My interest in radio began in Elementary School with my love for airplanes. I wanted to listen to the pilots talking to the tower during air shows as well as approaching/departing airports. When my parents relented and bought me an air-band receiver, I quickly learned what "line-of-sight" propagation was! Once I was away from the airport at home, I could only hear occasional radio traffic from planes overhead.

I began to explore the other bands that were included in this radio, one of which was marked "Marine" band. It covered 160M to 75M and everything in between. I heard local hams (I didn't know what or who they were at first) at drive time on both those bands running AM (this was in the mid-60s). I quickly learned about ham radio, befriended some locals, bought magazines and books, and fell in love with Collins Radios.

Well, I sure couldn't afford Collins Radios in Junior High School, but I did beg for (and received as a Xmas present) a Heathkit SB-310 SWL receiver in 1966-67. I built it and spent thousands of hours listening to that rig! I still have it in my shack to this day and it still works FB!

I didn't buy my 1st Collins rig until I was in my 30s, so it is the "vintage" part of my interests. (I long since sold my last muscle-car years ago) You will see in the "Equipment" part of this page that I own just a few pieces of gear, but they are still Collins...

HF Transmitters and Receivers

Collins WE KWM-2
Collins WE S/Line
Collins KWM-380
Heathkit SB-310
R-390A

Linear Amps
Collins 30S-1
Collins 30L-1

TransMatch
Heathkit SA-2060A

Antennas
Mosley TA-33 w/WARC kit @ 60'
Radio Works "Carolina Windom 160" @ 50'

Land Mobile
Icom 706 MK-IIG
Homebrew (a la W8NSF) Bug Cather (13.5' tall) with homebrew remote controlled tuner (tapped toroid with relay bank & Jennings Vacuum variable) at feed point. Control head at driver's position.

Marine Mobile
Icom 706 MK-IIG
Assorted Hamsticks clamp mounted to the bow rail of 40' cruiser.

Marine Portable in home slip
Icom 706 MK-IIG
Webster 22' Marine HF-SSB antenna mounted on piling adjacent to boat, with SBC SG-239 auto-tuner.

VHF, UHF, etc.
Yaesu FT-5100 (pair)
Kenwood TH-78 (pair)
Yaesu VX-7R
Cushcraft A270-10S yagi @ 70'
Diamond and Comet mobile antennas

Collins Collectors Association
(1 of 3 Founding Members)
www.collinsradio.org

Hurricane Watch Net
HF NCO since 1998
www.hwn.org

Utica Shelby Emergency Communications Association
("USECA," largest and most active Ham club in the Metro-Detroit area)
www.useca.net