W6LG James S. 'Jim' Heath Grass Valley, CA QCWA # 29875

I was licensed as WN6JZC in 1963. In 1964 I upgraded to general class and received WB6JZC. I kept that callsign until the 1970's when I was issued KB6SX as an Advanced Class licensee. I kept KB6SX for about 30 years. In the 1980's I passed the 20 WPM CW test and earned an Extra Class License. In 2004 I applied for and got W6LG as a vanity callsign. I figured I had been licensed for over 40 years and it was time for a two letter callsign.

I have been active for over 52 years. I have spent most of that time on 20 meters.

I am a Life Member of the ARRL. I am also a life member of QCWA. I enjoy chasing DX.

I am the President of High Sierra Communications Products. Our website is www.hamcq.com. We were formerly High Sierra Antennas.

I have two of the Elecraft K3 transceivers, the P3 panadapter, KPA500 amplifer and KAT500 antenna tuner. I enjoy the K3's because I can taylor them to meet my needs. I have Drake L-4B's amplifiers that I restored in recent years. I installed Peter Dahl Transformers, bias, new relays, caps, diodes...abunch of parts. The amps look like new and run an easy 1200 watts from the 30 year old tubes. The Drake restoration projects were very rewarding and a nice break from work. Over the years I did build many amplifiers.

I have three towers with two monoband yagis for 20 meters. There is one yagi for 10 meters. I also have several wire antennas and homemade verticals.

I am the trustee of W6UP; the High Sierra Amateur Radio Club in Grass Valley, CA. The original W6UP was a neighbor of mine in Burbank where I grew up. I thought it was a neat callsign so we got it for the club.

On January 14,1998, I fell about 14 feet backwards from a roof while working as a self employeed appraiser and inspector. I landed on my head and right shoulder. I broke my neck at C-6. I also fractured most of my ribs because I landed across some wood steps to a walkway. I ended up in the Trauma Center about an hour away. At that time I was doing inspections of residential construction and appraisals as a construction expert. I would occassionally testify in court about construction defects. Needless to say, all of that did come to a crashing halt. I could physcially no longer do that kind of work. My recovery was aided by my XYL and a lot of local hams. Their kindness has been amazing.

I have recovered better than most but with age, some things are causing some issues. In 1998 I had to reinvent myself and thus High Sierra Antennas. I did a lot of travelling in the early years to shows around the country. As a result, I met and worked with a lot of great, kind people in several States. Production of antennas had to cease a few years ago due to the injuries and the deaths of two in the company. One of them was NA6E, Mary, who did so much of the hard and complicated construction.

I've enjoyed ham radio for more than 53 years and now it time to share some of my experiences via YouTube. I am working on videos called Ham Radio Basics. The videos are simple, uncomplicated explanations of why things work the way they do and how you can improve your station and your operating skills. I hope to make the videos entertaining and build an audience. One that you might find interesting is about why we are called Hams. You might be surprised where that came from. Here's the link https://youtu.be/UFXX6Qk8iRI

73, Jim Heath W6LG Licensed Since 1963

May 03, 2016