Ken clark AF7QP / SK
Ken Clark AF7QP
From an airline to a television station to a mining company to the City of Helena, Ken AF7QP has used his knowledge of electronics in different productive ways. He got interested in radio in junior high school, and after high school earned a commercial FCC license and a pilot’s license. By age 20, the young man who gotten his start in Grass Range, MT was maintaining airplane electronics systems for United Airlines in San Francisco.
However, San Francisco was not for him and he made his way back to Billings, where he took a computer science course. His first computer was a Radio Shack Model 1, which saved data on cassettes. He landed a job in Phoenix with Air West (later Southwest Airlines.) But then the recession hit, and he was laid off. Back in Billings he worked for KULR-TV and for a small aircraft shop. Then Ken, a certified electrician, took a job with a mining company. For twelve years he did electrical work for gold and silver mines in Wyoming, Nevada, and Montana. Occasionally he would be called to help with something else, like the time he was needed to help load “buttons,” or packages of processed gold mixed with silver, into the manager’s car. The manager covered the load of buttons with his coat and drove into town to ship them off for further processing. Ken was working for the mine near Remini when the company laid him off. Once again Ken landed on his feet and obtained a job as operator with the City of Helena water treatment plant. After nineteen years with the city, Ken retired. Back in the 1990s an article in the Helena independent Record about hams helping during a flood revived Ken’s interest in radio and he went to a CCARC meeting in the old Armory. Ken studied for the Technician ticket with the aid of test prep on a 5” floppy and took his exam in the basement of the Armory. Dick Beaton was one of his examiners. He also earned the General, but he bought an Extra manual and let it expire three times without taking the test. Then a group of CCARC members studied for the Extra exam together and all passed. Recently Ken found the perfect RV to take him to hamfests or wherever he wants to go. However, in July 2020 instead of attending the Glacier-Waterton Hamfest as usual, he is looking forward to an all-class school reunion in Grass Range. He will be back in August in time to help monitor both the Elkhorn Run and the week-long Cycle Greater Yellowstone race. https://www.cyclegreateryellowstone.com/ Ken died in January 2022. |
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Buttons of gold mixed with silver
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Ken working for the mine in the 1980s
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Ken's RV
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