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My name is Jim Shoemaker,
I'm 66 years old and I live in FT. Scott, Kansas with my wife Darlene
of 10 years. FT. Scott is about 100 miles south of Kansas City.
We recently sold the farm in Prescott and bought a large 2 story
historic building in Ft. Scott. It has 6,000 sq. ft. downstairs
and the same upstairs plus a 2200 sq.ft. attached garage, all of
which I share with Darlene and her antique business. After almost
a year of remodeling and moving radios and antiques from the farm,
we are finally settled in. We have a very nice loft apartment in
the building and "no grass to mow". I passed my novice exam in 1953
while in the 10th grade in high school. I was very fortunate to
have high school shop teacher to elmer me in. His name was Jasper
Simpson, w0zgk. Jasper went silent key about 5 years ago. After
graduating from high school, I went into the TV service business
in Kansas City. In 1961, I sold all my Ham equipment as I didn't
feel that I had time for it. I remained in the sales and service
business until 1985. I started a trash hauling business in the Ft.
Scott, Kansas area and did quite well with it. During the Christmas
holidays of 1995, I bought a QST at the local supermarket. I was
surprised to read the article about the hams getting back on AM
using vintage radios. I told Darlene that I would like to get back
on the air with the old rigs running AM. She said " why don't you".
That was all the encouragement that I needed. The next hamfest was
in the middle of January. I went and came home with a SX-101 and
a Viking II. That really got me going. Since then I have been buying
everything I see, mostly complete estates from silent keys. We had
a tragedy in September of 1997. We were involved in a head on car
wreck, we were on the shoulder but got hit anyway. This busted my
left foot and put me in a wheelchair for 10 weeks. Needless to say,
this changed my life. I immediately sold the trash hauling business
and retired. Since that time I have worked on the farm doing the
things I had always wanted to do, but didn't have the time and fixing
and selling radios. I really don't know how many I have, but several
hundred are located in our 2 story 75 year old building in the historic
district of Ft. Scott. I'm operating with lower power now and really
haven't came up with the perfect transmitter for the new location.
Antennas are also a problem now, as this is a restricted historical
district. So anything that effects the outside appearance must be
approved. When I'm not radioing and Darlene is not working with
her antiques and collectibles, we enjoy playing music. Darlene plays
the piano and I play the Yamaha ELX-1 organ. We both play by ear
and don't read music. So as you see, being retired, keeps us very
busy. In fact, I don't know how I ever had time to work in the first
place!!! Call me at 620-223-5090. It's usually
best from 4 to 8 PM. If you miss me, just leave a message and I
will get back to you.
Be sure to check my Feedback on Ebay. My user id is: w0nkl
Remember,all this equipment is old and does not carry any warranty and is sold
"AS-IS" but is guaranteed to be in the condition as listed. Most of it will need
repairs of some type. After all, that's the fun of having something you can
work on.
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