Dennis,

I don’t remember a FD with you using a Quad.  You have done a lot of antenna testing at Field Day sites over the years.  I remember the Lazy H you built for 10M one year and 10 was dead as a hammer the whole weekend! Even with the gain of the Lazy H it was still dead.

When I first became interested in VHF/UHF Roving I had the pleasure of having dinner with Wayne, N6NB (SK), Marshall, K5QE (SK) and Army, AE5P at a restaurant in Nacogdoches, TX.  I was on my way home from the Belton Hamfest and Marshall had a couple of HP Server power supplies for me and invited me to join them for dinner.  Wayne had been in the area with a Rover Pack to operate in one of the VHF contests.  He had his Tower Trailer (6M-10GHz on a 45 foot crank-up). The added elevation provided by the tower trailer really helped on the microwave bands in the “Piney Woods” of East Texas.   Marshal had a very nice Multi-op VHF/UHF/Microwave contest station in Hemphill, TX.  Wayne was a perpetual winner in the VHF Roving category.  Army had a very nice 10 band Rover and was very active in East Texas.  Needless to say, I mostly listened during dinner!

The next weekend I attended the Mt. Airy VHF Radio Club (Pack Rats) conference in Ben Salem, PA  My youngest daughter was living in Philadelphia so I got to do radio and visit with her.  When I drove into the hotel parking lot there was Wayne’s Tower Trailer with the crank-up fully extended!  He was one of the presenters at the conference…topic was probably some aspect of VHF+ Roving.   Early on, Wayne did extensive testing of a HF 2 Element Quad versus a 3 Element Yagi.  He operated from a beach in Southern California.  I don’t recall the results….think it was close to a tie in most cases.  I think his testing was a response to the notion (at the time) that a 2l Quad would beat the socks off a 3L Yagi!

Wayne was a regular at VHF Conferences.   Check out his website N6NB.com.

As Dennis stated, he had many talents and significant accomplishments in all his endeavors.  He had a kind nature and never bragged about his accomplishments (probably means he wasn’t a DXer!). 

73,

Pat, W5VY

From: [email protected] <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Dennis Schaefer
Sent: Tuesday, April 22, 2025 9:13 PM
To: ADXA <[email protected]>
Subject: [ADXA] Wayne Overbeck N6NB/K6YNB SK

Wayne Overbeck had significant professional and amateur radio accomplishments.   He had several articles in QST about portable operation, and was largely responsible for my interest in portable ops.  He covered portable abtennas and VHF/UHF  roving, etc.  

Based on one of his articles, I built a 10/15M cubical quad for Field Day.  It had separate feedlines for each band and we were somehow able to use both bands simultaneously without blowing anything up.  We were probably using tube rigs.   There may be someone in this group who remembers running pileups on both bands at the same time on one antenna with no filters.  (Nick, Pat, Steve??).   I think it was somewhere in Eastern Arkansas in the 70’s.

I hadn’t heard much about him for several years, but he came up as a Facebook friend a few months ago.  Although of advanced age, he was still very sharp and interesting.  

He seemed to be doing well, but his wife announced a few days ago that he passed away.   I don’t think he was a DX chaser, but it wouldn’t surprise me if he had achievements in that area, too.  He was a good man and a good ham.

73,

Dennis/RZ