I was first licensed August 1954 as WN3ZWI and upgraded to General Class W3ZWI in 1955, while living in my hometown of Oakmont, PA.  I was active on 10 meters with a home brew 4-element "plumbers delight" beam atop a 50' Vesto (windmill) tower.  My transmitter was a Heathkit TX-1 Apache with a National NC-183D receiver.  Relocations and other activities kept me off the air from 1965 until I was licensed as W4LCL in 1974 after moving to Cooper City, Florida.  There I put together a Collins station consisting of a KWM-2 transceiver with 312-B5 external PTO, 32S-3 transmitter, 75-S3C receiver and 30-L1 linear.  The antenna was a Telrex TB5EM on a 50' Aluma tower.

My company, James M. Montgomery Consulting Engineers, offered overseas assignments to qualified engineers, so in June 1979 I headed off to Indonesia where I was Chief Design Engineer for a World Bank-funded potable water supply project for five cities.  I was granted an Indonesian license with the call sign YB0ACL, and was active on 10/15/20 meters with a Heathkit HW-101 and a home brew 2-element cubical quad antenna.  After a brief return to Florida, I went back to Indonesia to develop and participate in a WHO/UNDP-funded training project for Indonesian engineers.  As such, YB0ACL remained active into 1983.

From 1983 through 1986, I worked in The Sudan and Egypt, however, I was unable to get licenses to operate in those countries.  In 1987, I upgraded to Extra Class.  I went to the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan later the same year, where I was project manager and training specialist for a USAID-funded project for the Water Authority of Jordan.  I was granted a Jordanian license with the call sign JY9LC and operated until mid-1989, using the Collins S-Line equipment.

I returned to Indonesia in late 1990 and managed to get licensed once again--as YB1ARW in Tangerang, West Java, and YB2ARW in Semarang, Central Java.  The rig was an ICOM IC-730 with an ICOM IC-2KL linear.  I used a Cushcraft A4S at 50' in Tangerang, but lost that antenna in a freak wind storm.  We utilized the remainder of that tower at Semarang, with a Cushcraft A3S at 32' and an A3WS at 40' at our QTH about 300' above the Java Sea.

I retired 01 January 1996 and Yuli and I moved to Englewood, based solely on the positive and sincere recommendations a local ham while we talked one time on 17 meters when I was in Semarang.  His recommendations proved to be correct.  We bought an acre of land suitable for ham radio use.  While our home was under construction, I applied for my current vanity call sign which was granted one week before we moved into our home.

The first tower up was a 72' motorized US Tower, with the Semarang beams on top, over a Cushcraft 40-2CD 40-meter beam.  Later a Hy-Gain TH11DX replaced the smaller Cushcraft beams.  The raising cable on that tower broke, severely damaging the tower, in late 2004.  We installed a 60' Aluma tower on a new foundation in early 2005, with the TH11DX on top.  In 2007, we contracted for installation of a 70' guyed Rohn 45G tower on the old US Tower foundation, with a 4-element SteppIR and the 40-2CD on top.  The current station consists of an ICOM IC-775DSP driving a Tokyo Hy-Power HL-1.5KFX solid state amp, with the old IC-730 and IC-2KL as alternatives.

73,

Jack, W4JS