Soon after I upgraded to Technician in about the year , 1976 , I was directed to George, W0DPM, by my pastor, who was Fr Gordon Mycue . Fr Mycue had given me an old Gonset Communicator ( Gooney ) and I was exploring 2 meters. George, was active on two meters with a group he had been with since after the war.( the big one, WW II .) This was all on A-M , around 145. mhz or so .I had a crystal from the 8 mhz region that would put me right on 145.45 . Today a local repeater lives there.
Anyway, George was a ham's ham. He had wound his own transformers during snow storms, built all his own antennas, was a user of 300 ohm feedlines, lots of war surplus equipment, and lots of years know how on electronics .
George had his shack in the attic, nice cozy place. He kept a cigar in the ashtray for quite a few months before he finished it . His wife, Ramona, once commented, " I know George is smoking cigars, He's not fooling me " .George's transmiter was a converted SCR-522 , with 8 watts out . When his signal came on, you could hear his swivel chair squeaking. I think he used an old ribbon microphone. Just amazing what this guy put together. George once told me , when he was in high school at
North High, in Mpls, he got a chance to shake hands with Thomas Edison . I thought that was cool .
Yup, ol' George was a do'er .