W7GS Glenn Swiderski Washington, NC QCWA # 29768

My name is Glenn Swiderski my call is W7GS. I have been a ham for 35 years and enjoy homebrewing and cw operation. Present station consists of a Wilderness Radio Norcal 40a, a home brew class E 40 meter cw transmitter and a Drake SPR4 receiver and a Drake R4A. For an antenna I use a base insulated 55 foot vertical with 32 quarter wave radials on 40 meters. In the picture I have my hand on a tube that is used in a 500 kw Brown Boveri shortwave transmitter at work. The tube has 650,000 watts of plate dissipation and loafs at 500 kw output. The tube uses a combination of water/steam for cooling. The cost of this tube is $130,000.00. Being that I play with Super QRO all day its nice to sit down with a rig that doesnt make fire or leak water! We have had the fire department show up at the site un announced to put out the antenna field which was on fire. A passer by saw the flames and called it in. The rig didnt miss a beat and kept running! I am employed at the Voice of America Greenville Relay Station as a Transmitter Technician. I spend my days keeping 500 kw rigs on the air which can be pretty exciting. I guess you could say qrp is anything under 500 kw. Its all relative!

October 11, 2015