Looking back: Part 2
It was the summer of '65, a year I will never forget. My dad was closing the shop. The month before, I graduated Junior High, and in a couple months I would be starting my freshman year at the High School on the other side of town. Then it happened! I was playing ball with the neighborhood kids in the empty field across the alley behind my house. Suddenly there was sirens, and flashing lights. They were stopping in front of the house! I ran home as fast as I could with my brother a short distance behind me. They were taking Dad out of the house on a stretcher, and my grandmother was crying! She was incoherent and kept saying Rollin, my baby, my baby. I told my brother to try and calm down Grandma while I called my Uncle. Aunt Mary answered the phone and she immediately sensed something was wrong. I asked if Uncle Nolan was home. She said yes she would get him. A few moments later my Uncle was on the phone and I told him they took Dad to the hospital. He asked what happened but I had no idea. He said he would be right over. Thirty minutes later he was there. Grandma was still a wreck, but my Uncle was able to get her to calm down enough to tell what happened. She had been in the kitchen and heard a noise in the shop. She went to the front of the house where the shop was and found my dad on the floor. He had fallen out of his wheelchair and was unconscious on the floor. She had managed to call an ambulance before the reality hit her and she totally lost it. We had no car, so Uncle Nolan took us to the hospital. Dad was in in intensive care and was still unconscious. The doctor was trying to be vague since my brother and I was standing there, but I was able to deduce they didn't think Dad was going to make it, and even if he did, he would never be the same. He had had a heart attack. We stayed at the hospital all night. My Uncle tried to get us to go to the cafeteria to get something to eat, but we weren't hungry. At nine o'clock the next morning Dad regained consciousness. He was weak, but he was going to make it. The next day they transfered him to the VA hospital on the other side of town. Another week and he came home, but his paralysis was worse. He had lost much of the use of his right arm. His days as a TV repairman was over. He sold most of his equipment, but he gave me his Jackson tube tester, and his VTVM he built when he took his NRI training after the war. I still have them to this day. After the shop closed, money was tight. My brother and I both started taking contracts to mow lawns. I had about twenty yards I was taking care of, and my brother had about the same. All the money we made we gave to Dad to help out. All through that summer we did yard work. By the end of the day I was too tired to even think about my beloved Elgin. I did turn it on sometimes on Sunday, but mostly just to catch the news on the BBC or Swiss Radio.
I started High school that fall, and one of the classes I signed up for was Basic Electricity and Electronics. I already knew a lot of basics, but it was required in order to take Vocational Electronics next year. Vocational electronics was a three year, three hour a day course that, when completed, was the equivalent of a two year tech school degree.
The electronics course was easy and I made straight A's, more than I can say about some of my other courses. The lab had an extensive library of catalogs, and Radio Electronics and Popular Electronics magazines the the students could check out over night. The lab also had a radio. This one had a lot of knobs on it, a big meter, and a name I never heard of, Hammerlund. It was a Hammerlund HQ-180. The school had a 125' long wire on the roof, and it was connected to the Hammerlund. My electronics class was the last class of the day, and I asked Mr. Davis if I could stay after class for a half hour and listen to the radio. It was actually for the students in the morning vocational class to use on their breaks, but he said he would show me how to operate the radio. He told me he would let me stay over a half hour each Fri. To listen to the radio. I asked my dad if it was OK to stay over at school on Fridays. He asked why and I told him my teacher was going to show how to operate the Hammerlund. He said it was OK as long as I could still catch the last bus home. That Friday I made the next step in my shortwave hobby. I learned about a very advanced type of shortwave radio called a communications receiver. The Hammerlund was fantastic! Stations that faded in and out on the Elgin sounded like they were right in town on the Hammerlund. There was so many more knobs to turn to bring the stations in. There was a preselector, IF bandwidth knob and a band spread control. Stations I could not separate with the Elgin, was a breeze with the Hammerlund. Understand though, the Hammerlund wasn't a radio, it was a receiver, and boy did it receive! Now I was looking at the ads in the magazines for communications receivers, and their were lot with more names I never heard of, like Lafayette, Hallicrafters, National, and Knight. My head was being turned by several pretty new faces, and my Elgin was starting to look anemic. I started reading Glenn Hauser's DX digest column in Popular Electronics regularly. I wanted to hear some of the rare stations listed in his column, but my Elgin didn't have those frequencies. I started looking through the catalogs from school, like the Allied Radio catalog, and the catalog from Lafayette Radio. one day, as I was listening to the Hammerlund before I went home I was reading a ad in the Allied catalog for a Knight Star Roamer. Mr. Davis came up behind me and saw what I was looking at. I had already told him about my Elgin at home, and about the shop my dad used to have. He asked me if I liked the radio I was looking at. I told him yes, but it was way more than we could afford. Even in kit form, the Star Roamer was $40, and a factory built one was over $75! He said he had an old radio at home he didn't use any more. He had purchased a newer radio, and if I wanted it, he would bring the old radio in next week. He said he built it from a kit like the Star Roamer. He told me I could take it home for a few days and check it out. Well Monday came, and sure enough, when I got to my electronics class, the radio was there, sitting in front of the Hammerlund. It said Heathkit on the front and had to be the ugliest radio I ever saw. It was PINK, for crying out loud, with a red dial on a black background, and aqua blue panel on the right side. It had chips of paint missing on the top and sides. To be fair I guess it was supposed to be beige, but it sure looked pink to me. I was speechless and believe me, that was a rarity in itself! He asked me if I wanted to take it home. Well, it did have three shortwave bands plus AM. And there were seven knobs on the front, plus a rather small "S" meter. Iater I would discover there was another switch on the back that would prove to be quite useful. " I g-g-guuess so" I finally managed to stammer. So he said to take it home til Friday. If I didn't' like it I could bring it back then, and if I did, we could talk about it then. Well, I took the ugly thing home and with much trepidation, hooked it up and turned it on. The very first station I tuned in was Radio Cairo just outside of the 31 meter band. Shortly after, I logged KOL Israel, and Vatican Radio. All this on my cardboard loop antenna! Under the Ant. Trim knob I found the model number of the receiver. It was a GR-91. I listened to the Heathkit the rest of the evening, and every night the rest of the week after finishing my homework. I managed to find several more stations I never heard before, Turkey, Greece, Ghana, and AIR. If only it wasn't so ugly! Tomorrow would be Friday, time to decide. I wanted the radio, but I knew we probably couldn't buy it. Still I could listen to what Mr. Davis had to say, and as a bonus I would still have the radio over the weekend. Finally it was time for electronics class. Mr. Davis looked up at me when I came in. It was obvious I didn't have the radio, but he said nothing. After class, he came over, as I was gathering my stuff up to leave. "How did you like it", he asked? "It was great" I replied. He said if I wanted it, I could buy it for $15. He may as well have said $1500. I didn't have $15, and I sure wasn't going to ask Dad for it. Then he said I didn't need to pay the money all at once, maybe just $5 a month, and I wouldn't need to make the first payment for a month. By this time, the wheels in my head, were spinning. Let's see, I got fifty cents a day for lunch. If I just bought a frozen chocolate malt for lunch each day, that would give me a quarter a day, or $1.25 a week. In a month, that was $5. But I couldn't keep the money at home, because if my brother found it he would take it. I asked If I could pay $1.25 a week, starting next week. It was agreed. We had a deal. Well first things first. I was going to have to paint that god-awful ugly pink radio. I found a can of dark brown spray paint Dad had bought to touch up the cabinet of a portable TV he worked on before the shop closed. I took the cover off the Heathkit and took it out in the back yard. I set it on a couple of cement blocks and sprayed it from every angle possible. I left it in the sun to dry, and after it was finally dry, put it back on the radio. What an improvement! Now it even kind of reminded me of that Transoceanic that started the whole thing. The radio was working great and everything was going smoothly. It had now been six weeks, and I had paid $7.50 on the radio. I had logged many new countries, Thailand, Hong Kong, Belgium, and more. Then every thing came crashing down. Valerie, the girl next door, who was a year behind me in school, had come over to play Monopoly on the porch with my brother and me as she often did. My dad had come out to watch us play and enjoy the fall day. Winter was around the corner, but today it was an unseasonably warm 65 degrees. As we were playing, Valerie suddenly asked why I wasn't eating lunch at school anymore? Like a panther, Dad was on it. He wanted to know what she meant. Realizing she had blundered, she tried to cover for me. Well he is eating lunch, just not the same as I usually ate. Too late! Dad knew something was not right so he kept pumping her. What did she mean? What was I eating? All this time I was sitting in abject misery. Finally the story was out. Valerie couldn't get home fast enough. As for me, I was in deep doo doo. Dad demanded to know what I was doing with my lunch money. I told him the whole story. He said what I had done behind his back was the same as lying. I felt awful. He told me to bring the radio downstairs. I brought the radio down and he set it on the bench. At this point I was wishing I had never seen the radio. He asked how much I had paid on it. I told him. He asked If I had anything to show the money I had paid on it. Yes, Mr. Davis gave me a receipt for each payment, showing the payment, total paid, and amount left. Each receipt was signed by Mr. Davis with his address and phone number under his signature. He called Mr. Davis, and they talked for about thirty minutes. Well sort of talked. Dad mostly said uh huh, I see, no, yes, I will deal with it. That last statement sounded ominous. He hung up and told me to bring down my Elgin and my 2 transistor home-built. What? The Elgin was mine! Not anymore! I brought down my Elgin and my home-built and now they were sitting on the bench. Here was the deal. I was grounded. For two entire months I was to come straight home. I would not listen to radio at school, and Mr. Davis would make sure I didn't. I was to return the radio tomorrow and consider the money I had paid on it as rent for using it. Furthermore, I would spend everyday in my room with no visitors allowed. I would not be allowed to have any radio, magazine, or book in my room except my schoolbooks. I would eat my normal lunch at school and Valerie would let him know if I deviated. If after two months he thought I had learned my lesson I might get my Elgin back, maybe! Did I understand? "Yes, sir". Now go to your room. Grandma would call me when it was time for supper. "Yes, sir". I was miserable. I didn't think things could get any worse. I was wrong! Next day I came downstairs to eat and go to school. I picked up the radio and started for the door. Dad told me to put the radio back down. "Yes, sir". I did as I was told. He then reached in his shirt pocket and handed me eight dollars. I was to give the money to Mr. Davis. I would bring him back the fifty cents and the receipt. I was confused. Did this mean I could keep the radio? Yes, and no. That was to be the rest of my punishment. For the next two months, I would have to sit in my room knowing my radios were downstairs. I would see them every day when leaving for school, and coming home. I was never so much as to touch them or the radio at school. I was not to read any magazines or catalogs at school or at home. If after two months I had full filled my punishment without violating any of the conditions, I would get all my radios back, including the newly painted Heathkit. It was the hardest two months of my life so far, and a lesson I would never forget.
To be continued with Part 3.............
Topic: Earliest DX Memories? (Read 6418 times)
