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Howard A. 'Al' Rhodes Virginia Beach, VA QCWA # 35391 Chapter 119 |
I am sad to report the distressing news I received this morning that our own QCWA Chapter 119 Member, Al Rhodes, KJ4TDG, Member Number 35391, died at home on Saturday. There are ideas about a memorial service later this week, but details are uncertain at this time.
Al, a former Vice-President of Chapter 119, was always responsive to activities involving the Chapter, and kept active in affairs of the Chapter. RIP, good and faithful friend.
Vic, W4VIC,
Secretary, QCWA
Chapter 119
QCWA Chapter 119 Member Profile -- KJ4TDG
Al Rhodes (currently KJ4TDG, ex-WN2SOU and WB2ZGA among others):
My electronic life started at age 5 (1954 Christmas). My uncle gave me an RCA vacuum tube breadboard kit with B+ 90 volt and filament batteries. As usual I assembled and started playing with it the next day. That sparked my interest in electronics forever. During my pre- high school years I saved my money and bought various Knight-Kit and Heathkit items. I remember my favorite was a 100 mW AM band transmitter. My grandfather had reel-to-reel tape recorder which I added to it -- Illegally! I first increased the antenna longer than 10 feet and then I wanted more power so I designed a transmitter of about 10 watts (using a circuit from the ARRL Handbook).
I was not a ham until HS. My high school (St. Benedict's Prep in Newark, NJ) had a radio club (WA2TWG), so as a freshman I started in ham radio with my novice license. I had a Knight R-100A receiver and am Eico 720 CW transmitter. My father let me build a shack in the basement, where I operated and did my experimenting. Fortunately for me, our neighbor was an engineer and he let me install an 80 meter dipole into his yard/trees. As time went on I never got my code speed up to 13 WPM and my license lapsed. I then got my 2nd call sign and became a VHF Technician ham (in those days a novice was good for a year and could not be extended, only upgraded).
Before I forget, I loved going to NYC's radio row -- hated the World Trade Center for what happened to radio row -- both now gone forever!
I joined the County's civil defense group (each city had a 2 meter AM site voice and RTTY). I built a storage oscilloscope (from the ARRL Handbook) with a dual phosphor P7 CRT (for 50 cents brand new in the original box at Radio Row) -- two persistences, long yellow, i.e. the storage part and short blue-white. My final HS interest was amateur wide-band TV on 432 MHz. I built a video camera (from donated/used vidicons from TV stations in NYC) and some RTTY on VHF.
Then off to college (Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken NJ). I was a DJ freshman year and then joined the Radio Club W2SBC. We had one of the 1st 2 meter FM repeaters in the area built from public service/obsolete GE radios and custom-built control circuits. The antenna was on top of the 16th floor student center which was on the Palisades cliffs above the Hudson River (across from Manhattan). I worked part-time for a Motorola FM repair shop doing repairs in the shop and occasionally going to repeater sites in NYC. In 1972 I graduated with a BSEE degree and put ham radio into hiatus.
My 1st real job was for Annapolis CATV as chief engineer for Annapolis, Charles Town, WV and Lexington Park, MD. After three years I was then offered a job with Seal and Company as a test/quality control engineer working on the initial Metro (Washington, DC subway) a job that lasted until 1990. While at Seal I got bitten by the computer bug and built a MITS 680b microcomputer in 1976 (which led to my patent 4307922 for compact bookshelves 144 systems/1200 I/O cards installed at the Library of Congress. I did some SSTV using the Robot equipment, products we sold. Then I transitioned into my current job for Federal Engineering.
I do Project Management/Consultant for many cities/counties and 36 states in Public Safety radio and Dispatch Centers. I've worked in the Tidewater area since 2003 (and on/off since 1999) on a temporary assignment that was supposed to be half-time for 6 months. I worked on systems for Virginia Beach, Hampton, Newport News, ORION, Sussex, Isle of Wight, Chesapeake and others; now 12 years and counting!
While working for Virginia Beach one of the techs challenged me to get an amateur radio license. We both went to club sponsored classes given by VBARC/CARS with Jim Lindsey AG4XT, and others (Extra classes were sited at Chesapeake CARS club). We passed our Technician exams, were offered the General exam and passed that level. They then offered to give us the Extra (I had not studied at all) but decided to give it a try (missed by 3 questions). That summer I studied like crazy and only missed one question when I took the Extra exam again.
Now I have various FM VHF/UHF portables and a nice Kenwood TS-2000 HF transceiver, but I am not on the air because of antenna restrictions at my apartment.
The main items on my Bucket List are to retire (if I can afford it -- no pension plan), buy an RV and travel around the USA (of course with a ham shack). I'd love to try digital modes, SSTV, satellites, moonbounce and get on the air with HF SSB/RTTY.
Al Rhodes, KJ4TDG