Author: K4SSS

Present Callsign: K4SSS Amateur Extra Class 20wpm Got my first ticket back in 1966 as a 2 year Novice. CB Ticket: KCN2096 Popular Electronics SWL: WPE1HWW West German Callsign: DA1ZD Class A Federal Republic of Germany Callsign: DL/KA1ECA Class B United Kingdom Callsign: GORYX Class 1 Founder of the Framingham North High School, MA., Amateur Radio Club NATO Electronic Warfare Staff Officer School, Oberammergau, Germany USAF Electronic Warfare Officers School, Sacramento, California USAF, Retired: Flew F-4E, F-4G Wild Weasel, F-15, F-16, and MC-130H Aircraft. Clearances: NATO Top Secret Atomal (TSA); US Top Secret (TS), Top Secret Sensitive Compartmented Information (TS/SCI); Critical Nuclear Weapons Design Information (CNWDI). 13+ years overseas, 5 overseas tours of duty. Member McDonald Douglas F-4 Phantom 2000 Hour Club and Mach 2+ Club My Dad is K1RAW, 10-10 International Net # 1, 91yo, and lives in Framingham, Mass. He is US Army (retired), Special Forces, Ranger, Airborne and a Veteran of the Army of Occupation (Post WW2), and Combat Vet of both Korea and Vietnam (MACVSOG). He got me interested in ham radio in the late 50s and I began to do high tower work at age 8. Prior to his 1966 orders to Vietnam, when I was 11, I got my Novice ticket. While he was in Nam I used his Collins S-Line and made my first CW contact, without a Novice Adapter, hi. I later learned that a S-Line was a very expensive setup and since we were very poor at the time I asked him how we could afford it and he said that it was "borrowed " from Fort Devens, where he was stationed... Owing to my using Collins, Johnson, Drake, and National, etc., gear when I was very young, I have been collecting, repairing, and restoring ham radio gear ever since. During high school Heathkit in Wellesley Mass hired me and I built every piece of gear that they had on display in their store, too include dozens of TVs and SB-220s, where buyers liked my workmanship and would buy the showroom model versus build the kit. BTW, my Dad still specializes in repairing 220s. The electronics knowledge and my construction experience I picked up when I was young served me extremely well later in life, where I was hired by Raytheon in Sudbury right out of high school and served as a Scientist's Assistant. Here, I was fortunate to be given the opportunity of a lifetime, working side-by-side on the future Patriot Missile and AWACS Radar Systems with some of the most brilliant Scientists in the world. This experience provided me the skillset to later, in the USAF, to teach Friendly and Enemy Integrated Air Defense Systems (IADS) Courses to US Military Officers, DIA, CIA, etc., personnel. While active duty I am proud to say that I was credited with discovering the SA-8 Missile System and was selected by our Nation's highest Intelligence Agencies to participate in and lead several Exploitations and Technical Assessments of some of the worlds most sophisticated Aircraft, Missile, and other Weapons Systems, too include the Soviet MiG-29. A favorite memory: Using the Collins radio in the RF-4C to contact truckers on Channel 19 and then doing a high speed dust off pass directly over them while flying out in the Utah Test and Training Range (UTTR). Life Member of the following Organizations: The Veterans of Foreign Wars The Society of Wild Weasels The Air Force Association The National Rifle Association For those of you that may be interested in what I did while on active duty in the USAF, please Google: Gregorio: The Klaxon (an anecdotal and redacted piece I wrote years ago) I don't play well with liberals, so please do us both a favor and just avoid me and I will do my best to avoid you. Fair enough? 73s -- Bob