(This article is about one of the first Amateur Radio Operators I ever met back when I was a shortwave listener during my teenage years living in a small town in central Texas.) I became aware of "L.D." Brown, K5RGT (SK), of Prairie Lea (Texas), by hearing him on my Lafayette HE-30 shortwave receiver during my early high school years while living in the (then) small central Texas town of San Marcos (between Austin & San Antonio). I looked L.D. up in the Amateur Radio Callbook on my book shelf and then got his phone number and gave him a call. L.D. invited me over to meet him and see his ham station and my mother drove me (I was 15 years old at the time) out to where L.D. lived in Prairie Lea (on the highway from San Marcos to Luling) on April 17th 1966. How can I possibly know this all these years later (this being written on April 1st 2014) ? It is because I recently found, in a long stored away file card box, the QSL that L.D. gave me as a memento of my visit that day. In my "mind's eye" I can 'see' the big rectangular cabinets of the early 1960s ham radio equipment sitting on L.D.'s desk but his QSL card tells me that his equipment consisted of a Heathkit Apache transmitter, Hammarlund HQ100 receiver and a multiple-element dipole antenna for the HF ham bands. For reasons I do not remember I did not keep up with L.D. after my visit but (as I write this) here is his QSL card (printed by K5GDH) laying on the desk in front of me almost 48 years later. Some recent on-line research has shown that L.D. was very active with the 7290 Traffic Net in the early 1960s with him being an Asst. Net Control and later Net Control.
(UPDATE; 11 Sep 2014)
Lewis 'LD' Brown, K5RGT, died on Dec 17, 1988, two-and-a-half months after his 93 birthday on Sept 30th. His grave is listed on the Find-A-Grave Web Site. (Currently there are duplicate entries - I have submitted requests for correction.)