Amateur Radio Station K2AAW/WA2FNQ
20 Years After
These are some pictures of the K2AAW shack 20 years after my father passed away. There has been no Ham Radio operation here since my dad
passed away. Unfortunately my dad and I didn't have the foresight to take pictures when his station was operational. These pictures were taken when the
house was sold and the remains of my dads station was being taken apart. The equipment has been removed and is now at WA2FNQ.
I went on the air from here in 1968 as WN2FNQ. My station consisted of a hombrew antenna tuner, a Heathkit HR - 20 receiver ( now in the WA2FNQ studio ),
a Johnson Adventurer ( now in the WA2FNQ linear AM transmitter ) and a Heathkit 'Twoer' ( novices had phone privlidges in a limited part of 2 meters ). My
station later became a Heathkit HW - 16 CW transceiver with the Johnson and HR - 20 as a back up. The FCC went to incentive licensing, novices lost phone
privledges on 2 meters and it got me to get my General class license. I then shared the all equipment in the shack with my dad but later on I bought a
Lafayette HA - 410 and made the move upstairs to my own station. Originally I used the HA - 410 in to a Cushcraft Trick Stick mounted on the end of our
carport roof. Later on, when I started operating HF, signals were routed through my dads shack so I could share his antennas. You'll see this in the
pictures below. You'll also see that his shack looks like it's been abandoned for 20 years.
The desk on the left was the main operating position. This is where the ICOM IC - 745 with it's Johnson Matchbox was. There was also
a Lafayette HA - 410 10 meter AM transceiver and an ICOM IC 2 AT for 2 meter operation.
At one time there was a operating position in this corner next to the oil burner tank. This was where my novice station was. Also at this position was
a Lafayette HE - 50 for 10 meters which was later replaced by the HA - 410. There was a Gonset 6/2 meter converter which worked with the Heath HR - 20
and Heath 'Twoer'. That let me turn off the regenerative receiver in the 'Twoer' which radiated back off the antenna. It could be heard down the street
by Ed, W2WOD.
This was where the desk for the main operating position once was. There was an EICO 753 here. This operating table was next to the oil burner tank where my
novice station was. You've probably noticed a lot of photography stuff around the shack. That was my dad's other hobby and he had his darkroom set up
here.
There once was a workbench on this wall. Dad and I had a system. We started working at the left side of the bench. As the bench got trashed we kept
moving
to the right. When we hit the far right end of the bench we cleaned up and started over again. It worked.