Our QTH in east central Illinois is a 100 year old farm house with over an acre of potential antenna farm available! Construction of the house actually dates back to 1911 when it was built as a home to a farmer who started a ranch to raise mules for America's war effort in World War I. Needless to say the market for mules pretty much evaporated after the war so the farm came upon hard times in the Great Depression when it was sold to a local physician.
It remained in the doctor's hands until the early 70's when local farmer, Max Winkler, purchased it as the base of operations for his farm. It has remained in Max's hands until 2010 when I bought it as a part of my move to Charleston, Illinois and the GM role at WEIU-TV & FM.
Max's farm continues on in great shape and I have the benefit of watching all the activity in the day and enjoying the solitude in the evening while sitting on the beautiful porch of this American classic.
Since arriving here, I've met not only Max but also the grandson of the original owner. He reminisced as to how he would come down every summer from Chicago when he was a young boy and enjoy the wraparound porch. Also a square dance was a weekly event when the dining room rug was taken up and local residents would dance on a Saturday night!
Good times have long been a part of Lone Prairie Farm! As John Denver once wrote, it was like "Coming home to a place I've never been before."
This site is in support of my favorite hobby, ham radio, and dedicated to my grandfather and father, both of whom instilled in me the curiosity and fascination with all things electronic.
My grandfather, Russell Neal, was licensed as W8CEI back in the 1920's. His legendary transmitter, Big Bertha, was known to dim the house lights at key down.
My father, John Neal, the current W8CEI, was late arriving to ham radio. He earned is technician license in his mid 70s. But he was involved in radio, electronics and communications for his entire lifetime.
Together, they influenced me to the point of becoming a ham as a teen ager, working up to extra class, obtaining my General Class Radiotelephone license and eventually a lifelong career in broadcasting. For that I give both my sincere thanks.
W8CEI-Russell Neal (SK)
John Neal-W8CEI
I primarily enjoy CW activity...on 30, 20, 40 and 15 meters, in that order. And of course, I keep up with what's happening around town on the Mattoon UHF repeater.
In addition, I find myself returning many evenings to my old hobby of shortwave listening. Yes, SWLing is certainly much different than it was in the 60s. Most of the communication that used to occur on the shortwave frequencies has moved to the Internet. But I still find the challenge of digging an AM signal out of the noise and hearing people from a far-away land quite interesting.
Maybe most of all these days, I enjoy QRP. After experimenting with QRP by dropping the power down to 5 watts from my two Yaesu's, an FT-897 and FT-857, I became hooked. While sitting out near Galveston Bay on the Texas City Dike, I was able to work from Maine and Virginia to Washington state and California. Even up to Michigan and Minnesota. And all with 5 watts.
That was the hook.
Yaesu FT-817ND
I bought a Yaesu FT-817 and have spent many hours working from 2 to 5 watts, always on battery power and loving every minute. And since the real work in QRP comes from the station I'm working, my thanks if you're one of those great ops who struggled to hear my tiny signal with less wattage than a Christmas tree bulb.
One of the most appealing reasons I spend an increasing amount of my ham radio time on QRP is the fact you can pretty much get on the air anytime and anyplace. In order to be ready to enjoy the airwaves at a moment's notice I, like many hams, have assembled a go-kit that is always available to throw in the truck and head out to a park or beach for some QRP fun.
QSL Card-2002
Having been licensed originally way back in 1967, I'm also a vintage boat anchor fan and have refurbished a station just as it was in my old Novice days as WN8ZNO in Manchester, Ohio. That being a Heathkit DX-35 xmtr and Knight Kit R-55A rcvr running to an inverted vee antenna. Cheap and tough to use but the coolest gear in the world to a young techie of that era!
I still remember getting those rigs. The DX-35 came as a result of a relationship with my elmer and head of our electronics-based 4-H club, Paul Segi. It was one he found around town.
But the R-55A was something else. I had spent years looking through both the Heathkit and Knight Kit catalogs of the early and mid 60s. And to a young kid with little money available, the chance to order and build the R-55A was a treasure. I waited anxiously for the mailman to deliver the huge box that the collection of electronic components arrived in. And when it finally did show up, I spent many evenings after school and on weekends working through melting solder and the resulting smoke and smells.
Eventually, I got it finished, connected it to a long wire antenna, turned it on and nearly cried when its speaker came to life with the sound of Radio Moscow. A turn of the bandspread and a switch of the BFO found me on 40 meters and hearing WN9WIK out of North Manchester, Indiana sending at probably 8 words per minute...slow enough for me to understand. It was a moment in time I remember still.
Every contact was a new friend. All so magical that I could communicate with someone hundreds or thousands of miles away with simple equipment and Morse code. And then exchanging colorful QSL cards afterward. What a thrill.
In fact, I have gone back to the original design of my 1967 WN8ZNO QSL card, as printed by the QSL Shop way back in the 60s. Yeah, it's certainly a throwback. And I'll bet it's VERY familiar to those of you who got that package of cards in the mail just after...or even before...you received the license from the FCC!
My boat anchor collection also includes an old Knight Kit R-100 rcvr. What a sound! I still much prefer the warmth of tubes...not to mention that unique smell. Takes me back to those wonderful days as a kid. Days when I listened to the world on an old scavenged Zenith Trans-Oceanic that somehow never quite succeeded in electrocuting me (in spite of numerous attempts!). Of course, with no case and dozens of exposed bare wires I guess I had it coming.
In those days, I proudly sported on my bedroom wall my framed WPE8HVR certificate SWL call sign, received after weeks of waiting following my application to "Popular Electronics" magazine. I was so happy to get that 8 1/2 by 11 piece of paper that meant absolutely nothing. But I was sure that Radio Peking, HCJB and the BBC surely thought better of me for including it with every SWL QSL request.
Before that, I listened to the very early days of CB on an old Lafayette model built in the 50s that to this day looks to me to be the twin of the old Heathkit CB-1. Dad originally "borrowed" the call sign of 19A8613 (we were unit 19 of a friend's license, as I remember) before getting licensed as KHJ7152. Mom later got the CB call sign of KLM4429. But that was well before the CB heyday of the 70's and all that was to follow.
QSL-2003
QSL-2008
Operating my first kit project, a Knight Kit C-100 built in 1965 when I was 13 years old.
The Knight Kit C-100 walkie-talkie transmitted 100 milliwatts on CB channel 7, cost under $6 and was the exciting first kit I built!
W8AQ after returning to the air
But back to my collection of rigs...err, radios.
More up-to-date is a good collection of Yaesu equipment...FT-897 in the shack, FT-857 in the truck, FT-817ND for portable work along Galveston Bay (love that salt water and its effect on radio waves), FT-60 for handheld portable work and the lone Icom, an IC-T7H handheld. Sort of a throwback and simple to use, I fell in love with it while picnicing along the Blue Ridge Parkway in Virginia. Line of sight from some of those mountaintops let me hit repeaters in several states with my little five watts!
Yaesu FT-897D
W8AQ and Wild Thing
W8AQ QSL-1956 (Ev Gibbs, Wadsworth, Ohio)
W8CEI QSL-1930s (R.W. Neal, Columbus, Ohio)
As with all hams, my collection of gear sort sort of evolves. I pick up things, play with them and sell them on eBay quite often. Makes a nice way to check out new (and old) toys.
Well, I need to QRT for now. Hope to CUAGN soon.
If I don't catch you on the air, email me at jackkneal@hotmail.com. Or learn about my career in broadcasting by visiting me at www.nealtv.com.
