Tinsley Meekins, Jr, K3RUQ, will speak to the Queen Anne’s Amateur Radio Club about HAM Radio Towers and Antennas at the next club meeting on Tuesday, May 7, at 6:00 p.m. Non-club members, club members, and others interested in Radio Towers and Antennas are invited to attend. The club meets at the Queen Anne’s County Free Library, 121 S. Commerce Street, Centreville MD.

Mr. Meekins was first licensed as a novice at 12-years old and has been a ham for 50 years. He currently holds an extra class license. Because of his interest in electronics and antennas when he was in my 20’s, he started a tower maintenance business, Maryland Tower Service, Inc. He did tower and antenna maintenance work for over 25-years before selling the business and retiring in 2000. Meekins then started buying land and putting up commercial towers and started the business, Meekins Antenna Rentals, Inc. (www.towerleasing.biz) and now owns two towers in Delaware.

Meekins current ham equipment at home is an Icom 7800 and an Icom 756pro-2 with an Icom 4KL solid-state amplifier. His antennas are mounted on a self-supporting 80-foot Rohn SSV tower. He uses a Stepp IR monster Yagi for 40 to 6 meters, and inverted v-antennas for 80- and 160-meters mounted near the top of the tower. He communicates mostly on 160- and 80-meters, both single-sideband and Morse code.

Meekins’ other hobbies are boating, fishing, Corvettes, skeet, trap, and sporting clay shooting. He enjoys deer hunting on the eastern shore of Maryland, and dove and duck hunting in Argentina.

The club is again participating in the Art of the Deals, Saturday, June 15, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Courthouse Square, Centreville.

For further information, contact the QAARC President, Mike Widdekind, 410-739-8718 or e-mail to qso@qaarc.org.