The AM Forum

Hot off the press:  I just found out that Joe, KA1BWO who works where I do but in another department is retiring tomorrow and will be moving immediately. My understanding is he and his wife bought a place in Utah several weeks ago and were just waiting to sell their home in Westerly which occurred last week and will be heading west.  I have conflicting info on the state of relocation because the last time I spoke with Joe face to face he stated they were planning on Idaho.  Yet after speaking with Tom/K1JJ, he mentioned the state of Montana. In any event, Joe is making the move westward very soon.  I guess we'll learn the details soon.  

Joe and I talked several weeks ago when Joe payed a visit to my building and we talked about the big day.   He had been on the air sporadically over the winter and early spring this year and mentioned to many his retirement and moving out west but I don't believe he's been on the air or in contact with anyone in the AM community recently about this most recent news.  

Joe will be missed here on the east coast.  So us east coaster will have to DX.  Hope he gets a rig on the air ASAP.  I guess there is gold in them thar hills!

Please wish Joe and Mrs. BWO a happy retirement and new life out west.

Second thought, I think he said Idaho the last time I talked with him on 75M.  He mentioned that Yellowstone National Park was not that far away from his new QTH, so it must be very FB.  My guess would be Northeast of the Idaho Falls area.   When he gets back online we'll know for sure.

Let's wish him luck in his new life!

(Idaho is a rare QSL - hi hi FB)

T

HOT OFF THE PRESS!!  KA1BWO OFFICIALLY RETIRES JULY 8TH!!
Here's the official story.  Leaving for Salt Lake City, Utah on Monday.  Will be
staying with the kids till we find a home in IDAHO.  My first priority will be to set up
a station - the rest can wait!  hahaha
We're looking for a small house with acreage and outbuildings in Southeastern Idaho.
So if any of you are ever in the area, please stop in for a visit.  Can meet you
in Las Vegas too!
I will miss all the great friends I made in the AM community on the eastcoast.
Will keep you updated
KA1BWO & KC7OFJ
Joe and Margie

What about the going away party ??? ??? ??? ???

A double wide for eating and sleeping and a big outbuilding for the radios :o

Carl

Good Luck to you Joe. Glad you unloaded the house.

Hang a horizontal antenna as high as possible. Verticals stink here in the dry, dusty west.

Catch you on 75 this winter! I'll be retiring in maybe 10 more years- I'm jealous.

Hi Joe,

Congrats on your retirement!  Just remember, "you can always make money, but you can't buy time".  As long as you have interest and keep busy your life will be great!  I bailed out at 56 and its the best thing I ever did.  Busy from 6AM to 10PM daily doing mostly what I want to do. 
 
Best wishes to you and Margie on your move.  Its a lot of work but hopefully you will be happy when you find the right "new digs". 

I was glad that Martha and I had a chance to meet up with you during the Spring 2010 Nearfest.  After all those QSO's in the past, it was nice to have the "eye ball" QSO!

Best Wishes and hope to work you when you get set-up at the new QTH.

73,
Joe, W3GMS 

Congratulations Joe and best of luck!

Damn, I was looking forward to working you and the guys on 3735 this fall, as well as seeing you two at NEAR-Fest.

Best of luck with the move, Joe, and in the future. Maybe we'll hear a big AM signal strapping back this way from 'BWO Radio some winter night.

Hello to All..... here is a update
We left RI on Monday at 10:30 AM got to Danville, Pa for first
night. Tuesday day we made it just north of Columbus, Ohio and you know what I was thinking when I saw the signs to Astabula. On Wednesday passed through Dayton and made to Margie's cousin's located in Villa Grove, Illinois. Its a small farm town with a population of 1,800. I can't believe how quiet it is here, no people no traffic. We will be leaving tomorrow morning hoping to get to the middle of Iowa by the end of the day and Salt Lake City, Utah by Wednesday.
Joe

Good luck in your travels Joe! I'm from Danville PA and so is another member of this board, Mike W3SLK.

Joe

I Hope you do not change your call sign.  Your call sign may be the only way your friends can look you up down the road

Had an acquaintence move out of town.  Left his nice house -- apparently didn't make provision for paying his taxes.  The doors are stove in , windows broken  really sad.

Your call sign is unique and unforgettable - please keep it

Keep in touch es GL

Al

Best of luck Joe.

Joe:

Enjoy your new QTH and retirement!

I ALWAYS enjoyed listening to your excellent signal and talking with you.

This I will miss.

Dan

Thanks for all the well wishes........ For the past week Margie and I have been in southeast Idaho looking for a house. We hope find a ranch house with some land and out buildings. We want to have a big garden, chickens, ducks and maybe a goat and plenty of room for a few towers 
Joe   

Up Date .......
Hello to all, Margie and I have a new QTH in Preston, Idaho. I got a 75 meter dipole up just a few weeks ago. We are just about settled in we still have some boxes to unpack. My station is in the back room of the garage, I still need to run 240v power line to the shack. Tonight I worked Brent W1IA in New Hampshire and Carrie in New Jersey on 75 meters 3.880 Mhz, 10:30PM local time. Brent was a amazing 20 over S9 using his 2 element phased array and his block buster amplifier. Here are a few photos of our QTH
Joe      

More photos.....

a few more photos.....looking from our front steps

Hi Joe,
Good to hear from you.  Nice home and landscape.  Glad you and Carrie are settled in.  A friend of mine just moved out your way too.  He's just outside of Idaho Falls.  All is the same at the old work place.  Hope to catch you on the air. 
Bob

Yeah Joe, nice digs.
No wonder they built that nice front living room window to take in the vista you've got off your front yard.

Google's got a nice satellite shot of your place too, but your antenna wire isn't big enough to pick up.
Hope to work you this winter and get caught up.

Does the new QTH have a soupy cellar?  I assume you have arranged to have folks send you regular supplies of Autocrat coffee syrup and Westerly soupy from back in RI to lessen the RI resident separation anxiety.   If not, let me know.  You guys may have set the record for the farthest a Rhode Islander has ever moved from their home state.

That's a really nice place there. Recently driving through Idaho and surrounding states made me think of moving there also. No 110 degree summers.

Joe's back on the air! I had a nice QSO with Joe on 75 meters last night. He was Q5 here in Lewistown. I believe he was running low power out of a ricebox, but it was a good signal and easy copy. Conditions on 75 were very good last night. Dave W2ZZA in Buffalo, NY, and Dave W6PSS were also blasting onto Montana last night. Fun!

Ron

Thanks for all the comments........Bob your friend is not far from here. Paul here are a few photos of the 75 meter dipole, Chris I do have a connection for soupy in Westerly if it fall through I will call you!! We have so much corn, potatoes, squash, tomatoes, apples, hot peppers, onions, fresh herbs from our neighbors they are coming out of our ears. Pat I would of invited you for a visit but I looked at your trip map from your post, Preston was too far out of your way. Ron nice to meet you on 75 meters last night big signal great audio. Our neighbor Joe Ward brings over his horses Burt and Ben to mow down our alfalfa which only takes them a week. It took at least a  month for Margie and I to adjust to the thin air relative to sea level the elevation here is 5000 feet.
Joe    

Hi Joe,
Glad you got settled in so to speak.  The house and property along with the antenna looks great.  It appears to be working real well for you.  
I hope we have a chance to work on the air one of these days.  40M might be a good choice in the evening.  Then again with 75M going long at night that might work as well.  We usually go QRT by 10 PM Eastern or so since the alarm goes off around 6AM.  
Best wishes on your new place!
Joe, W3GMS

Very Nice Joe!

Why would anyone who lived in Connecticut retire to Idaho?  Especially Preston.  Three winters in Casper, WY taught me to hate shoveling snow.

Potatoes!

Nice QTH!! Joe.
The antennas have room to breathe and your 5000 foot elevation will help.
You're not quite a DX state like Bill, but into some beautiful country. Probably quiet and relaxing.

Pretty cool move, Joe.   That was a major effort, and finally, you're settled in.

The mountains around you will have no ill effect on the signal for the HF bands since their apparant "blocking" angle is probably less than 5 degrees or so on the horizon. Your 160-10M signals will have cleared them way before.

Good luck with the tower plans.  For 75M, my suggestion would be to hang a boom and pair of inverted vees - feed them just like Tina/W1IA as a driven array. That will work really FB for both RX and TX.  If you have room in the right direction, add a terminated Beverage for RX to the east. Use the staggered HUZman technique if you are limited for space.  A few wooden posts is all you need for supports.


Another idea is to put up a full-size 40M ROTARY 2el Yagi. Big sig on 40M. Can you get the tower to 90' or so?   Then heavily load the Yagi at the center for 75M as a shortie 75M 2el Yagi. (Remote controlled switching) There are ways to do this and you would have a clean installation without wires hanging around. A 2el 40M Yagi is not THAT big.  Looks like the neighbors are far enuff away too... ;D  Something to think about over the winter.


OK on the 5K elevation.   When I lived out west it was the same thing. Coming home I felt like Superman for a few weeks.  The MMA fighters should train out there.

I haven't been radio-active since spring, but hope to get on 75M soon for coast to coast and catch you on.  

Later -

T

 Well, congrats on the retirement and the move out West.  I am in Western Oregon and hope we can work each other soon.  Welcome!  Give a listen some mornings on 3880 at 9:00 am.  We have a nice little group that gets together there daily.  You may be a little far but it is worth a try.

If you are into fly fishing, you live in a great location. Nice pics of the new QTH and really like the callsign.  As an avid fly fisherman myself when I see BWO I cant help but think Blue Winged Olive.

73,
Chris
W7POW

I worked Joe last evening on 3885. He was running an FT-101 at ~ 25 watts carrier and a solid Q5 over the mountains into my QTH from some 350 miles away. Not too shabby, Joe must be in a decent RF location.

His 101 always sounded good on AM.  Do some simple mod's to the audio and those rigs sound great.  Now he needs to run that into a big amp! 

Joe, W3GMS 

Looks good, Joe.

How much LAND did you get?  I know you wanted some land available for towers, gardens, etc.

My younger son LOVES that part of the country, and almost went to college in North Dakota.

Get that antenna way up in the air  ;)   I'm sure we'll be talking with you this fall/winter.

Regards,

Steve

Just spoke with Joe,  strapping signal into Cali fornee Uh!

Google him to see who I had spoken to,  and here it is.

Funny thing was,  he was in a qso,  talking about my Harris amplifier!   I was cleaning the shack and had to say hi lol.

Guess he's got a rf110.

--Shane
KD6VXI

Looks like lots of flat land. Allows the RF to propagate so nicely from the antenna. A good permanent antenna would be a dipole, no short cuts or loaded antenna, about 70 feet high. OR MORE!! How many acres do you own??

And DX could be using a support structure for the dipole for a tri-bander for 20 - 10 Meters.

And LEGAL Limit.....QRO!!

Holy smokes. 5 years since the move. time flies.

Good EYE....I was reamed pretty good here by resurrecting an old post "That was no longer relevant" to the group.