Steve behlmer KE7GO When he was only ten years old, Dr. Steve Behlmer was known around the neighborhood as the kid who could fix TVs. He loved tinkering with television sets and had figured out some real troubleshooting. If he encountered a problem he could not repair, he knew who could, and that man was a ham. His name was Bob Wagner, and he coached and encouraged Steve. He not only showed Steve how television sets worked, he introduced him to amateur radio. Steve took to radio in a big way and at age 12 passed the Novice test, receiving the call sign WN0NGR. About a year later, Steve’s family was vacationing in Minnesota. While in Minneapolis, he took and passed the Technician exam. He was 13.
All through his young years, Steve planned to go into engineering. He hoped that someday he could work for Collins. But when he was still only 10, his grandmother had two heart attacks. She had two weak spots in her heart resulting in a build-up of fluid. She could not seem to get well enough to go home, and her doctor recommended surgery. The surgeon talked to Steve’s parents and to young Steve, explaining to them the risky surgical repair he would do. At that time, it was only the 26th open heart surgery ever performed. Steve’s grandmother recovered, lived on for 15 more years, and was able to do the things she loved to do. That surgeon and this happy turn of events for Steve’s family ultimately influenced Steve to go into medicine. He never completely left radio electronics, however. In college at Iowa State University he took engineering along with his pre-med courses. His career choice did not leave him much time to advance his radio hobby. He never stopped thinking about it, though, and has been collecting radio gear ever since. His early medical work took him to Portland, Billings, and Columbia, Missouri. Even though he could not get back to radio, he kept up his Technician license, hoping that in his next career phase there would be a little time to be a ham. After years of training, at last he was ready to go into practice. In 1981 Steve moved to Helena and met Jim Haslip, now a silent key. Jim encouraged Steve to take up radio where he had left off, before medical school, before marriage and family came along. Steve then passed the code test and earned the General ticket. It was not long before he also passed the test in Advanced theory and took the new call sign KE7GO. At this writing, Steve has just retired from a long and productive career in dermatologic surgery. Over the years he has helped many people, especially cancer patients, recover their health. Now, however, he can turn back to his other love: radio. He is diving into his shack and surveying the equipment collected over the years. He says he has a roomful, and maybe some of it is salvageable. He remembers starting out with a Heathkit general coverage receiver and a Knight Kit transmitter. Years later he found an ad in 73 Magazine for a catalog of military surplus radios. He bought a Signal Corps BC-455 receiver and a crystal-controlled (“rockbound”) transmitter. Later he acquired the old Drake TR-3, TR-4, and TR-7 base stations. He spent much of his on-air time on 40 meters at 7.152 and enjoyed regional chatter on two meters. Steve loves radio projects. Now that he has time, he is building a little QRP uBitx transceiver. He is cleaning up his Heathkit HW-101 transceiver, using his tube checker; and he is in the process of recapping two Collins power supplies. A third one is in its case. While working on his two Collins KWM-s transceivers, he discovered that one has a shorted-out capacitor and a resistor that needs replacing. When Steve moved into his present home, he made sure to check on the restrictions that would apply to radio antennas. He is allowed one wire, so he has an end-fed dipole. Recently he purchased a D-Star radio and wants to know more about digital radio. Steve is excited that his son Sean KJ7MXJ is a recently licensed ham. “Sean thinks digitally,” says Steve. “He is a natural." But then, so is Steve. May 2020 |