W6AM purchased his original 120 acre rhombic farm from Press Wireless
around 1946. PW used it only for receiving; their transmitter site was
somewhere else (sorry, don't have N6AW's excellent book in front of me
now...). The site, as W6AM purchased it (for $30k) had something like 6
or 7 rhombics and a couple of vee-beams. Don Wallace DID INDEED design,
build, and maintain his own rhombics. At the height of his 120 acre
rhombic farm (in the 50's), he had 16 rhombics put up, each one capable
of being fed from either end (32 feedlines), thus giving 32 directions.
Don had an extensive relay matrix that performed the switching.
Sometime in the early 60's, the State of CA wanted to build another
college. They chose Don's property, and was ready to proceed with
'immenent domain' (sorry for poor spelling) to force Don off his land.
With the help of one of his son's (who was a lawyer), Don quickly sold
off 95 acres (leaving him with 25... he acquired another 5 acres
somewhere in there...), hired a builder, had some homes built and
appraised, and basically raised the value of the land to the point where
the State of CA could no longer afford to proceed. Don netted a pretty
good profit from this, and used these funds to pay property taxes on his
remaining 25 acres. Don then redesigned his rhombic farm to reside in
25 acres. He did this by layering his rhombics one on top of the other
with about 5' of seperation.
I could go on some more, but it's all in the book, as W9GE pointed out.
I don't think that it is in print anymore; I got mine as a gift from my
wife about 7 years ago. I've read it from cover to cover many times.
If you get a chance to read the book, I guarantee that you'll drool over
the color photos of some of Don's most juiciest DX qsl cards!
73,
Charlie N9CO
Bob.Finger@DynCorp.com wrote:
>
> Jim: W6AM was a radio distributor (salesman), not a rich lawyer. He
> purchased the Rhombic farm from a commercial radio entity (I think RCA), and
> yes rhombics were in place. Over the years the property was subdivided and
> the rhombic farm became smaller. Don Wallace, W6AM was known to climb his
> 100 foot + cedar poles to work on his rhombics when he was well into his
> 80's. Don was a champion high speed cw op, and had a real computer for cw
> in between his ears. If you want a real history get Jan Perkin's book on
> Don "The W6AM Story". It is full of photos and stories that document the
> history of one of the ham fraternities finest examples. This volume has a
> place of honor on my bookshelf, and it is fun to read again and again. I am
> also the proud owner of a W6AM qsl card from an early 70's chat we had on cw
> while Don was driving in LA. He loved to operate cw while mobile. May Don
> rest in peace, but I'm sure he is still listening to our cw from somewhere
> up there. 73 W9GE
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jim Berry [mailto:basalop@gte.net]
> Sent: Thursday, January 04, 2001 9:59 AM
> To: towertalk@contesting.com
> Subject: RE: [TowerTalk] Rhombic vs. Yagi
>
> Hello,
>
> Maybe someone can help me out on this one. I understand that the
> W6AM was a rich lawyer, and the site he bought was an ex commercial
> one. I have also been told that he did not build any antennas at
> all, just used the existing ones on this site. So my question is:
> Who owned the site before him, and how many rombics were there, and
> where were they aimed?
>
> 73 Jim K7SLI
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