Hi. My name is Jim Shoemaker, I'm 78 years old (2016) and I live in Ft. Scott, Kansas with my wife Darlene of 22 years (2016). Ft. Scott is about 100 miles south of Kansas City.

I passed my novice exam in 1953 while in the 10th grade in high school. I was very fortunate to have A high school shop teacher to elmer me in. His name was Jasper Simpson, W∅ZGK. Jasper went silent key A few years ago.

After graduating from high school, I went into the TV service business in Kansas City. In 1961 I sold all my Ham equipment as I didn't feel that I had time for it. I remained in the sales and service business until 1985.

I converted one of the first diesel pick up's in the USA in 1976. I put a Detroit 6V53 engine and Allison transmission in my 1969 International pick up. It made a lot of smoke and noise, but it sure would pull a trailer. I started a trash hauling business in the Ft. Scott, Kansas area and did quite well with it.

During the Christmas holidays of 1995, I bought a QST at the local supermarket. I was surprised to read the article about the hams getting back on AM using vintage radios. I told Darlene that I would like to get back on the air with the old rigs running AM. She said "why don't you". That was all the encouragement that I needed. The next hamfest was in the middle of January. I went to it and came home with a SX-101 and a Viking II. That really got me going. Since then I have been buying everything I see, mostly complete estates from silent keys.

We had a tragedy in September of 1997. We were involved in a head on car wreck, we were on the shoulder but got hit anyway. This busted my left foot and put me in a wheelchair for 10 weeks. Needless to say, this changed my life. I immediately sold the trash hauling business and retired. Since that time I have worked doing the things I had always wanted to do, but didn't have the time, fixing and selling radios.

My station now consist of an Elecraft K3S & P3 (which is the most difficult to operate transceiver with a very vague manual), home built SB220 clone by an aircraft engineer in a SB200 case (it will do the 1500PEP ok) and Johnson 500. I operate with a 75 meter horizontal loop antenna and a Pixel receiving antenna on top of our two story building located in the historic district of downtown Ft. Scott.

When I'm not radioing and Darlene is not working with her antiques and collectibles, we enjoy playing music. Darlene plays the piano and I play a Yamaha D Deck organ. We both play by ear and don't read music. So as you see, being retired, keeps us very busy. In fact, I don't know how I ever had time to work in the first place!!!

Please Note: The photo is of my station (with all the Collins equipment) until 2003 when I lived at the farm in Prescott, Kansas. The KW-1 in the photo is serial number 71. KW-1 serial number 1 is not shown in the photo. I no longer have any of this equipment. So please do not ask to buy.

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  Last update ⇰ March 2, 2017