Chuck Colby
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About Chuck Colby
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Walk Around Lake Baronda

  Los Angeles Times article

'Hams' Build TV 'Net'

Los Angeles Times, Southland
Sunday, April 22, 1962

FRESNO— Two Fresno "hams" have just completed two of Fresno's smallest television stations as a result of a lot of curiosity and hard work.

Charles Colby, a student at Fresno State College who is majoring in engineering has a television camera, transmitter, and receiver in a house trailer behind his home. His partner in the project, Jim Kennedy, who is an engineer for a commercial television station, has the same type of equipment in his home.

The reason they built it? "To see if we could."

Kennedy explains "What we're trying to do is establish some sort of convenical communication. Sometimes my wife and I will sit and watch slides that Chuck took in Hawaii or just sit around and job."

Colby and Kennedy completed months of work and began to send communications back and forth last September.

Operating on a "ham band" set aside by the Federal Communication Commision, Colby's call letters are WA6RSL while Kennedy's are KGM10. Their receivers are regular television sets with modified ultra-high-frequency converters adjusted to the ham band.

World War II units built in 1944 and 1945 for aircraft reconnaissance serve as cameras.

States Kennedy, "The pictures we transmit are sent in about the same way as commercial television works, but for our sound equipment ham radios are used."

One of their main problems is that the cameras are old and the image pickup tube needs quite a bit of light to operate. They are now trying to obtain parts for vidicon cameras which are more compact and will work under room lighting.

Chuck is eager to try color, but as Kennedy explains, "We need three vidicon cameras for color and we've got enough trouble now trying to get the parts for one."

Picture Check— Charles Colby gazes up at his partner, Jim Kennedy (on screen) to check clearness of picture coming in on their private TV system.

An Adjustment— Colby gets ready to put on a slide show for Kennedy and his wife, Cathy. The slide projector is lined up with the lens of the television camer. Colby is thinking of the day when he can show the slides in color.