[SCCC] Kalifornia Kilowatts...

[Bill Haddon]

Steve, K0XP wrote re Bay Area KW++ stations:
>Come to think of it... I've never heard any such similar stories of the
NCCC-area W6's; but surely, those guys were not all lily-white.... or
were they..

In 56-69 I was K6OPI from the Sunset district of SF, at the beach (48th
av). The only  big station in our neighborhood, I think NOT running smoke,
was Bartholemew Molinari, W6AWT 1.5 mi distant.  While trying to work my
40th zone with the HT-32 eventually successfully with a newly licensed JT1,
zone 23,  I would be calling a DX station when AWT would intervene S9+++++
sending "C L I X" at 10 wpm . he was a rabid enforcer of a quiet band.  He
offered some hardware and I was invited to his shack on 27th Av. to fetch
it.  AWT was not unfriendly, but not friendly either, and I regret not
getting to know him better.  His shack, near Lincoln HS, was an urban "row"
house,  filled with then very old TV equipment in addition to ham gear.
Turns out, he had apparently worked with Philo Farnsworth, the official
inventor of television (eventual patent victories over RCA) while
Farnsworth had a workshop on Green Street in the Marina District of SF in
the late 1920's.  Both were in their 20's then: Philo got the idea of
building a TV while in high school.   As far as I know, Bart (AWT) observed
the legal limit; I vividly recall his interesting 3-el 20m beam, vertically
polarized, probably so as to not impinge on his neighbors' property; the
lots were 25 feet wide with the houses touching.  There just wasn't a lot
of acreage around the SF Bay area.

Re Don Wallace, W6AM:  Because of skip, LA stations usually couldn't be
heard.  But I could always hear Don on 20 meters with a very distinctive
kind of "thumping" sound to his signal. I suppose some kind of ground wave
path.

73 Bill N6ZFO and N6ZFO/4