How exciting it must have been for 14/15 year-old Arthur Collins to communicate ("DX") nightly with other young and talented radio-inventors, on the cutting edge of a new science that was transforming the world at a pace never seen before! Here are a few more sketches based on the QSL (post)cards they exchanged c.a. 1924-25, obtained courtesy of Michael Collins:

The QSL card Frank Dawson Bliley (8GU) (1906-1955) sent Arthur dated Feb 4, 1925 lays out a schedule of further contacts they planned to make at 2 PM CTS Mon,, Wed, and Fri. the following week. (School attendance was a sometime thing for Arthur. . . perhaps for Frank too.) Bliley was the son of an Erie PA attorney. He began making quartz crystals for amateur radios in the basement of his home in 1928 and soon became a leader in the field. [They had only been discovered a few years earlier, but such was the pace of invention among the radio amateurs of this generation.] His business flourished despite the Great Depression and especially after WWII began. Radio crystals were a critical component in military radios and the government funded a new plant, Bliley Manufacturing Corp. It won the coveted Army-Navy "E" Award in 1943 and earned two stars for continuing excellence before V-J day. . . more parallels witb Art's life. See Bliley at Find a Grave memorial #35236231.

8ZE was the Oberlin College OH radio station. Their QSL card, dated Apr. 21, 1925, lists Prof. Carl Ellis Howe (1898-1966) as the faculty supervisor. He was an Asst. Professor of Physics, and served as Chairman of the department from 1957 until his retirement in 1965. Everett W. Thatcher (1904-1992), a student at Oberlin, is listed as the chief radio operator. He earned his bachelor's degree in 1929 and his master's in 1930. A Ph.D. in Physics came from the University of Michigan in 1931. He taught physics at Union College in Schenectady, NY, 1931-1946, leading several USN research projects there involving radio and radar. He served as the Director of Research at the Navy Electronics Laboratory in San Diego 1946-1966 where he pursued basic research in oceanography, underwater sound and radio propagation and scattering. He was a life-long ham radio enthusiast. See him at Find a Grave memorial # 202913158 with a glowing tribute from Physics Today.

Arnold J. West (1908-1983) (7LH) DX'd Arthur April 12, 1925 from Junction City, Grays Harbor county, WA, "the lumber capitol of the world" per his card . . . an industry largely created by his pioneering grandfather and namesake. Arnie entered Stanford University in 1928, where he helped form the nucleus of an outstanding freshman team of track and field stars that dominated the sport for several years. In 1930 he won the National Inter-collegiate broad jump championship with a leap of 24 ft. 7 3/8 in., but his 1931 season was marred by injuries. . . a high jump of 6'-3" wasn't too shabby though. He graduated with a degree in Economics. West sold automobiles after graduation and enlisted in the Army in WWII. He married in 1942 (Catherine Goerig) and they had three children. Captain Arnold J. West, Jr. was an aeronautical engineering officer with the USAF Systems Command, managing aerospace systems R&D. West, Sr. died in Wenatchee, WA in 1983. See him at Find a Grave memorial # 202776455.

Luis M. Desmaras (b. 1905) (2LD) was a pioneer radio operator in Chile. Hams all across the US made headlines when they reported their contacts with him in the spring of 1926, but none earlier than Arthur, who characteristically kept the achievement to himself. They reached each other Jan.19, 1926, on 35 meters with Luis' 50W transmitter. His QSL card lists contacts up and down the hemisphere plus Australia and the Philippines. He added a note reporting recent contacts in S. Africa and France. Desmaras remained a life-long amateur radio enthusiast, operating Santiago's premier radio parts and equipment store. He participated in many ARRL world activities and, of course, served in times of emergency in this earthquake prone-region. In 1953 he made radio headlines again, establishing the first radio station on Easter Island. (probably using Collins equipment) 1,538 lucky hams in 53 countries racked up QSL cards from this fabled isle in his almost 70 hours of transmitting. (Fifty Years of ARRL, 1981, p. 125) In 1959 he repeated the feat from Juan Fernandez Archipelago, the home of Robinson Crusoe. (see the photo below)

Fred G. Roebuck (1901-1978) (KFUH) was moored off-shore of the French Polyneasian island of Moorea in the South Pacific when Arthur DX'd him on Sep. 24, 1925. Roebuck was working as the radio operator aboard the schooner Kaimiloa, owned by Medford & Elizabeth Kellum, the latter, heiress to the Carnegie fortune They had spared no expense in outfitting their 137 ft. schooner. Originally, the vessel was equipped with a 1KW spark transmitter, but Roebuck had difficulty reaching civilization with it from the tropics, so the owners had authorized the installation of a two 250W tube-transmitter in May, the first-ever shipboard shortwave tube transmitter, designed by Ralph M. Heintz (1893-1980), an experimental radio engineer often called the "Edison of the West Coast." It was completed just in time to set some DX'ing records! Art took some time off this Sept. day from his duties monitoring the transmissions of the MacMillan expedition in Greenland to try to reach Roebuck. Coincidentally, Roebuck DX'd his own greetings to the Arctic explorers about the same date. (Motor Boating; October, 1927)

After graduating from Phoenix (AZ) H.S. in 1918, Fred Roebuck joined the merchant marine and became a shipboard wireless operator. After his 1925-26 Kaimiloa adventure, he signed up with R. Stanley Dollar's Dollar Steamship Line, sailing aboard the USS President Taft, one of Dollar's "President" liners offering round-the-world service departing every fortnight. The ships were famous for the Dollar "$" emblem on their funnels. Dollar formed Dollaradio in 1918, a private world-wide maritime shortwave radio system to keep in touch with his fleet. Roebuck settled in Palo Alto, CA c.a. 1927 to help operate the busy Dollaradio station there. He found lodging nearby with inventor Ralph Heintz and assisted occasionally with some of his famous radio installations including on the Pabco Pacific Flyer, which participated in the ill-fated 1927 Dole Race to Honolulu in which ten people died. Heintz has more than 200 US patents to his name and is recognized as one of the "Fathers" of the Silicon Valley electronics industry. Roebuck continued working at Dollaradio after it went public in 1934, becoming Globe Wireless, Ltd., through WWII and afterwards. See him at FAG # 107917030. See the virtual cemetery at www.findagrave.com/virtual-cemetery/1090856. See you at the Joe Spinks program Sunday! More bios next week.

Photos: Frank Bliley (8ZE)/Bliley Manufacturing Corp Army-Navy E-Award ceremony, 1943 (second from left); Arnie West (7LH) 1930 National Inter-collegiate Broad Jump Champion; Luis Desmaras (2LD/CE0ZA), Juan Fernandez Archipelago,1959; Desmaras advertisement; the Kellums' Kaimiloa c.a. 1925; R. Stanley Dollar's USS President Taft, Fred Roebuck's berth c.a. 1926; Fred Roebuck (L) & Ralph Heintz (R) with the Pabco Pacific Flyer (1927). ... See MoreSee Less

3 days ago  ·  

Next Sunday, Sept. 15, Joe Spinks (call sign AA0KW) will present a program about the history of ham radio at the Marion Heritage Center starting at 1:30 p.m. It should be fun. Admission is free. In anticipation of the talk, the Heritage Center offers this unique window into the hobby by describing a few of the amazing ham radio pioneers 14 year-old Arthur Collins reached ("worked" or "DX'd" in ham-talk) c.a. 1924-25 when he first obtained his license and gained fame.

IF THE CARDS COULD TALK
One can get a sense of the pleasure young Arthur Collins experienced from his nightly radio contacts with other ham radio operators by studying a few of the individuals he reached We can do this now with the aid of the QSL (post)cards they sent Arthur to document their long-distance connections. Michael Collins has preserved about 50 of his father's actual cards, and kindly sent us scans. They provide a wealth of information about the individuals, the exact date(s) of contact, their equipment, and in many cases, personal notes to Arthur. The earliest card Michael has is dated Apr. 5, 1924; it's from Clarence Kelley (1BNL) of Saco, ME. The latest is from Luis Desmaras (2LD) of Santiago, Chile, dated Jan. 19, 1926.

The call numbers of over 130 different stations can be discerned in photos of the QSL cards Arthur tacked up in his attic "ham-shack." Theoretically they should all be traceable to unique federally-licensed operators, but this proves more difficult than expected due to the turnover of numbers, unlicensed and foreign stations, and the inability to determine the exact date of the contact from the photos. The names on the cards don't always match the federal paperwork and there are some surprises--a short list of new figures. Now with the aid of Michael's cards we can positively identify 46.

American Radio Relay League (ARRL) author and historian Clinton DeSoto (1936) described the radio amateur generally as:

"… a young man 25 years of age. His station is homemade from manufactured parts purchased largely at the neighborhood parts store … The young man is a high-school graduate. He works for a living, is self-supporting, unmarried, and is employed in the technical trade. He is quite well-liked in his community, respected for his knowledge of radio with the respect due an expert." (Two Hundred Meters and Down: The Story of Amateur Radio)

Subtract about 10 years from DeSoto's estimate for the average age of a ham and you have a picture of Arthur's contacts c.a. 1924-25. The cards tell us, like Arthur, the men were generally young (often still in H.S.), intelligent and ambitious--picture a youthful Steve Jobs calling Bill Gates! Not many reached Arthur's level of achievement, but most went on to become leaders in their communities. Many landed positions in the radio, telephone or television industries; a few took off in unexpected directions, but unsurprisingly, leaders still.

Here are some sketches of a few:

A. Wallace Everest (1891-1962) (1ARE) shared more than his early passion for radio with Arthur, he too had been much applauded in his home town of Pittsfield, MA, just a few months before, for his contacts with the MacMillan Arctic expedition. Wallace was a multi-talented inventor and engineer at General Electric for 44 years. He was also a sailor, a glider pilot, a member of the International Pennsylvania Brotherhood of Magicians and for many years, a featured performer with the GE Kings of Jazz, billed as, "A. W. Everest and his laughing trombone." (Berkshire Eagle, December 10, 1962) He was also a world famous amateur telescope enthusiast and science author. In noting his passing Sky and Telescope magazine called him "the last of the "big four" who began the organized hobby of amateur telescope making." (Apr. 1963) See him at Find A Grave (FAG) memorial #189752732.

George H. Pinney (1869-1947) (1CKP) was the most elderly ham radio operator we found among Arthur's card-contacts, a successful 55 year-old businessman, President of Williams Brothers Manufacturing Company, a South Manchester, CN silverware maker. They DX'd on Jan. 25, 1925. Radio was a serious hobby for Pinney, and he had participated in ground-breaking attempts to contact France in 1923, and would make headlines again later in 1925, when he, like Arthur, established regular communication with the MacMillan Arctic Expedition. As in Art's case, preparation may explain his good fortune better than luck-- John Reinartz, the radio operator aboard MacMillan's Bowdoin, was a friend and neighbor of Pinney's in South Manchester, and like Arthur, George probably had advance knowledge of Reinartz's planned radio frequencies and transmission schedule. Pinney married late in life (1931) and left no children. See him at FAG memorial # 58004141.

Albert F. Sise (1907-1991) (1ASF) was the son of a prominent Medford, MA physician. He jumped into radio in 1919, after WWI, and remained active in the ARRL for many years. He was a Harvard graduate (1928) and became the associate director of the Servomechanisms Laboratory at MIT. He built the first FM radio station on Mount Washington c.a. 1940. During WWII he was recruited by the MIT Radiation Lab to help develop radar. After the war he became Director of Personnel at MIT. Sise was an avid life-long skier and competed in early downhill races in NH in 1928. He also competed in the 1981 U.S. Ski Assoc. Senior Alpine Championships, winning the slalom, giant slalom and combined events. He was inducted into the U.S. National Ski Hall of Fame in 1983. See him at FAG # 201620649.

George H. Grammer (1905-1984) (3AIH) of Audubon, NJ worked for the ARRL from 1929 to 1970, save for a leave of absence during WWII to work at Remington Rand Corp. developing TV guided-weapons. He served as the technical editor of QST magazine 1939-1970, staying on as a consultant until his death. In 1959 he was recognized as a "Fellow" by the prestigious Institute of Radio Engineers (IRE) for his contributions to SSB radio and long history of technical publications. See him at FAG # 127415040.

Otto M. Johnson (1901-1983) (7FD) was a life-long resident of Seattle, WA. He was attending West Seattle H.S. in 1924 when he connected with Arthur on Oct. 17. Coincidentally, Otto, like Arthur would be a year later, was much acclaimed in his community and amateur radio circles for pulling in the transmissions of Arctic explorer Donald MacMillan in the winter of 1923/24 when he was locked in the ice on an expedition to the North. It was the first time shortwave radio was used on such an expedition and it proved a giant morale booster for the explorers. . . they were never without one again. Johnson had hopes of communicating directly with the MacMillan party but apparently never succeeded in "working" them. Johnson remained active in ham radio and the Seattle Amateur Radio Club for many years. QST magazine of Aug. 1924 published photos of a radio station he helped build at Christ Church Mission in Anvik, Alaska. He married (Louise Hoem) c.a. 1927. He worked as a radio technician for the Seattle Police Department and oversaw the introduction of their first 2-way radio system in 1936; later he worked at Boeing. When he died he left his wife, four sons, an adopted daughter, a bevy of grandchildren and and over 20 foster children. See him at FAG memorial # 202650264.

Photos: Arthur Collins, age 15; his ham shack (note the QSL cards tacked to the walls); an example of Arthur's own QSL card.

More biographical sketches next week.
To see low res. images of the QSL cards visit www.findagrave.com/virtual-cemetery/1090856 ... See MoreSee Less

7 days ago  ·  

We're celebrating the life of Arthur A. Collins and his company on this anniversary of one of man's greatest achievements, walking on the moon. Ironically, we note that historians have often written that Collins himself wasn't that interested in the space program. That's probably misreading his motives. Art hated wasting time; he focused his attention where it was needed, and that wasn't on the radios his company was building for the astronauts. He had very good managers overseeing their development, led by Arthur Wulfsberg, Assist. VP Space Systems Division, who also managed Mercury and Gemini.

The Apollo communication system design that NASA settled on transmitted in the microwave S-band, specifically 2.1-2.3 GHz. It was called Unified S-Band or USB; "unified" because all the data was digitally combined and transmitted simultaneously. USB was complex but proven. Engineers saved huge amounts of weight and space by eliminating separate receivers, transmitters and antennas for data, tracking, voice, medical monitoring, remote control, etc. and accomplished it with just one set of equipment. With some stretching and extra design work Collins engineers convinced NASA they could even fit in live television . . . for which we are all grateful. The challenge was building the boxes to NASA specs. The downside of USB was that one circuit failure could take down everything. So designers made the boxes easy to fix in space by simply slipping in spare boards. The modular design, designated Block I, was abandoned after the Apollo 1 fire in Jan. 1967 and replaced with a new approach called Block II. The equipment was made smaller, lighter and totally sealed. That eliminated the possibility of sparking another fire (not that Collins was implicated in the first), but along with it any opportunity to make "roadside" repairs. The new specs called for quadruple redundancy and zero defects. In the event of a circuit failure the equipment switched instantly to a new pathway--4X!

A special area of the factory floor was enclosed at the Collins plant. No one entered without special training and a pass. Everything used in the Apollo was tracked from its origin, right down to the source of the silica sand used in the manufacture of the transistors. The work/schedule pressure was terrific, but the astronauts' lives depended on it, along with hopes and dreams of the entire nation. . . and JFK's deadline was rapidly approaching! Not everyone could take the stress. Those who could were viewed with some awe then at Collins. . . we should do so still. Of course, the equipment performed flawlessly, again, and we, along with the rest of the world, watched in wonder and heard the astronauts over the radios we built here.

Art saw the moon landing from Cedar Rapids, cheered with the rest of us and, as usual, asked the Gazette reporter to credit his workers. Then he jumped on a company plane and flew to Dallas where he celebrated with another group of key Apollo engineers. Their role in the space program is less well known, but continues in large measure still today.

Early in the Apollo program NASA administrators made a decision to take the lowest risk path to the moon. As one put it, "in a Volkswagen rather than a Cadillac," meaning they would not risk a tight schedule trying to develop cutting edge technology. The exception was the Apollo tracking network where there was no falling back on well-tested systems and equipment. Unlike on Mercury and Gemini, the Apollo USB signals were digital and coming in a flood of data 10X anything seen before in manned space-flight. Also the signals would now be coming from the moon--deep space, with the need to distinguish simultaneous transmissions from the command module and the lunar lander.

Collins-Dallas was selected by NASA in 1964 to build a world-wide network of 15 new communications and tracking stations needed for the Apollo mission, and everything to connect them with Mission Control in Houston. Twelve (12) stations employed 30 ft. parabolic antennas for tracking the astronauts in near Earth orbit. Three (3) deep space stations with giant 85 ft. antennas would track the spacecraft to the moon. All the antennas had to be located in remote areas, like Goldstone in the Mojave desert, far from noise interference (and telephone lines, etc.), so there was a lot of microwave transmission work. Collins engineers designed and installed additional stations on USN ships and aircraft to maintain contact during reentry, in all a $50 million effort. Many of the pieces are still in place and the Collins engineers maintaining portions of the vast global network today report feeling a thrill every time they come upon the old Collins "meatball" logo.

Learn more about the Collins role in the manned space program from its earliest days in the current exhibit, The Collins Story: On the 50th Anniversary of the Moon Landing, in collaboration with the Arthur A. Collins Legacy Association. Now Open. Free admission courtesy of the McIntyre Foundation. ... See MoreSee Less

2 months ago  ·