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Greetings from N.W. Georgia ! I'm Greg Carter, KX4R, and have been a licensed Ham since October 1969. My Novice call sign was WN4OPG. My very first station consisted of a Drake 2A receiver
and Heathkit Apache transmitter purchased from the first real Ham Operator I had ever met, K4HNM
Charles Craton of Rome, Ga. The station can be seen on the cover of the June 1970 QST down in the lower right hand corner...I
was pictured as the winner of the Novice Roundup for Georgia. I still remember my very first CW qso as a Novice....with WB6UUM of Vallejo, Ca. (anybody out there know where he is today ???) Then later in 1970 I became WB4OPG with the General Class and then Advanced Class. In 1978 I passed the Extra Class exam and received
my present call sign in 1980.
Of course, every new ham has an "Elmer"....someone to
show him the ropes. Mine was, and still is Al Squires K4CKS! What tiny amount of knowledge
I've gleaned about the old gear has been directly due to Al. There were actually quite a few "Old Timers" that had a
direct influence on my Ham career.....W4FMQ(sk), K4AEK, WB4AEG, K4YRL(sk), K4GNK(sk), K4HNM,
K4DPK, WA4KCY, K4MNY, N4JJ, K4PI, K4VT, W4AX, W4FOA, N4RJ, K4TEA, K4EZ(sk), W4UOC,
W4TGL and WB4GWA....just to name a few!
My interests include DX chasing (especially on
the low bands), VHF/UHF, and collecting, restoring and operating old tube type radio gear....commonly referred to as
"Boatanchors". I especially enjoy operating AM on 3885Kc.
I presently hold DXCC Top of
Honor Roll with all current countries confirmed. I also have 233 countries and 38 zones confirmed on 160 meters.
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Here's Al, K4CKS
in his Silver Creek, GA qth......probably listenng to 6 meters. He has #9 DXCC in the world
on 50Mhz !!!
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Now let's take a look at some of the gear at KX4R
Welcome to the KX4R Boatanchor Homepage! I hope you enjoy the tour of my shack with pics of some of the
old vintage tube gear. My XYL and I have recently completed the move to
our new QTH in Rockmart, Georgia, high atop Paris Mountain
(aka Rattlesnake Mountain)! It may be some time before we have all the boatanchor stations back in operation
and I will update the pictures as progress is made. Meanwhile, here are some shots of how the station appeared before dismantling.
At this operating position, on the top shelf is a Johnson Viking II with Level 1 audio mods as described in Electric Radio
issue #110. The receiver is a Hammarlund HQ-150 with "home-made" Hammarlund speaker.
Underneath is a very unique Heath DX100B complete with audio mods from ER #49 and a Hammarlund HQ-140XA
receiver. This DX100B's front panel was taken down to the bare metal and re-screened and lettered in non-original black and
grey paint.
At this operating position we have some vintage SSB gear !
On top are the venerable Heath Twins...SB-303 Receiver and SB-401 transmitter with SB-600 speaker.
Underneath is a beautiful Hallicrafters station consisting of the SX-111 receiver and HT-37 transmitter,
HA-1 TO keyer , and
R-47 speaker. These were purchased from the original owner who bought them new in 1960 ! I used this Hallicrafters
station to work 100 countries for the Vintage Radio DX-100 Award sponsored by W5WP.
Well here's the right hand end of the shack. On the bottom you can see a Johnson Ranger 1 paired up with
a National NC-300 that I use mostly on 10 meter AM. Also there's a wonderful SP-600 JX21 and very very early DX100 (note the
small knobs for the Driver and Amplifier controls...most later DX-100's had knobs that were the same as the VFO knob).
Next shelf up has a Hammarlund HQ-160, Hallicrafters SX-100 MkII and R-44 speaker and a BC-348L made by
Belmont Radio.
Top shelf contains an Allied AX-190 solid state Ham bands receiver, National speaker for the NC-300, a Hammarlund
HQ-129X (re-capped and sporting a new front panel from Ron Hankins KK4PK) and Harvey-Wells TBS-50C Bandmaster Senior. This
latter pair would be a typical 1947 station.
On top of the AX-190 is a beautiful homebrew 40 meter VFO CW transmitter built by my friend Phil K4DPK.
kx4r@earthlink.net
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