PADUCAH DAYS

In 1990, I moved to Paducah, KY. For a couple of years, I did not have time for Amateur Radio. The exception was the time I was in Officer's Basic Training. I was stationed first at Fort Monmouth and then Fort Dix, both in New Jersey. While there I worked in their MARS stations every weekend. We placed thousands of phone patch call for our troops stationed in Saudi Arabia during the first Gulf War.

Back in Paducah, I finally had a large yard but small house. With 3 kids, room was very limited. I finally installed the station in an un-insulated, un-air conditioned, and un-heated detached garage. I had enough room for a half-wave 80 meter antenna. I used a balanced feed-line into an MFJ tuner. I also had a great ground system. I dug a square hole about 1 foot deep, drove in 9 ground rods, and interconnected them with copper strap.

The only issue was that my power supply was already old and the oil filled capacitors had deteriorated. There was so much AC noise that it was next to impossible to hear anyone. Over the next 8 years, I did make a lot of contacts. However, I did not take any pictures or save the few QSL cards I received. Although I did join the local club, I did not get involved. I lived too far from the repeated and my HT could not get into it so did not operate on 2 meters.