1944: HALLICRAFTERS HT4 CONVERTED TO SCR299 MOBILE

Don't miss this incredibly interesting of a World War II film which details Hallicrafters Corp. Engnering workers converting an HF transmitter to mobile military use. Many thanks to an old time amateur radio buddy, N2HX (Bob Schroeder) for forwarding it.

http://www.w3vpr.org/node/509

2008: VERONICA HORVATH GARNIER

Here's the QSL card from Matt Horvath's daughter, lovely Veronica Horvath Garnier. She and husband Bob were both members of the amateur radio fraternity. Like a number of amateurs, the hassle with antenna restrictions, the arrival of the internet and cell phones, and the prohibitive cost of equipment, has resulted in rendering many facets of our facinating hobby irrelevant, resulting in the Garniers letting their licenses lapse. Rhode Island Red must have really been proud of his daughter achieving the very difficult process of passing the original FCC tests which are much easier to get today. Many thanks, Bob and Veronica. Even though amateur radio has lost some of its popularity due to the aforementioned situations, I still intend to keep my license updated. One never knows what the future holds. Recent disasters have proven that amateur radio reigns when all other communication methods fail.

BOB GARNIER WROTE:

Hi Tom

Dug around our old junk and found my wife's QSL. She is daughter of Matt, W2 Rhode Island Red. Her last call was VK4SM.

Have a great 2009 Tom

Regards

Bob & Veronica Garnier

Brisbane, Australia

Being 'over the hill' is much better than being under it!

2008: AMATEUR RADIO: FRIENDS FOREVER!

I received the following email and the above photo from Bob and Veronica Garnier. Bob is a native Hamiltonian from the White Horse area, now calling Brisbane, Australia home. Bob recalls his and Veronica's years as amateur ops, and also recalls "RIR" as we called him "Rhode Island Red."
Bob, I couldn't get past 35 words per minute in morse, and you navy coast guard guys were always the best when it came to ultra high speed C.W. I spent 3 years in the Army Security Agency where I reached 35 wpm, and with that speed was assigned to copy the Russians during the cold war. Russian ops are also aces with the bug. Thanks so much for writing. It is a pleasure to hear from you. I have been concentrating on my local history website, www.glover320.blogspot.com and will be adding more to my amateur/broadcast radio site in the future.
73's to you and 88's to Veronica.

Tom Glover
WA2RVU

BOB WROTE:

Greetings from Brisbane Australia

I just finished chatting with my good friend Byron, w7swc in seattle on skype. We got around to talking about the "old days" of amateur radio and Byron said "I wonder if w2rir was ever reissued"

(w2rir was my wife's father) so I did a google of w2rir and up popped your website on Rhode island red a local legend. I know everyone on that photo, it brought back memories. W5MLU is my wife's godfather. All the guys in photo were local Trenton burg guys, w5mlu met a gal from Villa Platt La while in the army and after ww2 moved to Villa Platt.

My wife was WA2IMR, then KP4BIE, then KH6FRT, and finally VK4SM.

I started out WA2AFT first lic in 1957 (Hamilton High West class of 60)

held KP4BHR, KH6FRT, VK4EA.

I was born a Hamilton guy, norton avenue in the white horse area of Hamilton. Moved around a lot due to 10 years in the Coast Guard where I was a distress radio operator. Have certificate for 40wpm which as you know is about as fast as you can get. My last duty in CG was Hawaii and it completely spoiled us, after leaving the CG we just couldnt resettle in Trenton area. Missed the warm climate so we moved to Australia on what was going to be a 2 year job assignment but after 2 or 3 weeks we knew we had "found our final home". Its been 38 years now and have made the long flight back to Trenton 14 times. No one left now, last time back we paid our final visits to all the graves so doubt that we will be back any more. Just too long on a plane for my old bones....

Anyway - starting to ragchew too much, just wanted to drop a short email to let you know your webpage was viewed down here and it sure brought back memories of all the old gang...

Regards

Bob & Veronica Garnier

(we both are no longer licensed hams, it was part of our lives for many years but the internet is now where we communicate, no antennas to worry about blowing down hehe)

Being 'over the hill' is much better than being under it!

1979: MR. AND MRS. GARY KATONA CONVERSE WITH A KING

As I advance in age, I realize that I have acquired a large number of folks whom I can call
"old friends." Once such is Gary Katona, a gentleman I met way back in the mid '70's when we were both "young men." As seen in the graphic above which I extracted from one of the Mercer Messengers in my collection, along with a photo of King Hussein of Jordan, whom Gary and Carol had the honor of conversing with through that wonderful media we all know as amateur radio. In my lengthy radio career, I can only claim conversing with two celebrities. Larry Ferrari, and my favorite satirist, Jean Shepherd.