QSO Today Interview with Rich Zwirko, K1HTV

K1HTV

6/15/2019

Episode 254 - Rich Zwirko - K1HTV

Rich Zwirko, K1HTV, was quickly bitten by the DX bug in the late fifties and has gone on to log just about every DX entity on every band. Rich made a career of radio serving as a teenage broadcast engineer in his hometown of New Haven, Connecticut, and later ended his career at the Voice of America in Washington DC. Getting on the air is Rich’s mantra that he shares with us in this QSO Today.

Show Notes

Fund a Transcript

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Hometown: New Haven, CT

First License: Novice, June 1958, KN1HTV

Favorite operating mode: CW operator

Excited by: Digital modes

Greatest challenge to amateur radio: poor propagation. Trying to work people on SSB and CW.

Advice to new or returning hams: Get involved with local radio club

First rig:
Knightkit Ocean Hopper Receiver
Heathkit DX20 Transmitter
Hammarlund HQ-110 Receiver
40 meter and 15 meter dipole antenna

Current Rig:
Elecraft K3S HF Transceiver
Icom IC-706 HF Transceiver
220 FM Radio
SDR Receiver
RSP 1 SDR Receiver
RTL Dongle
Red Pitaya test R4LAB - 8 band SDR FT8 receiver
Elecraft PR6 Pre-amp
3 element AS-3 tri-band yagi antenna
G5RV Antenna
ZS6BKW antenna
160 meter loop antenna

People:
XYL -Phyllis - K1WSN (SK)
Jack Katz, K1AMO
Jim Monahan, K1BNQ, Rich first time on the air at Jim’s QTH
Barbara Lombardi, K1EIR
Elizabeth Lombardi, K1EIC first contacts
David Chase purchased WTIC AM/FM
Charlie Finklestein, FCC Examiner, New York
Son, Andy Zwirko, K1RAk1ra.us/
Daughter, Christina, KR1SSZ
Lance Collester, W7GJ - My guest in episode 59
Joe Kasser, G3GCZ, VK5WU
Frank Donovan, W3LPL, Multiop Contest Station - Frank was my guest in Episode 122 of the QSO Today Podcast

Terms:
Boy Scout Handbook, Learn the Morse Code

3A2 Tube Regenerative Receiver

Fahnestock Clips

Radio Moscow

AC Gilbert Erector Set

Solar Cycle 19

Notre Dame High School, New Haven, CT

New Haven Register

First Class Radio Telephone

“Transmitting audio through a light beam” Science Project

WELI Radio Station New Haven CT, 5 KW

WTIC Hartford, CT

Travelers Insurance Company History

Neumann Microphones

Ampex Reel to Reel tape recorders

Phantom fed audio

Balance audio transformer

Gold Building, Hartford, CT

Auschwitz Concentration Camp

United Technology Corporation, Hartford, CT

Voice of America, Washington DC

VOA Greenville, NC transmission site.

Hamden Amateur Radio Association “Hariscope”

Gonset Gooney "Bird" Box VHF 2 Meters

S100 Bus Computer

DXCC

6 meter power module WCBS TV amplifier Empire
State Building

Amateur Radio DX Bulletin boards

DX spotting networks

PSK Reporter

FT8 Mode

Build 8 band FT8 SDR Receiver

EA6VQ DX Map

ON1KST 6 Meter Propagation Map

AMSAT

TAPR TADD-1 Kit

Goddard Radio Club

Goddard Space Flight Center

Packet Radio Bulletin Boards

NetRom Nodes

Virginia QSO Party

Manassas Hamfest

DXKeeper Log book

WSJT Development Group

FT-8 digital mode

TAPPR and Packet Radio.

JSCALL (used to be called FT8call)

Digital Mode P25

DMR Hotspot

Echolink

Echolink W4VA repeater

EME or Moon bounce

80 element VHF collinear array

JT65 for EME

R4LAB receiver software

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Please join our QSO Today community by pressing the button below. It is the best way to suggest guests and topics, and provide feedback to Eric, 4Z1UG.

Hammarlund HQ-110 GC Receiver

Heathkit DX-20 Novice Transmitter

Redpitya Stemlab 4 channel SDR receiver

Elecraft K3S HF Transceiver

6 Comments

David Kaplan link

6/16/2019 08:25:44 am

Rich worked for WTIC before the Travelers sale. This is the website for those like Rich who worked there before 1974.

Pat Reno

6/19/2019 05:41:31 pm

Wow! Dick John would of loved seeing your Ham accomplishments ! Stay well. Pat

Pat Reno link

6/19/2019 05:47:32 pm

Wow! As I said, John would of loved seeing all your accomplishments and your equipment! Stay well. Patty

Michael Shovan, WB2KHE

6/18/2019 12:00:25 pm

Like Rich, I - too - fell early in love with broadcast radio, and was an engineer at two local stations (back in the 70s) before moving to TV until my recent retirement. His story about Telco loop-based remotes ("NEMOs") reminded me about how we got news from the networks (UPI, ABC-RADIO). I also did some local radio-remotes using VHF point-to-point links (161 MHz), and TV on microwave (2 GHz). FCC's "downgrade" of the First Class licence was - in my view - a serious blow to the technical-excellence "magic" that made broadcasting so attractive. Best 73s, Rich! -mjs##

Steven Herman link

8/2/2019 09:54:50 am

Just one comment regarding VOA becoming "a skeleton." While it is true the shortwave footprint is a mere shadow of its former self, we currently have 47 language services, most do radio (through MW or FM, including affiliates) and/or TV (satellite and affiliates) and all the language services have websites. We certainly don't have as many foreign bureaus as we did but I feel we're still doing an adequate job of fulfilling our mission goals.

Here's the updated fact sheet: https://docs.voanews.eu/en-US-INSIDE/2019/07/30/b2a5f281-2c61-43e2-9ecb-1e8ac26f820a.pdf

Russ Reiss - K1HOP

9/30/2022 05:32:55 pm

I remember Rich well, starting with our earliest days in ham radio (thus calls close in sequence) and seeing each other at the local Hamden Amateur Radio Club meetings.

We'd also run across each other on the air perhaps once every decade :) And I'd get other info from hams in the family.

A GREAT GUY! Always nice, always reliable, kind and decent. The world could use more Rich Zwirkos!

73 de K1HOP

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Episode 254 - Rich Zwirko - K1HTV

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