W6AM Rhombic & Open Feedlines
- skylarkcolo
- Mar 4, 2019
- 2 min read
Updated: Jul 10
The W6AM station, was legendary around the world.
W6AM BOOK
The book and the links below, show and outline W6AM Don Wallace's Ranch in detail, you can't talk Rhombic, without including Don, so I put this short page together to keep W6AM alive.
The Origin: Press Wireless (1930s–1945)
The site itself was originally selected in the 1930s by Wallace himself while scouting locations for Press Wireless, an international communications consortium established by major newspapers to receive overseas news dispatches.
Location: Atop a 1,200-foot ridge on the Palos Verdes Peninsula in California, offering ideal, unobstructed low-angle radiation paths across the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans.
Acquisition: In 1945, Wallace purchased the surplus 120-acre commercial facility to house his ultimate amateur ham radio station.
The Golden Era: 16 Rhombics (1945–1962)
At its peak size, the original W6AM "Antenna Ranch" was a marvel of massive engineering infrastructure:
He has a lot of photos of W6AM on his page, https://www.qsl.net/ne6i/w6am/
During the last couple decades of the W6AM rhombic ranch, it were 9 rhombics and 18 directions on 24 acres, 1234 ft above the Los Angeles Basin, right on the edge of the Pacific. During its heyday, Don's property was 120 acres with 13 rhombics and 26 directions. Don somehow "acquired" the property from the billionaire Howard Hughes (Press Wireless). Height of the rhombics varied from 100 to 140 ft. In the late 60's or so, Don had to sell 95 of the acres (to pay the property taxes) and he collected the grand sum of $100K for the 95 acres. Today, the property is covered with hundreds of million dollar (plus) homes.
Legacy and Impact
When Don passed away in 1985, the historic antenna forest was dismantled to make way for housing developments, and his vast collection of gear was sold, distributed to various museums, historical societies, and educational institutions.
However, hardware from the original ranch lives on in the ham community. Decades later, original high-grade W6AM heavy-duty insulators, brackets, and robust hardware pieces are still actively prized and utilized by major "big gun" station the K0UO Rhombic Antenna Farm in Kansas—keeping a physical piece of Don's legendary station alive and on the air.
Read The W6AM Book
The K0UO Rhombic antennas are using some of W6AM's insulators. hardware and components. K0UO used the parts on his first Rhombic at the Rhombic Farm in Kansas for the main "East-West/ DC or LA, Rhombic" in 2012.
So W6AM is Still In the AIR and ON the AIR daily.
Also see Don Wallace W6AM 1984
W6AM site
SALE, of THE RANCH
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