[Boatanchors] Ditty not Diddy

[Sandy]

Ha!  I'll be!

He stopped me on Canal Street or Tulane Ave. I don't remember which.  At the 
time, I was driving my 1959 Volswagen beetle with a full length 10 meter 
whip on it.  Had a homebrew lil xmtr.  6AQ5 driving a 5763 final 80-10 
bandswitching.  12AX7 speech amplifier, 12AU7 modulator.  10-12 watts input.

I remember him introducing himself as Jerry Freeman (forget the call he used 
then) and that he was joining the FCC here.  Said he wanted to gets the hams 
and CBers "straight" in the area!  I thought he was "B.S.ing" me as I knew 
all the engineers at the New Orleans office!

Went to his house once and he had certificates lining all the walls, and 
always talked about his "Johnson Desk"!  I never got into trouble with him, 
but some people stoked his ire a few times.  Rumor was a couple of hams in 
town traded some air conditioning equipment for "favors".

Years later when I was working for Mackay, we hired a guy who was VERY 
familiar with Jerry as he had moved from Norfolk where Jerry ran the FCC 
office there.  He had some REAL stories to tell about him.

I've heard nothing but good about Angelo Ditty and we got along great the 
few vessels I did inspections with him in Mobile, AL.  You did have to have 
everything RIGHT though!  He didn't cut you much slack at all.  Took his job 
very seriously.

73,
Sandy W5TVW
----- Original Message ----- 
From: <WA5CAB at cs.com>
To: <Boatanchors at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Thursday, August 23, 2007 9:49 AM
Subject: Re: [Boatanchors] Ditty not Diddy


> Now there's a name (Jerry Freeman) that I recognize.  In the early 60's, 
> he
> was in the New Orleans office.  During the Cuban missle crisis of 1962, he 
> came
> into my dorm room at LSU and inspected the output of a T-23/ARC-5 I had up
> and running.  I had rewound the coils from one channel for 6 Meters and he 
> found
> an 80-something MC harmonic he told me to fix.  But I wasn't the one he 
> was
> looking for.  Seems some kid in South Stadium, with an FM broadcaster, had 
> run
> a fake news show and reported that the Cubans had nuked a US carrier.
>
> In a message dated 8/23/2007 8:52:29 AM Central Daylight Time,
> ebjr37 at charter.net writes:
>> I once had an FCC inspection to do on a ship in Mobile, AL. and Angelo
>> Ditty
>> came down and did the inspection.  He was quite a character.  Very 
>> friendly,
>>
>> but did things strictly by the book!
>>
>> There was another guy (who's SK now) named Jerry Freeman.  Forget his
>> callsign.  He ran the Norfolk FCC office for a long time I think.  He 
>> used
>> to sit at a big desk wearing his badge and gun like the sheriff of old! 
>> He
>> could be very picky about extremely small flaws in  an installation he 
>> was
>> inspecting.  He did show partiality at time though.  I gather Angelo did
>> not.  He seemed VERY straightforward and honest to me.
>>
>
> Robert Downs - Houston
> <http://www.wa5cab.com> (Web Store)
> MVPA 9480
> <wa5cab at cs.com> (Primary email)
> <wa5cab at comcast.net> (Backup email)
>
> _______________________________________________
> Boatanchors mailing list
> Boatanchors at mailman.qth.net
> http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/boatanchors
> ** List Administrator - Duane Fischer, W8DBF/W9WZE **
> ** For Assistance: dfischer at usol.com **
> $$ For vintage radio info, see the HCI web site $$
> http://www.w9wze.org
>
>
>
> -- 
> No virus found in this incoming message.
> Checked by AVG Free Edition.
> Version: 7.5.484 / Virus Database: 269.12.2/967 - Release Date: 8/22/2007 
> 6:51 PM
>
>