TEK NET 20230115
The Henderson Amateur Radio Club is pleased to present our Tek Net every Sunday evening, starting at 8pm local time (0300 UTC).
The audio portion of the Tek Net will be found on the Henderson Amateur Radio Club Repeater Network (RF). The audio may also be accessed via Echolink (W7HEN-R node 740644) and Allstar (node 44045).
The audio will refer to this page, so that the listener can more fully understand the concepts as they are presented.
All are welcome!
Past Tek Nets Available Here
Tek Net Comments or Suggestions
January 15, 2023
“A discussion about Tony WB6MIE co-creator of the HARC Tek Net”
The WB6MIE Allstar node will be connected so Sandy in Oregon can listen in.
My apologies for the low resolution, but that’s all I could get.
In honor of our good friend Tony Dinkel WB6MIE, my best friend for many years, we will open tonight to discussions and experiences that folks have had with or about Tony.
His story is as interesting as it is broad spectrum.
Whether you have a lot to say or a just a few words about Tony, we all will want to hear them.
For those of you that missed hearing tonight’s Silent Key Ceremony, here is the complete writing.
Tony was born on September 1, 1955 and was introduced into the field of electronics at an early age by his father Otto, who was an engineer at JPL Jet Propulsion Lab building spy satellites.( see above, Otto is in the bucket-lift)
He built his first Heathkit AM/FM receiver in his early junior high days.
In high school he was involved in the school’s Radio/TV station. After high school he attended CIE ( Cleveland Institute of Electronics) to get his FCC commercial license.
Around 1968 he got his ham license and found mobile operations in the vhf and uhf and microwave regions to be his main interest.
Tony loved his full duplex 25watt UHF Motorola Mocom 70 with a telephone handset, using the repeaters autopatch to make phone calls. He said it was a real “Chick” magnet.
With his FCC commercial license in hand, the 19 year old Tony went to work at Advanced Communications learning about EF Johnson two-way radios and programming 2400+ HT’s for the LA Airport system.
This is where he met Sandy, Advanced Communications Radio Darling, also the owner’s 14 year old daughter, so it was hands off.
From Advanced he went to work at AM Super station KFI and was there that he established a great relationship with so many people in broadcast radio and ham radio circles.
During the time at KFI he also started his own Microwave service company furthering his knowledge about commercial microwave equipment.
Tony built his own split site repeater from spare radios and used two coffee cans for antennas on the 1296 Mhz link for the repeater’s receiver input on Santiago Peak.
After 31 years Tony left KFI and headed to Las Vegas to be the field engineer for two AM stations and 5 FM transmitter sites for CBS.
This is when he became a user on the Harc system talking on H1 in Seven Hills just before H2 went on the air at my QTH.
He once told me years ago that “I will never join a radio club ever again again!”
Knowing that to be a HARC board member you have to be a member for a year prior, someone anonomously sent in his dues and paper work….I knew what was going to happen.
Because of the severity of my hearing impairment, I was stepping down from the HARC VP position.
(I knew just the replacement!)
The next time elections came around, he was surprised to say the least, we all know what happened after that.
To hear the words that he couldn’t remember enjoying talking to such a wide diverse group of guys on HEN ever, was music to my ears.
He brought the 446.120 WB6MIE repeater on Pleasants Peak in Los Angeles into the HARC system on a full time basis utilizing Allstar, brought many of his old ham friends from Southern California into the Las Vegas area, he told me and Sandy at Christmas to make sure it stays on the air on HARC and on Pleasants Peak.
You can’t tell me that HARC didn’t make an impression on Tony or that Tony didn’t make an impression on HARC by that statement alone.
Whether it was about a FCC rule change, interference to a repeater, building stuff or space and propagation, Tony loved it all, and loved talking to anyone that would listen to him about it.
An additional side note….
Tony was on Facebook a lot, and after several decades, about a year ago he found the Advanced Radio Darling and now she became Tony’s real darling, I know that this last year was the happiest he had because of her. (He told me that)
Thank you Sandy for making his last memories, the best memories ever.
73 and looking forward to hearing all of you on the Henderson Amateur Radio Club’s repeater network next week.
DE WB6AMT Earl
