NA4VY David M. 'Dave' Belt Cedar Grove, NC QCWA # 35550 Chapter 126

I go by Dave. My normal radio set up is an ICOM 718 running 100W into a Carolina Windom up about 35 ft or a 2 element Mosely tri-bander up on the roof. I live next to a small lake in a rural area in central North Carolina not too far from the towns of Chapel Hill and Durham.

Sometime I fire up my ex-Navy Collins boat anchor radio URC-32 (KWT-6).

I am originally from Chicago, IL and have been living down here in NC since 1986. Besides ham radio, I enjoy have the grandkids over for fishing and boating on the lake. Two dogs, a cat and 6 chickens keep us busy here when the kids aren't around, and to keep our minds sharp my wife Carol and I take lots of classes over at Duke where they have a great retiree lifelong learning institute. You can also catch me on Gameknot playing lots of computer chess. We also like to travel, especially cruises and have been to Asia, Europe, S. America, etc. I like sailing too but my lake is too small for a decent sailboat.

I am a member of the local radio clubs - Orange County Radio Amateurs (OCRA) and Durham FM Association (DFMA).

As my call sign implies, yes I was once in the US Navy. Back in 1966 I joined up to see the world and indeed I did, but the best part of it was they first sent me to Electronics Technician School. And there I meet the impressive Collins URC-32, a SSB transceiver that covered 2 - 30 mhz, was rated 500W PEP, weighed 500 lbs and stood 6 ft high. She was a marvel of Collins engineering, used tubes, transistors, and subminature tubes, and in the days before digital circuits was rock stable and able to be tuned in 100 cycle steps across the entire band. For a young ham that previously only played with only a $20 Allied Radio/Lincoln 6 meter 5 W AM transceiver this was a dream come true. Three years later I got assigned to a small ship (LST-1156) and my job was to maintain these radios - what a great job! I loved these radios although many other ET sailors cursed them because of their complexity and tempermental nature.

Later I got out of the Navy, went to University of Illinois, got a BSEE, went to work with Underwriters Laboratories as a safety engineer, working my way up to Principle Engineer in the Lighting Group. After 33 years I retired. Along the way I picked up a few pieces of the URC-32 and in Dayton, 2011, finally found a complete unit. One problem though - it was completely dead with multiple problems! See my picture of the radio in my basement workshop when I first turned it on. Finally after 2 years and many hours of effort, much help by others, and lots of transplanted parts it now works.

Not too bad for a 50+ year old boat anchor radio!

December 14, 2016