Welcome to the VE6KQ Website

Have been licensed since 1963 and more or less active ever since. Interest has varied over the years from weak signal work mainly on 2 meters, early satellite work, AM operation, keeping vintage equipment on the air and lately digital operations.

I collect test equipment and with it have managed to keep the old radio equipment operational. This equipment includes the Drake twins, R4B, T4XB with the MS4 speaker, two Yaesu FT-101E's, a Kenwood TS820 that I bought new. Other equipment includes an EICO 720 transmitter with 730 plate modulator, Heathkit DX 60B with various VFO's and lots of other miscellaneous items. Other older receivers are a Trio/Kewood 9R-59D, two Realistic AX-190's, a Hallicrafters SX 122 and a Hammarlund HQ-145A. The SX 122 and the HQ-145A were recently acquired.

The equipment set up now in the ham shack includes an ICOM 7300 and an SDRPLAY RSP1A receiver. Two laptop computers are in the ham shack with one dedicated to FT-8/FT-4 use. Separate monitors are used for these. Other equipment is some of the vintage equipment mentioned above, 2 meter and 70 cm radios, scanner etc.

Antennas include a Mosley tri-band beam, a 40 meter inverted V, a 6 meter dipole and a 440 MHz antenna for a repeater that is at this location.

Amateur radio station VE6KQ is located in southeast Calgary Alberta Canada. The VE6KQ 444.750 + 5 MHz FM repeater is also located here. Leave a 110.9 PL tone enabled on your transmitter although it is normally not required for repeater operation. Do not enable your receiver PL (CTCSS). The repeater was put in operation in 1985. Additional repeater information is available by clicking on the Past Projects button. VE6KQ repeater coverage maps are available. NOTE: The repeater is currently not in operation.

For QSO confirmation I use eQSL.

  59 Years in Amateur Radio  

LATEST WEBSITE ADDITIONS OR CHANGES

1. Revised Odds & Ends page July 15, 2022. FT-8, Audio Frequency Harmonics, IC-7300. (PDF)
2. Revised Odds & Ends page February 24, 2022. Marathon Atomic Self-setting Clock. (PDF)
3. Revised Odds & Ends page December 12, 2021. Using WSJT-X with a WEBSDR. (PDF)
4. Revised Odds & Ends page November 3, 2021. Checking the isolation of the Heathkit HD-1234 coaxial switch. (PDF)
5. Revised Odds & Ends page September 19, 2021. SDRuno with an External AFSK Decoder. (PDF)
6. Revised Odds & Ends page September 4, 2021. Another HF RF Sampler. (PDF)
7. Added to Odds & Ends page June 26, 2021. An HP 5245L Electronic Counter. (PDF)
8. Added to Odds & Ends page April 16, 2021. Using the RSP-1A for Frequency Measurements and Calibration. (PDF)
9. Added to Odds & Ends page February 11, 2021. Operating, QSLs and More. (PDF)
10. Revised Odds & Ends page January 23, 2021. The ICOM IC-7300 and the BM800 Type Microphone. (PDF)
11. Revised Odds & Ends page October 17, 2020. A Comparison of 3 Vintage Receivers. (PDF)

LINKS

The "Links" button on the left will direct you to some regional Ham organization websites (Alberta) and some regional and national Swap & Shops.

AMATEUR RADIO NEWS

Unfortunately it looks like the Southgate Amateur Radio News has discontinued it's RSS news feed.

The news is still available through this link.

CALLSIGN LOOKUP

Enter the callsign in either box below and click Go.

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For Canadian callsign look-ups only, here is a link to the ISED site previously Industry Canada.

Here is a link to ClubLog.