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N6KR

10/3/2014

10 Comments

 

Episode 011 - Wayne Burdick - N6KR

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Elecraft's co-founder and CTO, Wayne Burdick, N6KR, can live his dream of building the ultimate QRP rig for the backpacker, and sharing it with all of his friends.  This is the theme of Wayne's ham radio journey from his humble beginnings as a teenager in San Diego, California, where he liked to homebrew his first transmitters using the "cockroach" of transistors, the 2N2222.  A stint in the US Coast Guard and a degree in Cognitive Science prepared Wayne to be an out of the box thinker. No doubt, that this, combined with his techncial background from his years in ham radio, helped him create some of the coolest QRP transceivers beginning in 1989, with the Safari-4, a multiband, 1 watt, QRP transceiver, that used plug-in transverter boards for band changes.  Of course, this story advances to the present, where Wayne and his business partner, Eric Swartz, WA6HHQ, create the Elecraft line of popular transceivers and the ultimate QRP backpack transceiver, the KX3.  

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Electronics background:
Love for electronics began around the age of six. Gutted old chassis for parts. Got a Radio Shack Science Fair Electronic Project Kit at an early age. 

First Licensed: 1971

Elmers: 
Richard E Leffler, WA6COE (SK)
Roger Miller, (call sign unknown) (SK)
both teachers at Parkway Junior High School, La Mesa, California, where they supervised the amatuer radio club on campus. 

First Radio Club: El Cajon Amateur Radio Club

Call Signs: WN6HQH, WA6HQH, N6KR

First Rig: Heathkit DX-20 transmitter and Hallicrafters S38D receiver into a tri-band beam

Favorite Mode: QRP CW in the back country on a battery and a random wire

Favorite Ham Radio Activities:
DX, Home brew and build equipment, Field Day, and backpacker HF

Member #3 of the Norcal QRP Club

Wayne is an author of Ham Radio Poetry: 
click here

In 2011, there was talk of resurrecting Heathkit, our favorite boyhood electronic kit company.  Wayne's response on the subject as the CTO of Elecraft

Wayne's Desoldering Primer
 
Degree from UCSD in Cognitive Science

Favorite Drawing Software: SketchUp

Creator of these transceivers: 
Safari-4
Norcal 40A
Norcal Sierra
Wilderness SST

As co-founder and CTO of Elecraft, Wayne was the principal designer of these rigs:
K1 - compact 4 band 5 watt CW transceiver
K2 - all mode 5 band 15  watt transceiver
K3 - 160 - 2 meter high performace 100 watt transceiver
KX1 - ultra-portable 4 band QRP CW transceiver
KX3 - ultraportable, all band, all mode QRP transceiver with built-in automatic antenna tuner


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Radio Shack Science Fair Electronic Organ Kit
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Heathkit DX-20 Transmitter
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Norcal 40
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Wilderness Sierra
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Elecraft KX3 - For many, the ultimate portable QRP rig

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The Elecraft "K Line" that includes the K3 Transceiver, P3 pan adapter, and the KPA 500 amplifier.  This is 4Z1UG's dream rig
10 Comments
Chip
10/14/2014 05:48:02 am

Thanks very much for this QSO with Wayne Burdick. I'm definitely an Elecraft fanboy, no bones about it. I was really struck by the similarity between Wayne's start with electronics, and mine. Tearing apart old radios, Radio Shack Science Fair P-box kits, Heathkits. Probably same age and time line. Unfortunately was ADD for math, didn't pursue the electronics career path and I only got into ham radio in the past few years. Looks like Wayne Burdick did it the right way!

Reply
Eric Guth link
10/14/2014 06:26:09 am

Chip - many of us who grew up in the 60s and 70's may have similar stories. I too crashed in school as an engineer because of ADD and math. By the way - it did not stop me from doing engineering and design for many years.

Lets ask N6KR - Wayne - how was your math career in school?

Reply
Wayne Burdick link
10/14/2014 07:26:18 am

I took the same core math sequence required for CS majors, including a lot of calculus, graph theory, etc. But the Cognitive Science program went on to emphasize statistics, artificial intelligence, cognitive engineering, parallel distributed processing, and neural networks.

An interesting note about the math courses: I had heard they would be tough, so I considered taking them pass/fail. But my future wife, who I had been with for over a year by then, convinced me to take the classes for letter grades. Whether it was peer pressure an unspoken prenuptial agreement is unclear, but I went along with the gag. Fortunately I got an A in every math class, which she rightly takes credit for to this day.

Joe Gorin (Yochanan) link
10/22/2014 05:42:31 am

Hi Eric,

Listened to your web cast first time today. Very interesting. Thanks for having me on your list,



Reply
Eric 4Z1UG
11/20/2014 08:05:57 pm

Yochanan - thanks for listening! Tell your friends.

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Carol Milazzo link
5/26/2015 07:38:17 am

After listening to this podcast I felt quite prepared for my visit two weeks later with Eric Swartz WA6HHQ at the #Elecraft booth at the May 2 ARRL Nevada State Convention www.nvcon.org We had an informative and memorable chat about the history of the Elecraft team and the innovations they have brought to amateur radio. To top it all, I left the convention as a proud owner of new KX3! :)

Reply
Bob Nelson
6/22/2018 03:57:26 pm

The NorCal40A appears to be a fine little radio, But IMHO it got one thing wrong. For ops in the field, you want to be able to look DOWN on the radio, after finding a convenient rock or ledge to set it on. In other words, the control panel needs to be horizontal, not vertical. Sure, you can finagle the setup to compensate, but life is much simpler is such hassle is not necessary. One QRP rig that got this right is the YouKits HB-1B, and this is the one I bought.
73 - Bob K6KL

Reply
Eric 4Z1UG link
6/23/2018 12:40:18 pm

Bob - I think that Wayne got it right with the KX3. Don't you think?

73, Eric 4Z1UG

Reply
Garry Decker
12/15/2019 02:45:21 pm

Hi Eric: Glad to know other successful creators did poorly at math in high school 🤓.I changed my college choice because of that. Ten years later graduated from Purdue Engineering with honors because of great instructors. Now five patents and many rigs later 😜, I should have kept focused on the original goal. I started with a DX-35 and S107 in 1960, got more out-of-band violation notices than QSL cards. That transmitter was an all band/all frequency radiator at once! Love my KX2 and KX3/PX3 -Tnx Wayne.
Garry
W9WHF

Reply
Black Alberta link
2/17/2021 09:54:04 pm

Hi greatt reading your post

Reply



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