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

[Edward J White]

Hi Duane:
I still have my WPE  Short-wave Monitor certificate
Ed White WPE3DVP Date of issue 8 Aug 1962
My old address on it was  Chester, PA.my childhood home.
Certified by
Oliver P. Ferrell WPE2XZ Editor, Popular Electronics

Julian M Sienkiewicz WPE2FY Director of Monitor Station Registration

I have a 25 Country verified sticker award on my  certificate.

Ed White
WPE3DVP WA3BZT

Duane Fischer, W8DBF wrote:
>
>
> 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
>
> _______________________________________________
>