On The Cover: February  2005

Gene Wicklund, W0ZOK

On the Cover

"Ham radio has been … so much a part of my life that it's become my life," says Gene Wicklund, W0ZOK, of Horace, North Dakota, noting that he grew up with ham radio and got started in electronics at age 10, hanging around with hams and ham clubs before getting his own license in 1969. Today, Gene runs a business built on his ham radio experience, designing and installing electronic equipment systems for area businesses. He even built and runs his own cable TV system (that's what the dishes behind him in the cover photo are for).

On the ham bands, Gene says he's active on 160 meters through 70 centimeters and runs two repeater systems, one each on 2 meters and 440 MHz. He's also active in weak-signal VHF and UHF -- the antennas atop the 120-foot tower in the photo are Yagis for 2 meters and 432 -- and on HF, particularly enjoys operating AM with vintage gear. His main AM station is all Hallicrafters -- an SX-101 MkIII receiver, HT-32A transmitter and HT-41 linear amplifier. In the inset photo on the cover, you can also see Gene's Astatic D-104 microphone to his right, a Hallicrafters SX-42 receiver over his left shoulder (underneath a Dentron 3000-A tuner), and, peeking over his left shoulder, a Heathkit DX-100 transmitter. Gene says he still has the first receiver he ever owned, a Hallicrafters S-52.

In our main photo, Gene is taking advantage of perfect antenna weather to perform some preventive maintenance on his guy system, although he tells us that since that photo was taken, he has replaced the steel guys with Phillystran. The two vertical antennas visible behind Gene on the tower are his repeater antennas. The tower also supports several HF dipoles. (Cover photo by Larry Mulvehill, WB2ZPI)

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