Amateur Radio Station

K5VA



Terlingua Ghost Town, Texas
ADDITIONAL & PRIOR CALL SIGNS

WN5CLS              Novice Class License
WA5CLS       Amateur Extra Class License
WA5CLS/MMMaritime Mobile U.S.S. Sproston (DD577)
N0VEY         Navy Military Affiliated Radio System (MARS)
WR5AOJ      2 meter repeater
Amateur Radio Station K5VA is located in the Terlingua Mine Ghost Town in the Big Bend area of Texas.  The Station is only 35 feet from the home of World famous Big Bend Paleontologist Ken Barnes, founder and curator of the Mosasaur Ranch Museum.

When I was twelve I bought an electronics laboratory kit with my newspaper delivery route money and began my lifelong interest in Electronics.  My first Ham Radio was converted WWII tank and airplane radios I cobbled together at age 15, in 1961.  My novice callsign was WN5CLS.  I was a member of Taylor High School Radio Club, President of Pecos High School Radio Club, Carlsbad High School Radio Club and K6NCG (Radio Club on Treasure Island).

After study at Electronic Technician school in the Navy, I qualified for the highest class FCC licenses;  Amateur Extra Class (Call sign K5VA), First Class Radiotelephone and Second Class Radiotelegraph license with RADAR endorsement. 
Here is an example of a transmitter that uses no transistors or vacuum tubes.  It has only coils of wire, capacitors, a battery, switches and a rotary spark gap.  This technology was invented and used by Tesla in the 1880s, not Marconi, although Marconi (history's first "Ham Radio" operator) used Tesla's invention to make  the earliest two way radio communication.  Tesla is credited with inventing radio.

Tesla's rotary spark gap was used in his famous Colorado Springs experiments, and was later used in the first linear accelerator at the University of California at Berkeley.

This technology is now illegal due to it's wide bandwidth which interferes with other radio communications.