The W8IO
Antenna Site - Who is W8IO?
(6 September 2015)
Who is W8IO?
My
name is Roger Cox. I used to be WB0DGF and I used to live in
Lincoln, Nebraska. I now live in Spring Lake, Michigan, not too
far from Grand Rapids. Here is more information about both me and
my new callsign, W8IO.
I
obtained my Novice license (WN0DGF) in 1970 when I lived on a farm in
Southwest Iowa near Corning. My father was K0DVO, my brother was
originally K0EKA - now W9KFB, and my sister is KA9CKQ. My wife, Gayle,
is KA0DWH, father-in-law is Gordon, KA0DWG and son, Russell, is KC0ECT.
I also have a daughter, Anna, but she doesn't seem to be interested in
Ham Radio at the current time. I upgraded to Advanced Class (WB0DGF) in
1971. I attended college at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa and
operated mostly from WA0KHF Cyclone ARC in Friley Hall (1972-1976) and
some from W0YI in the penthouse of the EE Building (Coover Hall). I
graduated with a BSEE in 1976 and moved to Lincoln, NE where I was an
antenna design engineer with Hy-Gain Electronics (1976-1978). Hy-Gain
went bankrupt in January 1978, so for several months I worked as a design engineer at
Rockwell-Collins in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, until Kit, W6AUF and the new
owners of Hy-Gain asked me to come back. Telex Communications purchased
the assets of Hy-Gain and continued the brand until it was sold to MFJ
in May 1999. While at Telex/Hy-Gain, I designed many of the current Ham
antennas and rotors, including the Explorer-14, OSCAR Link, Heathkit SA-7010, TH5DX, TH5MK2, TH7DX,
TH11DX, LP-1009, LP-1010, 105BA, 105CA, 155BA, 155CA, 205BA, 205CA,
DX-77A, DX-88, V6-R, V2-S, V2-R, V3-S, V3-R, V4-S, V4-R, V42-R, 23FM, 25FM, 28FM, 214FM,
215DX, 7031DX, HAM-V, HDR-300 and DCU-1. I obtained US patents on the
Explorer-14 antenna and a 5.7 GHz stamped yagi for Wi-Fi use. I also
designed the ALP-450 and ALP-600 LPDA antennas. You can see my ALP-600
on the 50 yard line
of all NFL and most college football games. I also wrote the popular
LPDA design program called LPCAD. You can see one of my active
antenna designs on the ceilings of some
hospitals under the GE Medical label (Apex-Pro). I was President
of the Central States VHF Society in 1988 when the Conference was in
Lincoln. I also wrote and published the Midwest VHF Report during the
1980's and early 1990's with the help of my wife, Gayle. In 2006, Telex
was purchased by Bosch Security Systems. I was with them until May
2009. I am currently an Antenna Design Engineer with a company here in
west Michigan and now design military and general aviation antennas.
Rain Report: History of Hy-Gain, part 2, mp3 (1998)
TH7DX - Engineering and Technology Wiki
In April
2014 I applied for and obtained a new call sign of W8IO.
Previously, the callsign was held by Robert Allen of Macedonia,
OH from 1968 until 2012 when he passed away. Robert was an excellent CW
operator and was nominated to the ARRL A-1 Operators Club. You can see Robert's obituary here.
The first person to hold the callsign W8IO seems to be Henry Bourne Joy, President of the Packard Motor Car Company in Detroit, MI. Henry Joy was also a principle organizer of the Lincoln Highway Association,
a group dedicated to building a concrete road from New York to San
Francisco. Most of US Highway 30 and some of I-80 now follows this
route. (When I lived in Ames, Iowa at ISU, Lincolnway was only a
few hundred yards from my dorm) Here is more information on Henry Joy.
Shown below is an image of a QSL card from W8IO. W8IO may have been a
club station, as Henry's primary call was W1AHM. Henry also had a ship
named Spray III, which used the callsign KFKW on the 146, 300 and 600
meter wavelength bands. This was about 1924.
Comments
are welcome!
rgcox2
(at) gmail.com
Roger Cox - Spring Lake, MI