W7IQQ & KD6AXW

Rufus & Dora Qakey

I was born in Atlanta, Ga in 1931. I lived in the southeast until 1945, when i moved to Upland, Ca with my parents & sisters. my father was a presbyterian minister. I graduated from Chaffey High School in 1948, and Orange Coast Colledge in1951. After several miscellaneous jobs, I became a surveyor in January of 1952. My best friend, Harry Dalton, W6HAX, got me interested in ham radio. I studied radio books and practiced CW with a J-38 key and a door bell buzzer. I also practiced the code by Dit-Dahing road signs on trips to and from the desert center area where i was employed. I had my code speed up to about 7 wpm, and was ready to go in to the federal building to take my Novice test. In August 1952 uncle sam decided he needed me in Korea. At the Army reception center at Fort Ord, i did well enough on the aptitude test to be sent to high speed radio operator school in San Luis Obispo.. Many hours of copying CWgot my code speed up to 28 Wpm.

With the code speed problem out of the way, I went for the general instead of the Novice license. The sith district ran out of W6 calls, so i was issued one of the first K6 calls, K6bah. I was sent to Korea and was stationed near Chunchon at 10th Corp Headquarters. My radio station was an 8X10 metal box mounted on a 2 1/2 ton truck.Inside the box I had Collins receivers, abc 610 transmitter, and two teletype stations. The operating was about 20% CW or voice and 80% teletype. After the truce was signed, I was given permission to set up a Mars Station, AD4AB. After a couple of months, I was transferes to 8th Army Headquarters, Near Soul. I ran the Mars station there, AD4EAR.

After being discharged in 1954, I lived in several locations in So. Cal. I Set up a station at each location. In 1971 I moved to Nevada with my family. At that time the FCC required that your call had to represent the are that you lived in, so, they issued me W7IQQ. I moved back to So. Cal. in1981. My wife Dora and I retired in1986. I sold my Swan 500 and bought an Icom 730, A more practicle rig for mobile and portable use. We bought an Airstream trailer and left So. Cal. to tour the USA for as long as we liked. We did lots of site seeing, visiting reletives, and hams coast to coast. It was first time eyeball QSO with many of the hams. We pulled the trailer as far south as key west and as far North as Fairbanks, AK. While in Florida, Dora went to classes for her Novice test and became Kb6wzu. She later up-graded to tech plus and changed her call to Kd6axw. After almost 2 years on the road, Dora and I came back to So. Cal. We settled in Cucamunga to be near my folks. I have belonged to several radio clubs over the years, and most recently joines KPRA.