[Boatanchors] Re Old "WPE" SW Calls From Popular Electronics

[Duane Fischer, W8DBF]

Hi All,

About five years ago I attempted to put together a database that contained 
as many as possible of the original Short-Wave Monitor certificate call 
signs issued by Hank Bennet who wrote a SW column for Popular Electronics as 
I could locate. These calls are began with the prefix of "WPE". After Hank 
left Popular Electronics he continued to issue the call sings, but changed 
the prefix to "WDX".

There were three different certificates printed by Popular Electronics over 
the aprox. twelve years that Hank did this for them in his monthly SW 
column.

Many of you remember your SWL call sign, but no longer have the certificate. 
Some of you do not remember your call, but would like to find it again and 
get a certificate to go with it. Others of you have your original 
certificate, but time has not been kind to it and now it looks like one of 
the Dead Sea scrolls!

Yes I contacted Hank Bennet, who had vanished. Most thought he was dead. How 
I found him, is a story worth telling, believe me! But not here.

Hank had fifty thousand 3X5 index cards with all the SW certificate data 
hand written on them. He was certain he could revive the long dead SW 
certificate program again, but ... He was elderly, he was ill, his memory 
had failed, and it was not going to happen. Especially when those who had 
written to him for a number of years, never got an answer, figured the man 
was among the dearly departed!

All of my efforts to obtain the information on those cards, were in vain. 
Keeping in mind that a large percentage of the holders of the SW call signs 
were no longer alive, as it was almost forty years since he wrote his last 
column for Popular Electronics, many of those index cards had unseless data 
on them. A friend of mine who was also interested in putting together a 
database to help you who would like to remember your long forgotten call, 
even offered to purchase the old boxes of index cards. He even offered to 
drive to NY to pick them up, as Hank Bennet was in no condition physically 
to box them up etc. Hank refused. He just knew that one day everyone was 
going to want a SWL certificate etc. Sad, as that chapter on the life of a 
man who gave so much to the SW hobby came to an unfortunate end.

Several of us have decided to try and build the database ourselves by using 
the names and call signs printed each month at the end of Hank's SW column. 
This is NOT a complete account of all who received the calls, but it is one 
source!

Those of you who know your call sign can send it to me and we will enter it 
into the database. Those who want a certificate reproduction, can obtain 
one. NOT a new call sign, just a new certificate with your original call on 
it!

This could be quite an expensive undertaking. So I am wondering how many of 
you have copies of Popular Electronics from January of 1957 through December 
of 1969?

I 'think' these are the years that Hank Bennet issued the "WPE" SW call 
signs! If not correct, please give me the correct start and finish dates!

My original certificate is in excellent condition and can easily be 
reproduced. If you remember, they came with blank lines for 'you' to fill 
in; such as name, date etc.

Again let me stress! We are 'NOT' going to start issuing new SW calls, 
regardless of the prefix! This is simply an effort to get each of you who 
had a SW certificate and no longer have it, another copy of it. An effort to 
help those of you who had one, but have lost the certificate and forgotten 
your SW call sign, to locate your original call. Finally, to provide those 
of you who still have your original certificate, but would like a new copy, 
a new reproduction copy.

If you can help with loaning me issues of Popular Electronics to be scanned 
into the database and returned to you, if you can help with the graphics 
involved in preparing certificates for printing, or if you are interested in 
getting a reproduction of your original certificate or want to find your old 
SW call sign, please contact me direct. This is a HUGE project, but one many 
of you thought was worth the time and effort to accomplish.

I wanted the project to be a tribute to Hank Bennet, but unfortunately my 
hopes will not become a reality. Nevertheless, we can all still look at our 
new reproduction Popular Electronics SW Monitor certificates and remember 
those countless hours we spent staring transfixed at dimly lit dials, 
straining to hear that faint voice of the announcer fade up and down in our 
headphones and the excitement of when one of those stations on the other 
side of the planet mailed us a QSL card and two pounds of propaganda!

I still have a little decorative metal pin that fastens to a shirt pocket 
from Radio Bucharest that I received in 1961. I also have a QSL card from 
Radio Habanna, Cuba after President Kennedy declared the mail embargo in 
1962! How that postcard style QSL got through the mail, who knows! I still 
have it.

I am sure that many of you also have momentos from that era that have 
survived, as well as many fabulous stories that need telling. So, send me 
the story and I will assemble a collection of Tales From When Short-Wave Was 
King and make it available to all interested parties for printing and 
mailing costs. If you should happen to have some photos of your listening 
post, equipment etc., be sure to include a high resolution copy on a good 
grade of photo paper. Besides all the work, this could turn out to be both a 
lot of fun and a great way to recover the lost "WPE" SW calls.




Duane Fischer, W8DBF - WPE8CXO
E-Mail: dfischer at usol.com
Hallicrafters web site: www.w9wze.net
HHRP web site: hhrp.w9wze.net