[Lowfer] Lowfer history

Mon Jul 9 20:45:53 EDT 2012

As far as I know I'm the only guy who was ever active from San Gabriel 
and first went on the air in 1976 with home built transmiter which Jack 
Althouse later butchered as the basis for his infamous RFI generator.  I 
was a regular visitor to C&H from start in a vacant lot on Colorado 
Street to final closing about 50 years later and might have well have 
talked to you but the bit about the large community since the 60's and 
the fire station doesn't sound right.  I can't remember any activity in 
Downey  but there was a  fellow named John Parff who was active in El 
Monte for a couple of years in the late 70's.  The reason I first built 
a transmitter was that I'd modified a BC-453 to tune from 160 to 260 kHz 
and used to hear 'OVK' calling CQ every day at noon.  When I first 
called him he didn't return for a long time and finally came back and 
said that he'd  been calling CQ for years and I was the first reply.  
Guy was Tony Clark, W6OVK, and lived in a trailer in Long Beach.  The 
trailer was on the site of a former dairy and he said he had miles of 
underground copper tubing for a ground. By 1980 there were several guys 
in the LA are with beacons - I'd have to check the log for all the 
calls.  I met Dave Curry when he showed up at the door one morning and 
introduced himself.  Young long haired rock musician at the time, fairly 
recently arrived from Hilton Head, NC.  He's been pretty active ever 
since and was partially responsible for the formation of an SSB group 
which met every Saturday Morning for several years..  They all used a 
simple tube transmitter designed by Charles Faulkner, W6FPV and now a 
silent key.  About the same time I ran into Cliff Butrschardt and Mike 
Mideke on 75 meter phone and the same net is still going after at least 
30 years although Cliff and   a few others are no longer with us and 
Mike has moved to New Mexico.

Over the years there was usually an additional beacon or two which was 
never located or the owner identified.  Right now a chap in Simi Valley 
[can't remember his name, too many birthdays]  who often has beacons on 
with both CW and SSB.  Randy SEdan, ELU [friend of Cave Curry's] has had 
a CW/SSB beacon on the air off and on over the years but nothing from 
him lately.  Dave is busy raising a family so radio comes second for him 
these days and his beacons are often off the air because he's using the 
antennas for various ham bands.

Mike was the source of my best 'DX' while he was in San Simeon at about 
220 miles.  Had several good CW QSO's with him.  I swear he had such a 
good receiving setup that he could hear it when I turned on a signal 
generator on my bench.

At one time I could copy 11 Lowfer beacons here although not all at the 
same time.  Still have the frequency list.  Right now the LA activity is 
pretty much confined to Dave part time although he's moved on to higher 
power.  My beacon knocks out all of the WWVB clocks in the neighborhood 
[not my fault, don't have a spur on 60 kHz!] so it's pretty much off the 
air until I figure out what to do about it.  Our Sunday morning net 
meets at or about 7:30 local on 3927 KHz and the same guys get together 
on the same frequency Thursdays at 8:00.  Besides myself the active 
members are W6WZV in Torrance, K3YAZ in Tucson, AZ [start out on LF in 
SanDiego a number of years back], KG6BY in San Diego, N6NKS in Keeler, 
and KI6R near Sacramento.  We'd be more than happy to have others join 
us.  LF was the common interest which brought us together but topics of  
discussions run to science and astrnomical related matters in addition.

Sorry for all the yakking,

Ed
IZJ
W6IZJ

KD7JYK DM09 wrote:

>: Maybe the start of a Lowfer history page?
>
>In the early to mid-80's I ran into a fellow at C&H Sales in Pasadena, CA 
>that told me there was a large LowFER community in SoCal since the 1960's. 
>I'm pretty sure he mentioned the Downey Amateur Radio Club (possibly San 
>Gabriel?) and that they met at a fire department.
>
>Kurt 
>
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