Ham's I have known . . .

[VK5PJ]

I would guess that we have all known a few special hams in our life times, one of these that had a profound positive impact on my perception of what it meant to be a HAM was Aubrey (Aub) Keightley VK6XY (now SK I believe).

My start in AR was in the era of the original FT-101's FT-200's and all things in light blue boxes by PYE for VHF FM radios.  I joined the Southern Electronics Group as an 'associate member' while still a teenager and attended the regular meetings in Aub's shack on Serpentine road when I could. (it was quite a hike from home on my pushbike and the tire driven alternator for the bikes lights made the trip doubly hard)

Aub was very active in Rotary and St Johns Ambulance, while balancing his day job with Hunts canning company (now gone) in Albany as their chief engineer.

As an experimenter he had few equals for keenness or his attention to detail on what he built. One project that sticks out was an early counter kit by EA magazine (LED display) that fitted into a large die cast box.  In typical 6XY style, he had added the prescaller board so it would measure up to 200MHz, finally there would be no arguments about WHO was on frequency on Channel B (146.000) simplex. It seemed to be all going okay but every time we came for a meeting the counter was in pieces as the reference oscillator was not up to snuff and kept drifting away from 10MHz.  This became his quest and after many months a new daughter box appeared on the side of the counter to house the improved 10MHz reference source.  After that he had declared it finally fit for use.

The house on Serpentine road was on the end of the local power line run and his mains voltage varied horrendously (down to as low as 120Vac) at night when he wanted to be on air, so a step switchable auto transformer was built with an expanded scale volt meter so he could keep his beloved FT-101 happy.  No matter how many times he complained about this, little would happen, monitoring equipment would be put in place and reports written but never any improvements seen.   While visiting Aub one night to work on my PYE Leader Transceiver for Channel B (yes before repeaters were a thing in our area) I found Aub was busy welding scraps of steel with his arc welder, I noticed it was never more than just beads down a scrap and then he would move onto the next bit of scrap metal.  When I asked why, he pointed to an odd box sitting on a bench and told me it was the monitoring box from the then SECWA (State Electricity Corp) and he had a wry smile of a man happy with his efforts.  I think at some time after I left Albany they finally fixed the line voltage for Aub but it took 20 years of struggle to get there.

Trips away for work were common for 6XY, and at the oddest hours, there were always breakdowns out in the field that would finally escalate to him for assistance, his pride and joy for transport was a Mark II Jag, he had many years before put a pair of surf racks on it to hold the VHF whip, usually a 1/4 wave as it fitted under his carport and a very old heavy duty base on the rear for HF, yes his beloved FT-101 went every where when he had the chance.

Later years saw a change to a Datsun 240K (heresy some might have said for a JAG owner) but he soon adapted to it and the 240K received the 6XY treatment, a new Atlas 215 rig was bought and installed and he fitted TWIN bases on the rear for HF whips.  With the new found ability to change bands without a lengthy stop to tune up the 101's PA he could QSY when he wanted.  In most cases I think it was either an 80M whip on one side and 40M on the other.  The big plunge came when a hole in the centre of the roof happened and he had is sleek mobile shack ready to go at a moments notice.  The FT-101 was then confined to the shack where a whole slew of mods started to happen to it.  You have to realise this was the hey day for the Fox Tango club and news letters were coming thick and fast with ways to improve your FT-101. The ex commercial rig for 146 FM made way for an IC-22A and Aub was in his element.

Always willing to give his time saw Aub running a slow-morse session on many nights of the week on 146.000 and then on 146.500 when CH-B became a no go ground.  A few budding hams would check in after a session with a couple of flick of the PTT, not sure if that bloke in Mount Barker ever passed an exam but he was there whenever 6XY did a slow morse session.

A repeater came into being on Mount Barker (VK6RAA) and 6XY was deeply involved along with Doug, VK6DZ (not the current vk6dz) and Glenn VK6IQ (still kicking I hope).

I was still an SWL during this time and did what I could to get in the way and involved

A PYE F60 base station was used (valve TX and Solid state RX) for the first few years, after many false starts and trip to reset the Squelch, the second RX with the Nuvistor (subminiaturise valves) front end was put in place. There always seemed to be some one going to the repeater site to make changes.

There could be pages and pages about Aub VK6XY but it probably means little to most others..

As I get older (just turned 65) I some times reflect on the people I have known and felt the need to not let the memories of Aub, vk6xy slip away into the fog.

Did you know someone special during your ham life?  I have found it quite rewarding writing this down, it might surprise you what comes out once you start typing 

[VK6RO]

Peter

I heard Glenn  VK6IQ  a few weeks ago?

He lives up near chittering somewhere.

Was VK6XY the albany ham that had his shack under  the house at the rear?

I visited that shack probably in 1979 approx?

You cannot be 65 now, you were always a young bloke to me HI.  [  78 this month]

cheers
graham vk6ro

[VK6CPU]

I never meet him in person but Jack Kleinrahm (VK5AJK) was a great mentor for learning CW when I took the morse exams in 86 and 89.

I first came across him as he was one of the VK5 Operators on the nightly slow morse sessions from VK5WIA (or was it WI?) on 80min in the mid/late 80s.
From memory he was an ex U-boot radio op, with a wonderful stereotypical German accent. He lived in Port Lincoln and I think he used to work for the SA State Railway before retiring.

He was always willing to assist with learning CW.  He would come up on 80m about 6am for me and a couple of other K calls for practice sessions of recieving and sending.
At that time I was living in Upper Sturt near Crafers and would occasionally be able to chat with him via the Port Lincoln repeater on my way down the hill to work in the city.

A great character, a great fist and a great mentor

[VK5PJ]

Yes Graham, vk6xy was in Albany and the shack was as you described under the house at the rear, a great locality for VHF with a good outlook to Perth and to the East for VHF.