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N6KLS Vicki M. Zumwalt Pittsburg, CA QCWA # 35458 Chapter 228 |
My accomplishments include:
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Life member of the ARRL
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Member of YLRL and QCWA
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ARRL Assistant Director, Southwest and Pacific Division
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Pacificon Ham Convention Vendor Chair, and Tri Chair for the 2019 convention-San Ramon, CA
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Member of the Northern California Contest Club (NCCC) and the Arizona Outlaws Contest Club (AOCC)
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My thanks to Ken Keeler, N6RO for his mentorship and always calling me to contest with the Radio Oakley group, they are the best! KB you guys I really enjoyed those weekends contesting.
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Trustee for the W7KDS Northern Arizona Digital Repeater System
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Past President of the Mt. Diablo and Hualapai Amateur Radio Clubs
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Chair, Contra Costa Repeater Association and a net control operator
We are active on the air and one year won the Multi Op Unlimited TX category in the AZ QSO Party. Each year we work the Route 66 On The Air event in September and also recently worked the QCWA Special Anniversary event activating W2MM as part of Chapter 228.
Recently I became trustee for the W7KDS Northern Arizona Digital Repeater System so a room was built for the equipment and antennas were installed to cover 2m, 440, and 1.2. I have an ICOM 7100 and an ICOM 9700. We have plans to add a 6m antenna for EME soon.
I love traveling the world and also have a residence in northern California that my brother, KK6WRZ maintains. My 91 year old Mother was also a very active ham, N6NVA until her passing in late 2018. Tom will tell you when any disasters occur here, I am always gone and he is left to deal with the outcomes :). I maintain my QCWA membership in Chapter 228 in Concord, CA and am passionate about our work in supporting the QCWA scholarship program either in making and selling goods to raise funds for the program or personal donations. At our Pacific Division or Visalia International Conventions we work to recruit new members to this fine organization. I also own a small business called Vintage Stitiching, a museum for Singer Vintage Sewing machines, some as far back as 1874. Some of you may recall your Mothers or Grandmothers sewing on these treadle machines. Please take a look at my website: https://vintagestitching.org/ These are beautifully restored steel vintage ladies, quite interesting in their design and shape over the centuries. In the coming year our plan is to build a more formal museum space for people to see these machines without charge. I always say the rythem of the needle is music to my soul. So when I'm not on the air, working with Tom or traveling you might find me in my museum polishing and listening to the clack clack of the needles and the treadle moving slowly back and forth!
Here is a photo of the Arizona property we call "88 Ranch". Bet you know where the 88 comes from! If you can't tell we have a bit of a western theme going on the property with lots of metal art and buildings that depict gold mines, pony express stops, wagon train repair and our latest invention an open air shower that spouts water from a bucket shot with 22 holes. Last year in the back of the property we added a new "Margarita" themed area with a 10x30 "Bama Breeze" building and decore which includes cement flamingos and alligators. Our Hualapai Amateur Radio Club members had their club BBQ here and we had a great time!
We have made a number of changes as you enter the property on the right but the rainbow photo I just didn't want to delete. This location looks towards Grand Canyon west and as you can see it does rain in AZ! Tom Schiller, Next Generation Antenna owner installing the special antenna he built for me!
Currently we have a 40m 4-square, a 3 element 80m triangle phased array and a 2 element 160m phased array. On the tower is a multi band yagi antenna - 9 elements covering 5 bands (20-10). Tom and I used a 60 ft. man lift to put that antenna up as well as the Urban Beam.
Below is Tom up on my California tower working!
Behind the main house is this lovely fully contained casita we call "Purple Sage Hacienda". This guest house is two bedrooms, kitchen and bath so we have plenty room for contesters! Pretty luxurious conditions compared to many of the contest stations I've been involved with :) Below we have added another 54' motorized crank up tower with the Steppir Urban Beam which I call the "bow tie". It rocks! And, yes that is the famous pink flamingo antenna (20-10) that really works! I am happy to say the pink flamingo has found a permanente home in Kingman, although Tom has been asked many times to sell it!
Here is Walker Park, named after my father and you can see part of our 400 sq. ft Tortalarium which we call Tort Mahal for our Senoran Desert Rescue Tortoise. In the far corner of the property is the NVIS (New Vertical Incidence Skywave) 40 meter antenna that I use to work the 40 meter net mornings on 7185.500 and 7184 when I'm not at the pool exercising.
Here are a couple of tools we use when we are testing antennas! Clark the forklift (everyone should own a forklift according to Tom) is holding a motorized antenna Tom was working on and in the background you will see the new W7KDS DStar antennas. The permanent tower in the background is where we conduct our Antenna testing.
He is a genius and has years of experience in his many fields of expertise including the use of his quad copter,
which he is using to test antenna patterns as seen in the photo below with his pink flamingo-1 covering 20-10.
January 02, 2023