Here's the middle segment ... John Callarman, KA9SPA, Family Genealogist, Retired Newspaper Editor, DX-oyente, Krum TX (AKA Qal R. Mann, Krumudgeon) ----- Original Message ----- From: John Callarman<mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: Mailing list for the International Radio Club of America<mailto:[email protected]> Sent: Thursday, March 08, 2007 8:13 PM Subject: Re: [IRCA] (was: New MW QSL) Ernest R. Cooper?
Jim Pogue wrote: "Gee John, it sure would be great if someone (hint, hint) could begin compiling some of these great stories and biographies." THE FATHERS OF DX I suspect there are some of the names on Harry Helms' list which may be unfamiliar to many of the younger DX'ers on this list. Perhaps my observations about some of these individuals might be of interest. Hank Bennett - I've mentioned his name earlier in his capacity as NNRC's SWBC editor. When Popular Electronics added an SWBC column, as I remember it, PE first turned to Ken Boord as its SWBC column editor. That relationship didn't last long, and Bennett became Boord's successor, and served for many years as the primary newstand source for SWBC information. One of Bennett's regular contributors, Joe P. Morris of Cleveland, had established a DX'er registration program, giving DX'ers call letters, based upon the 10 ham call areas, with a WRØ prefix. When the popularity of Morris's program transformed from a labor of love into a mere labor Bennett convinced Pop 'Tronics to take over the program, which he administered, and the WRØ prefix became WPE. I got my call in 1958 ... WPE5JH, when I lived in Hereford, Texas. Later, PE dropped its SWBC column, but Bennett maintained the CL program, changing the prefix to WDX. (When I worked at WMIX-940 in Mt. Vernon, as a lark I sought and received a "vanity" call from Hank, WDX9MIX.) Hank is one of the two on Harry's list that I have not met. Hank also compiled and edited the early editions of TAB Books' "The Complete Shortwave Listener's Handbook." (I let my early copies get away from me .. I have the fourth edition, with Hank Bennet, David T. Hardy and Andrew Yoder listed as compilers, and by 1997, when the fifth edition was published, Yoder was credited as the sole compiler. I had thought that Harry Helms was associated with this book, and my copy of "The SWL's Manual of Non-Broadcast Stations," published by TAB in 1981, lists among Harry's previous publications the second edition of the Bennett book. Harry, in my estimation, belongs on the list he compiled.) Gerry Dexter - When CQ began Popular Communications lo those many years ago, my memory tells me that Gerry became its SWBC editor, and continues in that role today. One of the more comprehensive collections of articles on the hobby was edited by Gerry Dexter in 1986, "Shortwave Radio Listening with Experts," published by SAMS. Gerry also for many years maintained a comprehensive and updated list of verification information for SWBC stations. I met Gerry in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, in 1965 when I took an extended trip through Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin following the NRC convention in Cedar Rapids that year. Oliver Perry Ferrell - I had only a brief handshake with Perry Ferrell at an ANARC Convention, in Indianapolis in, I believe, 1975. He for a time had followed Ben E. Wilbur as the primary North American distributor for the WRTVH, operating as Gilfer Associates (Gil, if I remember correctly, for his wife's maiden name [Gillespie] and "Fer" from his surname) and dealt a number of other special publications and equipment geared for DX'ers. He was probably best known as the compiler of a comprehensive and detailed list of utility stations on the shortwave band. I still have one edition of his list, back when I had a brief but passing interest in Utes. Bob Grove - I suspect there's no real need to thumbnail Bob Grove, as I imagine we're all familiar with his "Monitoring Times," which I believe to be the best of the comprehensive DX hobby publications available since I've been aware that others besides myself were DX'ers ... that'd cover a 55-year span. I suspect, too, that many of us have bought equipment from Brasstown, as well. I hated to dispose of years of MT issues when we made the move from Mt. Vernon, Ill., to Krum in 2000, but there just wasn't room to transport them, nor to store them here. I do recall Bob's publication before it switched from a newspaper-style format to the magazine format it employs today. Glenn Hauser - [see UNSOLICITED TESTIMONIALS above] Don Jensen - Don is one of the real gentlemen in the hobby. Purely by accident, we met in 1966 in the Chicago airport when we both boarded a plane for Montreal, where both were to attend that year's NRC convention. We got well acquainted during the flight. Don never became active as a BCB DX'er, but he was possibly the greatest of all SWBC DX'ers. I mentioned earlier that Jensen, Dexter and I were among youngsters in the early '50s who contributed to Ken Boord's ISW column in Radio & Television News ... and Dexter and Jensen grew to be experts in the SWBC side of the hobby. I'm still a tinkerer! Jensen was a reporter and editor for a newspaper in Kenosha, Wisconsin, and he used his reporting skills to establish one of the most popular columns in the NASWA bulletin. I wrote a couple of articles for Don's NASWA column back in the '70s. Don's greatest contribution to the hobby was to found ANARC, the Association of North American Radio Clubs, which operated for more than 30 years before it disbanded recently. Tommy Kneitel - The only contact I had with Tommy was when I wrote a letter complaining about an item in one of his columnists' reports that I considered to be an attack on a prominent DX'er. His response was short and terse, telling me that he receives a lot of mail from DX'ers jealous of the columnists in his publication. My disappointing experience with Mr. Kneitel does not in any way diminish the contributions he made to our hobby. Electronics Illustrated was particularly good at documenting relatively simple construction projects and providing easy to understand, step-by-step drawings for those of us uncomfortable with trying to decipher a schematic. Many young people were attracted to the hobby by Kneitel's work, and his various magazines support. For his induction into CQ Magazine's Amateur Radio Hall of Fame last year, the ARRL website profiles Kneitel thus: "Prolific writer on various radio topics; columnist for Popular Electronics and Electronics Illustrated; editor of CB Radio and S9 magazines; founding editor of Popular Communications; author of numerous radio books." Gordon Nelson - I have written many words of praise for this electronic genius, whose antenna and propagation work form the primary basis for much of the NRC technical library. Gordon's work spurred a number of others to carry on his antenna and propagation work. His greatest contribution along those lines was to make detailed construction projects relatively easy to duplicate. When I edited NRC's International DX Digest, Nelson's reception reports were the highlights of the column. I have written in the past that I consider my most important contributions to the hobby to be, not necessarily in this order, the establishment of the NRC Log and convincing Gordon to succeed me as IDXD editor when I became NRC's executive secretary/publisher. When NRC's Pete Taylor hired me to move from Houston to Cambridge, Mass., to help put WCAS on the air, it enabled me to work closely with Nelson and to know him well. When I married and my new bride insisted I divorce myself from the weekly publication chores, Nelson saved the club by moving from mimeograph to offset printing. NRC was the first DX hobby publication to go offset, and the combination of the publication style and the large number of technical articles that remain staples of the hobby resulted in the club's unprecedented growth. Fred Osterman - Here was a young DX'er who was able to build a business around the hobby, as Bob Groves has done. Universal Radio in Ohio is one of the mainstays of the hobby. Back when I was an active ham and attended the Dayton Hamvention, I made it a point to drop by Universal's booth for a brief chat with Fred ... and a purchase or two. C. M. "Stan" Stanbury II - This somewhat controversial Canadian was an extremely courageous man, who fought a condition that kept him confined to a wheelchair and limited the use of his limbs. He edited the DX Down the Dial column of NRC's DX News when I first joined the club in 1956 and typed the stencils with his toes. I met him at the NRC convention in Omaha in 1959. He locked horns on several issues with the NRC's elected board of directors in the late '50s over a number of issues. He later edited one of the columns in Kneitel's magazine, and perhaps the most intense memories of Stan's work was his ongoing contention, based upon an inference he drew comparing 49-meter band fade-out times, that Radio Swan was not located on Swan Island. John Callarman, KA9SPA, Family Genealogist, Retired Newspaper Editor, DX-oyente, Krum TX (AKA Qal R. Mann, Krumudgeon) _______________________________________________ IRCA mailing list [email protected] http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: [email protected]
