KEN’S Amateur”Ham” Radio hobby Before My CAR BUSINESS CAREER!

My Google #, you will be asked ur 1st name. 602-935-5206/ Quicker response, Text 602-670-7569

Ken Nichols, Ham Operator, Marine & Fleet Director Car Sales…!

New Photos & New Information, Ref: MARS Radio  www.qrz.com

I AM A FCC LICENSE AMATEUR HAM RADIO OPERATOR, SINCE 1969…!

I HAVE SERVED IN THE UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS FOR EIGHT YEARS…!

I ALSO RAN PHONE PATCHES TO THE SOLDIER BOYS IN VIETNAM FROM SENATOR BARRY GOLDWATER’S HOME HAM SHACK ON HIS HILLTOP HOME… IT WAS A TWO-WAY HAM RADIO CONNECTION AND THE CALLS RAN FOR THREE MINUTES… AT LEAST THEY KNOW THAT EACH OTHER WAS SAFE FOR THAT MINUTE THAT THEY TALKED… IT MADE THEM SO HAPPY… IT WAS MY PLEASURE TO BE ABLE TO DO THAT FOR THEM… I WILL NEVER FORGET HOW IT MADE ME FEEL LISTENING TO HOW HAPPY IT MADE THEM FEEL JUST FOR THAT THREE MINUTES…! Because of going up to the mountain-top ham shack each evening to run ham radio phone calls to the vets in Vietnam and ever so often getting a  view of watching the sunset over Phoenix, made me want to build a home like Barry  Goldwater’s mountain-top home & Ham Shack…  *******************************************************************************************

NOW HERE’S THE REST OF MY HAM RADIO STORY…!  I held a Novice & Tech Licenses before I got my General Class License in 1969… Later on, I got my Advanced License!  After a couple of years, I was invited by another ham radio operator who was a member of Senator Barry Goldwater’s Amateur Radio Club…The Senator had his Ham station at his hilltop home in Paradise Valley…The club consisted of appx 25/30 operators who ran the “Calls”. The retired members ran the daytime patches and some of the younger ones, like myself went to the station after work and ran the stations until the band faded out, or until sometime around midnight…What a great privilege to be a part of… I just love connecting the families to their servicemen in Vietnam. Barry paid for most of the stateside calls to his radio-shack in Phoenix… His station consisted of two complete stations. So we had both stations running most of the time… One serviced Vietnam, and the other one covered Hawaii, Guam, Midway, and Okinawa &  ships at sea, with assistance and helping with phone calls home…! When Senator Goldwater was home from Washington DC, he came out to the station and sometimes ran the calls and other times just visited with everybody… A lot of the time, there were visitors in the shack visiting… You never know what was going to happen when you went there or who you were going to meet… One afternoon, we hear a very loud sound coming thru the door from the parking lot and when we opened the door, Barry was landing a helicopter in the parking lot just outside the door in front of his house/ham shack! We just couldn’t believe it, but he did it and always with a Big Smile, looking thru his famous horn rimmed glasses..! As I said, you just never knew who or what was going to happen when you were there. The large antenna that Transmitted to Vietnam was so l large, that the boom was larger and longer than my R-45 Ham Radio Tower at  my home..!  The base was connected to a large electric rotor in a huge concrete pad… We communicated with  5 stations at one sitting, all taking turns until we completed all 10 calls In Five Locations In Vietnam… I had Mountain-Bell phone company operator in one ear and Vietnam in the other… I had taken down 10 listings from the 5 stations, the operator downtown had already briefed the first caller on how to say “Over” and then we were off to the races… I had to turn on the transmitter with a foot pedal, as we were running a 5000-watt amplifier, I needed my hands to write down the information, and so forth… But with all of that, I would do it again in a heart-beat, because I loved it so much!   So  when  the  band  was open, they heard  us  loud  and  clear  with  no-problem…!  So as Walter Cronkite used to say, ” And That’s The Rest Of The Story “! Well, here’s       ” Ken’s Ham Radio Rest Of The Story, Influenced By Senator Goldwater’s Hill-Top Ham Radio-ShacK…!  How did this all happen to me, well when I was just a five to six years, my Mom & I was living there with her Mother as my Father was away working in Akron, Oh. From my Grandparents home in West Virginia. I think I was tall enough to tune the huge RCA radio that sit on the floor.  I was curious, as I like to turn the dial, full circle, and then it had different bands, being a young kid I was curious & of course decided to check one of those bands, and wouldn’t you know as I tuned the dial, I heard these guys talking, back and fourth, & they would say ” Over ” Wow, I said to myself, as I kept listening to them talk… So by now, I am guessing, you have figured out the rest of the story, again! Right? Yes, I was hooked, but I didn’t know what I was hooked to, hooked on or ” how could I do that… Well many, many, many years later, and recalling to those days which I never forgot. I found out about new way of talking back & forth… You guessed it, it was called “CB”, Citizen’s band…! After, I did get involved in it big time, even had a radio in 1957 VW bug, & the folks give me a “handle” of “Roller-Skate”.  So years passed, and I later found out that the guys I was listening to way back in my early years, was called “Hams”, or also called, Amateur  Radio Operators. So I also found out, that there was some big negative issues that I didn’t like about CB.  So I figured out just how that one day, I could become a Amateur Ham Radio Operator. I checked into just what was required to get my Ham License.  Wow, what a challenge I was facing. Here was my challenge, to get my Ham license. Their are the Licenses. Novice, Technician, General, Advance Class, and Extra… Get this, in those days, I had learn morse code at 5 words a minute send and receive, to have either the Novice or the Technician.. Then to get the General, or Advanced you also had to send & receive morse code at 13 words per minute and in front of a FCC examiner who only came to Phoenix every four months. If you fail, then back to studying for four more months. Now for the code speed for the extra class license, is 20 words per minute. So I have had pass for all classes except Extra. Way too many words per min, at 20… I now had the Advanced, and I have so many frequencies to use so I’m good… I JUST HAD TO TELL YOU HOW IT ALL CAME ABOUT… So I checked when I actually started studying for my Amateurs Ham radio license, and it was way back in 1964, and it was a struggle for me but I was determined to become a Ham Radio Operator, that’s just for sure with being someone who always finds a way to make it happen & that you will see as you read on… I always have goals!  I HOPE YOU ENJOY MY STORY..!

After working the station for a couple of years and getting to love the view from his ham shack hilltop home… One night the band faded out and so I grabbed a coke and went outside as the sun was setting in the west over Phoenix and onto Camelback Mountain, turning Red. Pink & Purple, Just Beautiful. I said to myself ” Wouldn’t It Be Nice To Have A Ham Shack On top of the hill just like Senator Barry Goldwater..?  At the time I was in the middle of building our first house in Scottsdale… I told my wife that I would love to build a home on top of a hill just like Barry… She listened, and that was the end of the story, for the time being..!  So we went on and finished that home in Scottsdale and 3 years later, my wife [Katie] suggested that we sell it,& then said, Honey ” That Was Easy, So Why Don’t We Do That Again? ”  So I resigned from my job as I was going to work part-time time on the next house, and my wife would continue to work outside the home… Then we decided to move in with her parents… Then we purchased another lot and started construction..!  It was on the side of a mountain, but not on top… Just about the time that  I was working on the plumbing and foundation, we decided to go for an evening drive… Don’t know why we decided to go up this street called Sweetwater, which we hadn’t been before, it took us to the top of a mountain that overlooked downtown Phoenix and as far away as Sun city& beyond to the west and the Superstition mountains to the east, plus so many more great views including downtown Phoenix. I think that the view was almost as good as Senator Goldwater’s view… When we got to the top, there was a sign that said a lot for sale 2/3’s of an acre, $9950.  At that time, ( 1971 ) a lot for $9950 was a lot of money, especially for a home lot…! We looked at the view almost  360 degrees..! It had views  Scottsdale, Sun City, and the Superstition Mountains..! The views were just unbelievable… I said to my wife, ” Honey, I Bet you don’t know what I’m thinking”  She said, oh yes “I Know You  Would Like To Build A House Right Here, and put up a Ham radio tower, right? ”  She also said  but ” You must know that we can’t do that now, as we just started another house..! She knew just how much that I wanted the lot, but I said ok Honey I understand .” 

So the next morning as we were having breakfast, my wife [Katie] did what she has always done before, and that is she always finds a way…!  She said, ” I figured out a way how we can buy that lot on the hill! ” She’s was always such a great supporter to help me, almost on anything that I had my heart set on! I had called the owner on my Ham radio from my car, ( Before  Cell  Phones)…! I told the man that I was a  ham operator and couldn’t discuss business on the phone patch ( 2-meter repeater ), but  I love what I see about his lot, and I will give him a call from a landline when I get home…! Once I contacted him, he never let go of me until we decided to purchase the lot from him ( 1 yr later )  which is the exact plan that my wife had figured out… So once I told the lot owner exactly what I needed to get a building permit… 6 months later I got a letter from the city of Phoenix building and zoning saying they would issue me a building permit… So I contacted the landowner and we carried out the paper and we made payments for eight (8) years until I finished the second house. Then I was ready to start my ham shack home on top of the hill… I quit my job and worked on it for over a year & a half, night and day… I built a 3400 square foot home up there… It was a labor of love… Only one room on the second floor and I bet you can’t guess what that room was… Yes, my Ham shack…! I even had a wrought iron spiral staircase up to the room on top…It was a dream come true… Boy,  did I have a signal from up there..? With a 6-element KT34-XA  antenna at about about 60 feet high. I could talk to Hawaii off the back of the beam… What a shack… My dream had come true… So I moved my family in and we lived in this home for twenty years, raised our two daughters there as they completed all their schooling… Then it was time to leave the home on the hill… It was hard to leave..! From The Time That I Got This Idea Of Building A House On A Hill Till Completion and We Moved In Was Ten Years…  Proves That  Dreams Do Come True, If You Believe In Yourself!!! HERE ARE THE PHOTOS OF THE HOUSE FINALLY Built…! WE STARTING STARTING DIGGING THE HOLE FOR THE CONCRETE FOUNDATION FOR THE TOWER…! THE RAISING PARTY BEGINS LATER…!   JUST  TO SEE THE ANTENNAS AND SO FORTH…  ALL PHOTO DESCRIPTIONS & INFORMATION ARE LISTED BELOW ALL THE PHOTOS…!

Photo 2: Some Of My Ham Buddies That Came For The  Tower And Antennas Raising Get-together…!  Also, my other brother Hugh ( Hat ) came to help with the Ham Antenna raising.  Even thought he is not a ham, he wanted to lend a hand and was a lot of helps THIS IS A MOUNTAIN TOP VIEW OF OUR HOUSE AND THE SIZE OF THE HOUSE THAT TOOK MY WIFE KATIE, 1 YR 1/2 TO BUILD !… Just Like The One, We Dreamed Of When I Was Running Phone Patches to Vietnam, 10 years earlier…!

Photo 3: Was another fellow ham (Steve) who I had become really good friends with and he was a good climber and as you can see, like me felt very comfortable at any height… This was at the completion and I think we were celebrating a job well done…!

Photo 4:  The Total Installation All Completed Of the KT34A 6-Element Beam

… Above That Is A Vertical 2-Meter Antenna, Plus Dual 2-Meter Beams…The Vertical is for a local repeater. . .  Note, The Red Light On Top, Just To Deflect Low Flying Aircraft…!

Photo: 5 This is a view of my new ham shack and the window view of the mountains and downtown Phoenix…! The Phoenix Lights Were Just Beautiful…! 

Photo: 6  This is a view from the sun deck, just outside of the arcadia door of the ham shack…! This View Sundeck Was A Great Place That We Watched Fireworks On The 4th Of July…!  The downtown view of Phoenix!

Photo: 7  This is a view of the house, showing the ham shack on top and the completed tower and antennas…

I MUST INSERT THIS UPDATE NOTE. I AM GLAD TO REPORT THAT ALL THESE HOMES THAT MY WIFE KATIE & I BUILT, ARE STILL STANDING TALL & HAVE INCREASED IN VALUE SOOOO MUCH, YOU WOULD NOT BELIEVE IT..!  EVEN I CAN’T BELIEVE IT..! THIS HOUSE ON ZILLOW IS NOW ALMOST $900,000! ” Just Maybe I Should Have Kept It ! ? Right !

Photo: 9 This was the cover of a book published at that time called: The World From Vietnam, by MARS RADIO…MILITARY-AFFILIATED-RADIO-SERVICE…!

 

Photo: 10  The photo above is of the senator… When he was in town, many times he would come out to the shack and run calls and visit..! He was so down to earth and we had many wonderful conversations… I WILL NEVER FORGET IT…! From Senator Goldwater’s Mountain Top Home with Barry at the mike…!

Attention Doggie Lovers . . .  !

***  Notice:  The last photo is my newest doggie…I rescued her this last Christmas eve.   She was moved from a Kill shelter and She & I are very lucky that we happen to find each other… Her name is Daisy and she sticks to me like glue… She is a Chihuahua & is about two+ years and above all, She’s My Life & I Love Her So Much! *******************************************************************************************

I had to put down my last two… The one of me and the main photo …  That one was my doggie, named ” Stitch ” . . .  He was a great doggie and he was an Austrian Shepard, but only lived 11 years. . .I also had another doggie named Barney and he didn’t live those long ( 8 ) years… Putting Our Doggies Down, IS SOOOOO VERY HARD . . . *******************************************************************************************Please Text # 602-670-7569 & list ur name & how I can help you..! I will get back to you at my first opportunity! Tnx, Ken Nichols Your Broker/ Consultant… 

Your Auto Broker/ Consultant /Ken Nichols: Quicker Service Text Me: 602-670-7569, I love reviews on Yelp, and also Google!

Go to Google, and type the search bar: Cars/Trucks By Kencars & Friends , once you find or see my Red truck, click on Reviews, and review me, good or bad… I appreciated your comments. Also, again search on google, the word YELP, and search Kencars, Auto Consultant. Leave your comments.. Thanks! Thanks, Ken Nichols

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