Wallace (Wally) Lee Ratzlaff was born at home on October 20, 1936 in Winton California. He was the youngest of three children (Evelyn, Leland & Wallace) born to Ben and Ethel Ratzlaff. His years growing up were rich with the closeness of family and many beloved cousins that doubled as best friends! He grew up working hard with his family in the peach orchards and on the ranch. And from a very early age, Wally pursed a God-given love of electronics and communications, building mail-order radio kits and components. Wally used to say he was “born with electrons in his blood”! […]
Yearly Archives: 2024
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By Mike, W6MVM Hi, the first question is “Is CW dead?!?”. Code is no longer required to get a license. Does anybody still use it? It was dropped from the requirements because the military no longer needs trained operators. For many years it was thought essential for national defense to have trained Morse Code operators, but not in the age of digital communications. But is it dead? Not hardly. As I’m writing this column, I’m tuned to the 20 meter band. Looking at the lower CW portion with my Flex 6300. The spectrum is set to cover the whole CW area […]