is my QSO Today. Burt’s proximity to Los Angeles area broadcast radio stations and station engineers who served as his mentors, created for Burt a lifetime amateur radio and professional path that he is still on today. Show Notes: http://www.qsotoday.com/podcasts/K6OQK Podcast Link: https://goo.gl/Z1Lxnr iTunes Store: http://goo.gl/CvLNmV Stitcher: http://goo.gl/uhf1XZ 73, Eric 4Z1UG QSO Today Podcast
Hi Burt, Happy to see that you are still around. And just wondering what/where you are doing now a day. I tried to go to work for you in 1970 at the time you were managing the classical musical radio station; but instead you hired the YL Which now, looking back was the best thing that happened to me. 73, Ernest ex WA2TBQ/WA6NGM/N6LQ/W4EG in Amelia Island IOTA: NA-138
Burt is a great guy with a very interesting background and experiences. I had the great pleasure of having lunch with him after he came to my town to do annual compliance testing of a very nearby AM broadcasting transmitter that transmits broadside into my QTH. The station manager invited me out to spectate while they checked out the station and issued it a clean bill of health. Unfortunately his pioneer machine is now referred to as the four three five renegade repeater. Certainly a chaotic infamous LA area machine for at least the last 20 years. Not sure if I'd care to have that legacy, but definately a radio pioneer for greater LA
147.435 had an "interesting" crowd even in the mid-70s. WB6IWY & I (WA6HTF back then) built our own 2-Meter transmitters per a QST article back then as teenagers. They weren't the cleanest transmitters (our's weren't anyway) and Burt would bark at us for using them.
Burt: Ah... the early days of FM, Boat-Anchor Radios... we used to enjoy going to FM West in Fresno, and meeting with the small crowd of FMers back in 68-71. That was back when the only Amateur Repeater on the central coast of CA was WB6TSO on Cuesta Peak NE of SLO. The Repeater,a GE Preprog W/SECODE function controller. Good to hear you are still about. 73, Don W6PJJ
Don, do you remember Frank K6BKZ from Fresno? I have heard stories of his Gonsets. He was my grandfather. I dont remember his Gonset gear but I do seem to remember a Clegg FMr and really was in awe of the newfangled synthesized Japanese radio that looked like a cool CB, The Icom IC 22 he had in his Chrysler 300 . I do always wonder what became of his S-Line? There is still a tower with a Mosley at a house on Austin Ave in Fresno.
Ah memories from my youth. I grew up in LA and used the repeaters Burt and another ham whose name/call I can't remember maintained. I have memories of going to a house (maybe Burt's) in the SF Valley and seeing the repeater gear which, as I remember it, was in a closet. I also remember one night time trip to the repeater site on Mt. Wilson to do an antenna repair. I think the antenna was on KTLA's tower (Ch 5). While I didn't get to climb very high on the tower I climbed it far enough to have a great view of the L A Basin. I was a teenager back then (60's) and my call back then was WA6CUP
K6LPM: The call sounds familiar but... I have forgotten many call signs from the old FM days. I remember some of the gang who hung around the WB6HYL 34/94 repeater located at Meadow Lakes, East of Fresno... Al's Repeater was a very big signal in the central valley. By 1975 FM had become so very different that I no longer had any interest in it and left it behind me. Don W6PJJ
