From the history archives... About your club officers:
      Spotlight on...Tom, KA4HKK, President Vintage Equipment Born April 11, 1954 in Caldwell County, Tom attended both Hudson Elementary and Hudson High School. Not finishing High School, he did study for, and passed, his GED Equivalency Exam at age 37.  Married in May of 1981 to the former Miss Mavis Crump, the marriage ended in 1996.  Two children were born of this union (Travis, now 25, and Phillip, now 23).
Tom has worked most of his life in the furniture industry, primarily as a fabric cutter in the upholstery department...but 1992 found him attending Caldwell Community College (taking several business courses) and then ultimately Truck Driver Training.  He received his "CDL" (Commercial Driver's License) and began driving for Ploof Truck Lines, a company that pulled flatbed trailers hauling building materials such as steel, prefab buildings, and supplies for Lowe's Hardware and other home-improvement firms in the Southeast.  Leaving Ploof, Tom secured a position with Auto Truck Transport, a firm that delivered newly-manufactured Freightliner trucks, et al, to the entire US, Canada, Alaska, and Northwest Territories.  It was in this  
position that Tom  really put on his "traveling boots" and, although he never got to go to Alaska or the Northwest Territories, he did cover the entire lower-48 contiguous states and 3/4 of the Canadian Provinces  (it was in this job that we didn't see much of Tom  in and around Lenoir!  Hi.   -Ed).  Tom says he probably had the most excitement with this position than any other job he has ever had owing to the fact that it was sometime scary jockeying these rigs that had 3-4 truck cabs all hooked together using large fifth-wheel saddle bolts.  When Tom wasn't driving/pulling his earthbound cargo, he was in the air up to three times per week to arrive at his next pickup/departure location, often being away from home a month at a time.  After 5 years of this, Tom  decided enough was enough!  Putting his wonderlust behind him, Tom took a local job with a utility-contracted firm...but it wasn't long before Tom  found himself back at the old grind, cutting cloth - a job he says is a lot less stressful and one which allows him to re-kindle his ham  radio activities and renew acquaintenances with old friends.

(Tom, an Amateur Extra Class licensee,  is active on VHF on the Hibriten 147.33 repeater and on the HF frequencies.  In adition to being an elected club officer as President, he is also the club's liaison to the yearly Bridge-to-Bridge Bike Ride.  He was a primary HF operator during the recent Field Day activities and is an ardent member/supporter of  ARES and SKYWARN,  emergency/weather-related activities.   -Ed) ( Each month, a brief spotlight will appear here  on equipment you may have seen at hamfest swap tables.  This month it is the Johnson Viking Ranger .
The Johnson Viking Ranger has not lost its' appeal since its' introduction in the mid-fifties and are eagerly sought after today, primarily by those interested in crisp, clear audio output on the AM portion of the 80 thru 10 meter bands and its' solid 75 watt punch on CW,  and equally as important, by nostalgia buffs .  While it may be operated as a stand-alone transmitter, many use it as an exciter to drive high-powered amplifiers.  A cult-following has ensured that this transmitter will remain elusive at hamfest tables and when found, usually command a premium price ($300+)  if in good condition. From the February  '86 newsletter (entitled "Lenoir Amateur Radio Newsletter" -after it was adopted as the official newsletter of the LARC but before it was renamed as the "News and Views"), it was  observed that the Newsletter was generated using an Atari 800, a Percomm AT-88 disk drive (about 16 MB capacity), and AtariWriter software sending the info thru an Atari 850 interface to a Star Gemini 10X high speed (about 2 ppm!) dot-matrix printer.  The system was supported by a Novation J-Cat telephone modem (around 64 kbs!).  My, how times have changed!!  The setup above, when compared to present-day standards, would rate a good solid 1 on a scale of 1-10.  Hi Hi.
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