Dark Night on Black Mountain

by A. David Middelton -- W7ZC/W5CA

I heard a Jeep's motor roar into action. There was a crunch of tires on rough rock. Then the motor noise died away as the Jeep dived over the crown of the hill on its steep descent into the dark valley below Black Mountain. I was all alone in the "out-of-this-world" shack of W7LEE!

I rested as quietly as possible and looked around. The only sounds were a low hum from several squirrel-cage blowers and a muted voice from a TV-set speaker on a table nearby. The shack was dimly lit by the blue TV screen. There was a faint glow from a number of tubes lined up, like soldiers, in a trio of relay racks. Through the open door I could see the shadows cast on the ground from a naked light bulb as it swung back and forth in the breeze. I saw a movement on the floor by the door and raised my head for a closer look. Snakes? No, only a piece of newspaper blowing in the breeze.

Alone on top of Black Mountain and I might have been on the Moon, as far as other people were concerned. I was almost as unreachable. Only two persons knew where I was, and one of them was plunging down the side of the mountain over a treacherous, almost untraversible trail in a Jeep—the only Jeep in the area capable of making the trip. I wondered why Turk had not wanted me to go along on the trip down.

Since he had not, I merely said, "I'll take a nap." This after W7LEE had said he would be gone down hill for a spell to pick up some things. Sleep would not come, however, as I considered where I was. Furthermore, there were terrifying aspects in being alone up here, for me, anyway.

This night on Black Mountain actually began back in 1956 when enroute from Los Angeles to Phoenix, I detoured via Parker, Arizona, to investigate rumors I heard about a VHF station, W7LEE, who was regularly working stations in Los Angeles on 2 Meters!

I had located A. R. Turk at his radio and TV service shop. Later, I visited him several times at W7LEE. There, one November evening in 1956, I had worked W6NLZ two-way on 2-meter CW over a path that I and many other VHF men considered "impossible" at the time.

The path, of 257 miles, lay over some terribly rough country between Parker (on the Colorado River at an elevation of 430 feet) and Los Angeles. Turk had been working W6NLZ and certain other 2-meter stations in the Las Angeles. area—anytime day or night and I wanted to hear it done. No rumors, tapes or tales, I just wanted to do it myself! And I did, with terrific signals at both ends.

So here I was again, in March 1963, at the new W7LEE location atop Black Mountain, some 1680 feet above sea level and 5 miles airline from the old W7LEE location. But so far, no DX had been worked this evening.

Bob Turk and I had departed from Parker about 4 p.m. on a bright March afternoon. This was a normal trip for Turk, which he made several times a week. Few other people had been up there.

I had seen this black pile of lava as I drove into Parker. No one can miss it, a gigantic extinct volcano, rising over 1200 feet from the flat plain. A black pile of rock made even more conspicuous by a letter "P" painted in white on the west slope. I learned from Turk that the "P" was 300 feet high, and was annually painted by the high school freshmen at Parker High.

Up to then, I had thought the "P" stood for "Parker," but now I knew it stood for "Persistence" of a radio amateur named A. R. Turk, W7LEE.

What I had not spotted on my way into Parker was the "road" carved into this pile of lava. Had I seen the "road" I might have just kept right on going out of town. Then this story would never have been written.

"One last stop," said Bob Turk as we pulled up at Parker's ice plant. "I always take some chunks of ice up with me. Ice water's the best first aid for snakebite!" Bob took a 5-gallon wide-mouthed canister from the Jeep and went into the plant.

"Going up again?" I heard the attendant inquire of Bob. "Help yourself, Bob, there's plenty of chunks in there.”

That was a typical reaction of the friendly Parker citizens to Bob Turk. For, in addition to his being the best-known radio amateur about, he is the owner-operator-maintenance-man for Parker's TV translators, coincidentally located on Black Mountain alongside W7LEE.

With the canister filled with ice chunks and fresh water we headed southwest toward the mountain, now looming larger by the minute as we crossed a wide level stretch of desert.

Soon I could spot the shape of two buildings on the top. Within a few minutes we were at the foot of the mountain. The shacks were now in plain view, but they were 1200 feet above from where we were. The rest of the road was just plain UP.

Never have I ridden such a road. Bulldozed out of the pure lava, and "maintained" by Turk himself, it is a bone-shattering ride up a steep incline and around hair-raising turns. At one point we made a Y in order to take a turn up and around an almost straight up climb. The Jeep rocked, shuddered, and pitched as Bob skillfully twisted our way up the mountain. I just hung onto the Jeep's "sissy bar" and tried to recall if my life insurance had been paid up.

"Your maintenance, such as it is, must keep a lot of unwanted persons off this hill of yours,” I said to Bob as he fought to keep the Jeep on the trail. His terse reply came back to haunt me later when he left me up there, alone, on the mountain: "Only a four-wheel Jeep of this special type can make this climb, and this is the only one around here like it. I wore out my other one!"

At one spot I suggested that I dismount and that Bob take the Jeep up around a curve so I could shoot a picture. I would join him at the Jeep. "Bet you can't make it up to me!" Bob called as he pulled away. "I'll come back and get you if you can't walk it!" I made it okay but it took some puffing. I have never tried a steeper ascent on foot.

I was hanging on for life and wondering when we would top out or how we would make just one more pitch without turning over backwards when Bob shattered my nerves further by saying casually, "Did you know, David? I only have the sight from one eye. It sorts bothers my perspective." That did it. I'd have walked, but it was too rough.

One final pitch, a last Y turn, and Bob backed the Jeep almost straight up to park by the larger of two buildings. Nearby was a power line and pole pig. (Black Mountain is serviced by the Indian Service Power Company lines, as it lies on an Indian Reservation.) As we passed the smaller building I heard voices inside. Bob explained that the Bureau of Indian Affairs had installed radiotelephone relay gear in the building after he had moved the TV translator into larger quarters, when he installed the multi-channel TV system equipment now in use.

We approached a cement block building, perched on the very edge of a precipice. This was the new home of W7LEE and Parker's three TV translators.

The view was breathtaking and awesome. It was like being on a high pole with no guy wires, and nothing below for a long, long way.

We walked precariously over rough lava. "I'm going to build a front porch and walk-way, sometime. But you realize that this is a one-man operation and first things come first," Turk told me.

I did not see how one man could have accomplished as much as had been done, and said so. "I found the best way is to come up here alone and stay for several days. I haven't been on the air as much as I'd like. Just too much to do," Bob replied as he opened the door to the building and invited me in.

I stood in the doorway and looked around over the small flat top of Black Mountain. Everywhere there was lava and aluminum tubing. The top of the peak looked like a NYC apartment house roof after a bad storm.

Standing up, straight and tall, were a number of large antenna arrays on well-guyed masts. For each one up there were at least two lying in tangled heaps. Either torn down by the wind, or due to their lack of efficiency, I surmised.

I moved inside as Turk continued. "There's a broken phasing bar on the Channel 3 pickup antenna. We had a twister up here recently and the bar must have broken." He pointed to where a phasing bar connecting two stacked Yagis hung down, swinging in the breeze. "I'll fix that before we do anything else. The paying customers come first."

Turk selected a piece of aluminum tubing from the pile around, flattened it at the ends, measured the distance, and drilled the required holes. "You can steady the ladder." I did, the ladder being an oil drum.

We returned to the shack and I could see the improvement on the received signals on Channel 3 at Phoenix, far off over the horizon.

"What was that twisted mess of an old Yagi outside? Looked like Two Meters to me," I asked.

"Right, that's the old Long John I used up here."

"What's on the roof now, Bob? You must have something up for Two Meters."

"It's a combination vertical and horizontal type I have been using, but I don't like it. Those 13 elements in both planes just won't do the job. It doesn't compare with the Long John and Long John isn't as good as Big Bertha down at the house. I'll have to get her up here someday!"

(Big Bertha is a huge array, with 48 elements, in 12 four-element Yagis. I had seen it in 1956, and again today where it still hung on the telephone pole beside Turk's home.)

I was back at the base operation of W7LEE after six long years. "VHF has certainly come a long way since I was in your shack, Bob."

"Yes, and it will go even farther during the next six years, what with our better gear, hotter antennas and more know-how."

The room was not large and it was filled with gear; it all looked exciting. To my left stood three relay rack cabinets, full of tubes, lines and chassis. Obviously UHF and certainly the Parker TV Translators. Directly in front of the door on the far side sat a 75A2 and a 32V3 on a table. These were the liaison workhorses on the "DC bands." A tall rack at the left of the operating table held a beautiful line job, the 2-meter final—with a pair of 4X150A's in push-pull. Below was an associated crystal exciter (a 522), power supplies, and a Class B 100TH modulator for the kilowatt 2-meter rig. The modulator is used rarely at W7LEE.

On the floor was a chassis and a motor to turn a notched wheel. It was W7LEE's key wheel, that had seen plenty of use over the years that W7LEE has pumped out 2-meter signals to fill an otherwise empty DX band.

In the right hand corner of the room there was a double bed. An electric refrigerator, a beat-up electric hot plate, plus a cabinet well stocked with canned goods and kitchen utensils filled another corner. A glass 5-gallon water bottle stood on the floor…Obviously, W7LEE's water supply.

Scattered around in typical ham fashion were boxes of "junk." A small table held an ancient TV receiver and an old UHF tuner, minus its cabinet. The TV set was driveling out a soap opera. The sound and the picture had excellent quality.

Turk rotated the UHF tuner knob and brought in the other two channels. "This is the quality signal I'm feeding out of the Translators. This tuner is picking up the radiated signal from the UHF jobs."

The quality was excellent on all channels. It was hard to believe that these pictures were coming over four mountain ranges, on an "impossible" path from Phoenix, 156 miles away! Feeble VHF signals were being picked up, translated to the 800-900 Mc band, transmitted, picked up, and reconverted back to VHF on the old TV set, yet the quality was as good as that received in Phoenix.

"Not bad, eh?" said Turk, proudly.

"Great, Bob. Even the soap opera and the cartoon shows can't hide the quality of your transmission. Boy, the work it took to get that system working that way!" I said as Bob grinned in appreciation.

I went out to get my Rollei to take some photos as Bob turned the 32V3 on its side to replace a pilot bulb. I was moving about the hill when I heard a rattle of dots coming from the shack and knew that he had the 32V3 back in working shape.

I re-entered and found Bob had the receiver on the 20-meter CW band.

"Won't be anyone on Two for a while, so we might as well work some 'DC' stations." The speaker crackled as Bob turned up the RF gain on the 75A2. "Power leak!" he snorted. "It just came on last week."

"Sounds just like any other location, OM," I shouted over the noise. "Here I came a zillion miles, rode up your famous hill, and what do I hear—power line noise! Are you sure it's not right in the shack? It sure sounds loud."

“Let's try 15.” Turk twisted the band switch. The noise was not so bad there and he lit right on top of a loud CW signal. "That's a break. The band is open for a change."

The signal was clean and loud. Perhaps we had caught a good day on 15. Then the station signed—KN7UFN. "That's my son, Harold,” said Turk sheepishly.

"There goes my band opening on 15.”

I chuckled as Turk tuned over the band. A KN4 had replied to Harold and was going into the typical Novice routine.

"Harold is 14 and already he's worked 43 states and 11 countries in five months. He's going to make a good ham, David," Turk said approvingly. I agreed with him.

We slipped the receiver back on 20 CW and Bob went over to check the TV system again. I let out a long CQ and got WA2VQU. The line noise was wicked. I hung on, screwed up the filter a bit and heard the WA2 say, "and you are my very first Arizona station. PSE QSL!"

His QTH was lost in the racket of line noise and QRM. When I went back and stood by. I could not read the signal at all.

That line noise beat me down. The results were not worth the effort to hear through it. Forty was little better. I turned off the receiver and took my camera outside to get a few more shots while the light was good.

One side of the W7LEE shack is so close to the edge of the cliff that I was scared to go around there for a picture. It was like looking out the door of a Piper Cub. There is a 200-foot drop to the first ledge, and a second sheer cliff extended down to the valley floor. That was the north side of the shack. The western side of the hill is more gradual and it is to that direction that W7LEE must point his antenna for Los Aangeles. I noted that northward, towards W7ZC, Bob would have the advantage of a "drop-off" that might make some difference in our attempted QS0s on Two.

On the southwest corner of the building stood a sturdy triangular mast made up of four 10-foot sections 20 inches across. Turk informed me that this was his best bet for a strong, climbable mast. Atop this stubby 40-footer sat the UHF antennas. Three channels of UHF are beamed into the Parker area, each with two sets of bays 105 degrees apart to give a 180-degree coverage.

A short pipe mast on the north side of the shack held a rotator and the 2-meter vertical-horizontal array. Long John normally rests on this pipe. The rotator was out of commission but that did not seem a problem, at that time.

Bob was busy inside and when I went back into the shack I saw that he had connected his Centimeg 2-meter converter to the 75A2. The speaker was blasting forth noise but no signals. It was only six o'clock, or five at Los Angeles I was disappointed and said so. Turk grinned and said, "Even at W7LEE you gotta wait until they get on. You know, David, I can't hear the ground planes and Gooney birds, even up here." That was shocking, as I had visions of hearing the Novices and Techs around the Los Angeles area, like I had at Alhambra when W6JRE lent me his Gooney bird and ground plane. VHF men are always hopeful, aren't we?

Bob told me that he had long observed a phenomenon at Parker where large quantities of noise could be picked up on Two Meters from discrete directions. The same condition happens on Black Mountain with the same noise from the same directions. Bob demonstrated this to me by climbing onto the roof and swinging the antenna. These noise peaks come from west, and a little east, of Parker. No logical reason for this noise has been reached. It is unrelated to power lines, and of a different character of interference.

There was only the slightest noticeable noise from the Centimeg type 144 converter, which has a noise figure of under 3 db.

I was anxious to get going on Two. Turk obligingly fired up the 2 meter exciter, saying, "John Chambers says this antenna doesn't have any punch, but maybe we can work someone."

I stretched out on the bed while Bob went on with his activation of the 2-meter gear. I was half asleep when Bob let out a yell. I thought he had gotten tangled up in the high voltage. He had not. There was none! That was what he was yelling about. "I forgot to take the 872's from the big rig down at the house. Naomi (Bob's XYL W7YZU) was using the rig and I just didn't remember to bring those rectifiers up here. How dumb can you get?" Turk looked disgustedly at the empty sockets in the 3000-volt supply.

"We'll try it with low power," continued Bob. "We're not licked yet." He did not sound very convincing to me.

Apparently Bob wanted to get my one-track mind off Two Meters and he quickly changed the subject. "You hungry yet?" Without waiting for my reply he strode over to the refrigerator, opened the door and pulled out a large T-bone steak in each hand. "Let's cook these. Can you do it while I steal some power from the 522 exciter unit?"

I rose and went to the "galley." Not seeing any large skillet I broke in to ask where it was. Bob yelled, "Outside—you ex-Boy Scout—on the grill, stupid!"

Sure enough, there is where I broiled those thick steaks. On an old wire grill from a cast-off oven, over a fire built among the rocks with scraps of boards that had been hauled up there during the construction period. Bob, not satisfied with my small-sized bed of coals, sawed up a perfectly good 1x8 about six feet long to add to my fire.

Canned corn, bread, an apple and tea from my Stanley rounded out a delicious meal for each of us, plus the juicy T-bone. At least mine was juicy. Bob wanted his "well done" so I was done eating when he declared his cooked properly. It was then down to about half size and I have seen shoe soles that looked more appetizing, but he chewed away with gusto.

I washed the divided TV-trays that served as plates and put the utensils away in the cabinet. By then it was quite dark and the lights of Parker began twinkling thru the desert haze. The night view was as spectacular as the day's had been.

About 7 o'clock we returned to the 2-meter rig. Many passes across the band brought only that hauntingly familiar "nothingness" that has plagued VHFers in remote places for so long.

Turk rigged up DC connections and managed to get a small amount of RF out of the final. He surely was disgusted with his lack of memory regarding the 872's, and for his lack of spares.

At 7:30 he started up the keyer wheel. Several five-minute sending and listening periods brought no replies. Nor did we hear anyone on the band. Bob stated that many signals could and would be heard from the Los Angeles area but they just don't make the grade because so many use Ground Plane antennas or simple beams. And even these beams are usually pointed north or south, towards the more populated areas. The Gooney bird operators consider that type of contact big DX so W7LEE is unable to hear them, and they miss out on some real DX by not looking to the east.

Many calls on the wheel on 144.007 brought nothing but silence and it looked like a Zero for Black Mountain, that evening, which is par for the course when a visitor is in the shack.

Before leaving town we had arranged for a sked with Naomi on 2 meters. She did not show up. Attempts to raise her failed. Finally Bob stepped to the TV Translator racks, flipped a switch three times and came back to the operating-table. "That'll wake up Naomi. I bet, she’s watching TV and not listening to the 2-meter Black Widow." He was correct; within a minute Naomi was calling us on voice.

Turk replied on CW as the modulator was dead. Although Naomi had trouble copying the slight hum on the carrier, since the Black Widow had no BFO, she got the message. She is a crack CW operator and came back saying, "Yes, I'll be right out with the 872's. No, I won't break them."

They agreed to meet at the base of the mountain—where Naomi would drive the pickup. I most emphatically urged Bob to forget it, not to make the long trip down and back up the mountain. I was disturbed that Naomi would have to bring out the tubes and did not think the whole business was worth the effort just to have me make a west coast 2-meter QSO. Turk brushed aside my protests and signed off.

Bob stewed around the shack and outside on the hill until he spotted the far-off lights of the pickup coming across the vast open space between Parker and the base of the mountain.

Then I realized I was going to be left alone up there, whether or not I approved. Bob insisted that there was no use in my making the round trip. I did make an effort to accompany him but he said for me to have a nap and he would be back shortly.

I stretched out on the bed and considered the situation. I knew that Bob did not know how I felt about staying as I had said nothing. Surreptiously, I counted the emergency heart pills that I always carry and made a hasty calculation. In the event that Bob did not return (horrible thought) I could "walk out" aided by that heart-regulating medicine. I did not want to stay up there alone, even for a few minutes, but I did not know how to get out of it without insulting my gracious host, an ardent ham who was trying to make my visit complete with a OSO or two from the 6's.

I heard the Jeep's motor roar into action and listened to the crunch of tires on the rocks outside. I was alone on top of Black Mountain!

Having placed some of my fictional characters in just such a spot, I tried to think how I could get word to the "outside world" — just in case. Then I thought, what good would it do to raise someone outside, if there was no jeep to come get me? As I think back, it seems foolish, but at the time, it was no laughing matter. I thought of the impaired vision of Turk, and that treacherous road, which was a fright in daylight, and now it was pitch dark! I changed my thoughts to how I could get the 32V fired up if I needed it. Any idea of keying the Translators was out of the question, as I did not know what switches Turk had operated to cut off the carriers and no one but Naomi would know what it meant anyway!

I was mentally making the long ride in the Jeep and had only "ridden" about half way down the hill when I saw a flash of light on the ceiling. I realized that it could only come from the headlights of the Jeep as it topped the hill by the Translator shack. Bob Turk had returned. I was no longer alone. (Note to W7LEE: You'll never know how glad I was to see you until you read this!)

When I commented on the quick round trip, Bob shrugged it off saying, "Well, I sorta hurried. That is why I didn't want you to make the trip with me...I just sorta slid down."

In a few minutes the 872's were in their sockets. The rig was turned on and greeted us with a loud CRACK as 3000 volts jumped somewhere in the transmitter. "Did you remember to ask Naomi to call Chambers in LA?" I inquired.

"Sure I did. He should be on by the time we get fired up."

"Will he be at home?" I asked, recalling the two trips I had made to W6NLZ with W6BXL in bygone years only to find John out somewhere. "Sure, he'll be there. He always is when I'm up here!" was the confident answer from Turk as he tuned up the rig.

The keyer wheel was started on and let run for a few minutes. I could hear the power thumps in the speaker, TEST de W7LEE. The signal was pouring out toward the coast, at last.

At 9:20 PM we heard W6NLZ answer us from his perch on the Palos Verdes hills south of Los Angeles, 257 Miles away over a rugged set of mountain ranges. It was reliable, efficient, John Chambers, W6NLZ, co-holder of several VHF DX Records, and one of the top VHF men in the world. Once again, John had come through. The path between W7LEE and W6NLZ had been bridged again, a gap that many said could never be made with VHF signals.

I asked Bob if he had any idea how many QSOs he has had with John. "Must be over a hundred since the first one back in 1952." W6NLZ was poking a 558 signal our way. The vertical-horizontal yagis on our roof were obviously not doing their stuff.

Chambers came back with our report. "You're 468...that lousy antenna makes your sig worse than your old QTH...but glad to QSO and GE to W5CA...let's see…guess after we QSO awhile we'll wake somebody up...can you cpy SSB?

After a short go on SSB from John, which we could hear but not read due to the low signal level and to some strange type of FMing which Bob told me was a characteristic of John's signal, we went back to CW. The signals had no sock. Turk was not satisfied. He wanted to show me more. Then W7LEE asked if John could stand by for 40 minutes, during which time we would put the long John back up together and on the roof. John said he would wait and admonished Turk with, "Don't let Mid do too much work." We signed and stood by. I recalled the mess of the Long John, but when we got outside, it did not look too bad.

I repeat: That “P” on the mountain stands for PERSISTANCE of one VHFer named Bob Turk. Here we were on top of an old volcano, on a moonless, windy night, starting out to do a repair job on an array that looked totally useless. What some guys won't do to show off a VHF location!

Bob did not ease my qualms one bit when he shouted to me as I came out the door, "Watch out for rattlesnakes, Dave." I had completely forgotten about the snakes, and that canister of ice water we had brought along, "The best snake - bite medicine," Turk had said. I looked around and spotted at least SIX snakes, all curled up and ready to strike.

"SNAKES!” I yelled. "Nope,” shouted Turk, "Just hunks of old coax. Haw, haw!” They looked like they were moving, however.

We laid the messed-up John array on a box and a sawhorse. On close examination, the array was not as damaged at it had first appeared although it was a real mixed up bunch of tubing. The directors, made from #8 aluminum wire, were the worst. They went back into shape with out much trouble. The first director, broken. I started to make the needed repairs while Turk climbed to the roof to take down the big vertical-horizontal array we had used and which was so low in efficiency.

Turk asked me to throw some tools up to him. Between “grunting” for him and working on the array, I was a busy beaver. Especially so, since I was extremely aware of the ever possible presence of a real rattler. In the dim light, it would have been easy to mistake a piece of coax for a live reptile, with sad results. The lava rock was rough to climb over in the dark. The beam went back together and finally was ready.

Turk handed down the other array. We maneuvered the limber 20 foot Long John up on the roof. The heavy-duty Twin-lead was attached to the driven element and rather than make a difficult job of replacing it Turk elected to handle the whole thing at one time. It WAS a messy job.

Turk was on the roof and I was "grunting". It was a tough go. It was pitch dark on the roof and Bob was precariously near the north edge of the roof. I recalled the drop off on that side. One misstep by W7LEE and I would really be alone on Black Mountain, and I did not know the first thing about driving a four-wheeled jeep! So I asked Bob Turk, really to be CAREFUL. However, Turk is as surefooted as he is persistent and made those trips to the roof, and installed that wobbly Long John, in the dark without any incident. He was hurrying, time was running out on our schedule with W6NLZ. Getting that long antenna and its heavy 280-ohm commercial-type feed line into place was a job for Superman, but he was off duty that night, so Turk did it.

Feeding the Twin lead thru a small hole in the wall was nasty but finally we pulled the lead inside where Bob returned to hook it to a Balun and thence to the relay.

W7LEE was once more on the air! The whole job had taken fifty minutes, ten minutes over the allotted time. I worried that John would not be there. He was and replied to our call saying curtly-- "Ur sigs only 338 now!" This was disheartening. Turk only said "Well, I guess I aimed in the wrong direction I sure wish that rotator worked!" So, back onto the roof he went. I was listening to John and when Turk found the right direction the signals from Palos Verdes came booming in.

The next report was heartwarming--"578--great signal-OMs."

Previously I had asked Bob why the signal from W6NLZ was only T8 or less and why he got the same T report. This rough note seems to be characteristic of weak VHF DX signals over that path. This may also account for the FMing on NLZ's signals over the same path.

Chambers informed us that W6CDB, in Torrance, was on frequency but we could not hear him nor W6DQJ who was also there. We did hear several weak SSB signals but none strong enough to copy. At about 945 PM John left the air saying "Best QSO in a long time--CU again--both of you--73 de W6NLZ.”

I thought back over the past six years. In 1956 I had a solid QSO with W6NLZ from Parker on 2 meter CW. At that time W7LEE was using his Big Bertha tilted about seven degrees above the horizon.

Now, six years later we had the use of a better receiver, more power and a much higher location. Was there any signal improvement at W7LEE during these six long years during which VHF made giant strides? Not if the signals tonight were any criterion, but I know that conditions were unfavorable and that many of the stations we were hearing just did not have their beams, if any, pointed our way. Normally, Bob told me repeatedly, Los Angeles stations were louder.

On the plus side of the ledger, I heard a lot of signals, even if I could not read them and Turk's reason for it seemed valid. I copied down the list of stations worked the night from Black Peak. Starting up, unheralded on the night of June 10, 1962, W7LEE had knocked off W6WSQ, W6DNJ, W6LZC, K6GTG, W6NLZ, W6PJA, W6NGN/6 in that order. On the 17th he had worked off W7JU in Boulder City, Nevada. All these QSOs were with the legal limit on 144007 CW. Turk had not been on the air often from the Mountain. Because his living comes from the operation of the three TV systems. Naturally the TV job comes first. Installation, maintenance and even composite construction of the UHF translators had taken many long and tedious hours.

It seemed almost inconceivable that one man could do as much as had been involved in making the TV and ham installation on the mountain. Ham operation was necessarily "second-fiddle" at the site. All ham work had been curtailed until the three Translators were working. Turk owed this much to his paying customers of the system.

A question came to mind as I spent the hours on the top of the lava pile when I realized that W7LEE was housed immediately adjacent to the Translators and that his ham antennas were, naturally, close to those used for pickup from the Phoenix TV stations. What about Television Interference (TVI)? Here was no ordinary ham-TV relationship where a family watched their favorite programs over a short path to a powerful local TV station. The Parker pickups must receive low-level (approximately 40 to 150 MV) standard VHF signals (channels 3, 10, 12) from stations over 150 miles away. These signals are converted to energize the transmitters (10 to 20 watts output) on the 800-900 MC band. Problems there included antenna placement for maximum pickup from Phoenix, harassed by QRM from Mexican TV stations on the same channels and with much more potent signals than those received from Phoenix.

TVI originating at W7LEE would be disastrous as it would get into the Translator system and Turk would have 1000 paying customers shouting "TVI." This type of TVI could not be quieted by a filter on the customer's TV set. Therefore, NO TVI can be tolerated in W7LEE's transmitter. I saw a one-kilowatt CW rig operating in the same room as the TV pickup receivers and with the ham antenna not more than a few hundred feet from any of the pickup arrays, aimed at Phoenix. Yet there was NO trace of W7LEE on any of the channels. True, the 2-meter antenna was aimed at the opposite direction from Phoenix, but there was no low-pass filter on the CW transmitter and no high pass filters on the pickup receivers. I do not know by what magic this is accomplished but I do know that there was and is no TVI!

What makes a Bob Turk tick? Why is he such a persistent man and what is his background? By much digging, I think I found some of the answers.

Adolph Robert Turk was born in Victorville, CA in 1918. He lived in Parker for years, then moved to Compton, Calif. There in 1934, he became W6LEE. He holds WAZ #9 and has 233 DX countries confirmed although he has never sent in for a DXCC!

Bob became interested in VHF in 1937 when he built a copy of the famous "W6ITH transceiver" used in the construction of the Bay bridge and did a lot of hamming on the old 56-MC band.

In 1939 Turk married Naomi and soon sold her on ham radio. She became an ardent ham as W7YZU. She holds WAZ #17, DXCC #311 and made WAC in 1948 after only a year on the air. Their son, Harold, 14, became KN7UFN in February 1963. The other three Turk kids did not take up ham radio seriously although they did have novice licenses as WN7VQO (William), WN7VQP (Nellie) and WN7VQQ (Frederic) but they failed to follow through.

Shortly before WWII Turk worked the old 235-MC band with homebuilt super-regen transceivers. With WWII over, Turk's entire interest went back to the 116-MC band and then to 144. Bob built up a KW with VT127s in the final. Many hours of automatic keyer operation followed and there was a band opening in the E region which he missed but during which he was heard in Texas! This convinced the Turks that there was a possibility of DX on the VHF.

About that time the Turk family prepared to move back to Parker and they put together a monster beam, Big Bertha. They realized that it would take a good beam, plus high power to work from Parker on VHF as the nearest stations would be in the LA area. The 12 bays of 4-element Yagis attracted much attention from the So. California VHFers who thought Turk was "real gone in the head" to even try such a long haul on DX big antenna, big signal, or whatever.

In July 1952 the Turk family, beam and gear moved to Parker. They merely changed the numerals in their two calls and on September 1st, 1952 they fired up the rig into the big antenna on a 25-ft tower and pointed the beam toward LA. They were immediately rewarded with a QSO, their first, with W6NLZ, over that rough path. That QSO was followed by one with W6NTC. The word was out! W7LEE had bridged the gap, and the Turks could make it to Los Angeles on 2 meters.

The first contacts were on CW and then phone was tried and W6CDB was the first two-way fone QSO. Much work involved in the ensuring weeks but the Turks proved that they could work anyone in the LA area, providing they used the same polarity antenna as W7LEE and if the 6 had a good low-noise receiver and moderate power.

For a living, Turk then ran the only TV and Radio shop in Parker and was one of the men responsible for the installation of Parker's first TV Translator station in 1956.

In WWII Bob served a year in the Merchant Marine as radio operator on the SS UMATILLA. He holds a private pilot's license and his four-place Stinson is tied down at the Parker Airport. He does not get much time for flying, although he would be happy if he could use it in some of his work. In addition to the Parker TV system on Black Mountain, Turk now maintains the five-channel TV setup on Cunningham Mountain, some 50 miles south of Parker, owned by the Palos Verdes Valley TV Club, of Blythe. There is no ham gear at Cunningham Mountain but Turk goes there at least twice a week on his maintenance tour.

Bob’s brother, Fred is W7VQQ lives in Parker and is not a VHFer. Bob Turk is a competent, versatile radio man and an amateur with a terrific ability to overcome difficulties. Determined to bridge the gap over the mountains, after tiring of the DX rat-race, he persisted and struggled over many months to build equipment and antennas, with much availability of components, and lacking personal contact with other VHFers, Turk fell back on an almost forgotten aspect of ham radio (except perhaps in the VHF field) that of do-it-yourself-ham radio! His results speak for themselves.

I asked Turk questions during the many hours I spent with him on this March visit. Here are some reactions to my leading questions.

Polarization? Turk stated that in the original design of Big Bertha he had made it so it could be changed in polarity by means of a rope, from the ground. (I saw this demonstrated in 1956.) There was much controversy then (and now) about this Vertical versus Horizontal feature of antennas. W7LEE was caught in the middle of the fight. He determined after many tests that no good QSOs over that path could be accomplished less both stations were using the same polarity, Horizontal polarization seemed the best in the long run. Less QSB appears to be one of the assets of horizontals, but Turk has not had a closed mind on this feature and has repeatedly tried both. However, he assumes that many more LA area stations could be heard over DX paths if they would try horizontal beams

Receiver transmitter systems? For Long haul DX, Turk has found that a low noise figure is vital and cannot be overlooked. Turk believes that CW is the most reliable means of communication on VHF over DX paths. SSB signals are superior to AM but still do not come up to the reliability of the CW mode. High power is a factor and important. The combination of good receiver, high power and high gain antennas, is hard to beat, says Bob Turk.

Propagation? Turk stated that while it was long held by many of the propagation experts that no E layer DX is possible on 144 miles under 1000 miles, he has found it otherwise. Once while working W6AJF, at Sonoma on 50-mc fone, a check revealed that the whole SF and NO. Calif. area was boiling in on both 10 and 6 meters, and he asked Frank to switch to 2 meters. After much coaxing, Jones did switch to 2, pointed his beam toward Parker and Turk recalled that Jones was a very surprised ham when he heard W7LEE answering his call. The signals were solid! The first QSO on 144 with the Bay area was also made on E skip. This method of predicting the short skip on 144 by watching the skip pattern on 50 MC has become well known and widely used since then.

DX? W7LEE has worked a total four call areas and eleven states on 144 MC. These are: Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah, Oregon, Washington, Texas, Montana, Colorado, Louisiana and Oklahoma. He hopes to soon increase that number with more operation from the Mountain. In 1958 W7LEE worked K6CTG on 220MC CW for another "first."

Trends: Power? Turk told this writer that in his opinion, one of the greatest boons to VHFers would be an increase in power on the VHF bands for Amateur Extra Class licensees. Turk would like to see the power limit raised for Extras to five or even ten kilowatts of input power to overcome amplifier inefficiencies (with ordinarily available tubes) and to give the amateur a better chance at Moon bounce work and to improve scatter techniques. Turk is emphatic in his belief that the increase in power limit, for the Amateur Extra Class would provide a real incentive to VHFers because it would give the Extra something for his effort in obtaining the highest class license. As it now stands, an Amateur Extra Class licensee has no more privileges on the VHF bands than does the Novice or Technician except for more of the spectrum.

Novice and Technician? Turk stated that there is no question but that the novice is a boon to ham radio if he uses his Novice privilege to increase his code speed and to get the experiences necessary to be come a full-fledged amateur. W7LEE stated that he believed there would be more Technicians going up for General, if they were forced to use CW. Many Technicians, says Bob Turk, are faced with a problem of being out of range for voice communication and they are missing a great chance to enhance their operation by the use of CW. Many of them will argue this point but they cannot work DX and wonder why! Turk believes that the increased activity of the Techs has been good for the amateur body in that they have helped keep the frequency-hungry commercials off our VHF bands, particularly those portions used but little by other classes of amateurs. Turk believes that more Techs would help in this effort to hold these frequencies until the "rank and file amateur" recognizes their worth and moves there!

A. R. Turk, W7LEE, is a credit to the entire amateur radio fraternity. More specifically, he has extended and enhanced VHF ham radio through his untiring endeavor and devotion to VHF. He is but one of many such amateurs about whom the typical amateur knows nothing--yet one day we will all thank these VHF pioneers who have held the line, and kept those frequencies for us all. We may need them!

EPILOGUE

About midnight we pulled the switches at W7LEE and prepared to ride down the steep slope to the sleeping desert below. Bob Turk took a last careful look at the meters on the Translators, made a few minor adjustments and when satisfied, he turned off the old TV receiver. He swung the 5-gallon canister of water back into the Jeep (he always carries water with him as it is a long way to a drink in those parts) and went back to close the shack door.

I stood outside, still wary of rattlesnakes. The gleaming naked bulb lit up a tiny area in the pitch darkness around the hilltop.

We walked to the Jeep, climbed in and pitched down over the hill, with me hanging on to the Sissy bar. Conversation was difficult over the motor noise and I did not want to distract Bob from his driving down that lava slope. Somehow, the trail did not now seem so bad, in the dark. Perhaps it was because I could not see anything outside the area of the headlamps. At last, we were safely down and headed across the desert to Parker.

I looked back. There, shining brightly, like a low-hanging star, I saw the light burning on Black Mountain. I thought, "As long as there is a bright light of ambition burning for radio amateurs, our hobby will continue to advance and to enrich our lives."

To me, the light burning on Black Mountain, the QTH of W7LEE, symbolizes just such motivation! May it always shine clearly and show us the way to the top!

This website honors Bob Turk W7LEE and all the other early amateur radio VHF pioneers.

Bob Turk W7LEE photos.

A. Robert Turk - Parker AZ - 1969

Juanda & Bob Turk - Parker AZ - 1969

Bob Turk on his ranch - Salome AZ - Feb 1986

Bob Turk visits his wife's grave - Wickenburg AZ - Aug 1985

Greetings photo sent to Kevin Turk in Germany

Juanda & Bob Turk - Parker AZ - Summer 1969

Kevin & A. Robert Turk on ranch - Salome AZ - Feb 1986

Kevin & A. Robert Turk - Jan 1983

Photos courtesy of Kevin L. Turk - Ex: KA7YIM & DA2SU

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I very vividly remember going up that mountain with my grandfather Harold P. Turk. His daughter, Nancy Turk was my step-mother. I remember how hot that jeep floor got chasing the jack rabbits at night going to the top of the mountain with my grandfather and his brother. It was a lot of fun!

Ronald A. Mongold

If you would like to get in contact with Ronald fill out the Contact Form below.

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I loved reading about Bob. He got me into broadcasting by letting me tag along with him on trips to the top of the mountain. I climbed the little tower by the building a couple of times. Bob and his wife took me out to the old Earp Mine to see if I wanted to dig it. What a crazy mine it was!

Carl Chapman

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