[CW] Thank you, Zenith Radio Corporation

[Craig Roberts]

Great story, Hans! Thank you.

My ham radio roots are also planted in farm soil, a Zenith radio and the 
Boy Scouts of America.   Now, on our farm in northern Indiana, ca. late 
'40's, the rural electrification folks had hooked up the house and dairy 
barn okay, but the barn radio and the one in the front room were relics 
of the pre-"'letric lights" days. Both ran off big ole storage 
batteries.  The set in the barn was an Atwater Kent encrusted with 
chicken poop and all manner of other mostly unidentifiable substances.  
It had been relegated to outbuilding duty and pretty much left to its 
fate with the arrival of the shiny Zenith in the late '30's. Even a 
decade later, after I arrived, the women kept the Zenith cabinet 
showroom new looking with frequent feather dusting and gentle waxing 
while dad periodically invaded the radio's bowels to replace tubes (with 
no discernible effect).  The Zenith occupied pride of place in the home.

It, too, sported "Police" and shortwave bands and I was intrigued by the 
exotic broadcasts emanating from them -- though I can't recall ever 
hearing anything on the Police band other than odd and somewhat eerie 
squeaks, squawks and spooky whistles.  I was apparently generally 
unaware of amateur radio activity being detected, however. My conscious 
exposure to ham radio would come later.

The old Zenith did charm me enough to spark an interest in learning how 
it worked.  So, when I became "of age" I pursued the earning of the Boy 
Scout Radio Merit Badge. Among the tasks required at the time was the 
building of a one tube regenerative receiver from plans in the merit 
badge manual (suspiciously similar to those in the contemporary ARRL 
Handbook).  With the considerable aid of my counselor, I got the little 
set put together and receiving the AM broadcast band.  I was thrilled to 
have built a working, "glow in the dark" radio from scratch, but bored 
by its ability to only hear the very same stations in South Bend and 
Gary and Chicago and Cleveland and Detroit that the Zenith picked up. 
So, without a clue as to what I was doing, I messed around with the 
number of turns on the regen's tuning coil and ended up plopped in the 
middle of the 80 meter phone band.  My fascination with hearing 
conversations between guys in remote corners of the globe like Wisconsin 
and Missouri and Kentucky and West Virginia and -- just once -- Puerto 
Rico (!) led to questions to my merit badge counselor (who, I learned, 
held a Technician Class license), the learning of Morse Code (also a 
merit badge requirement) and my first ham license.

While the Zenith Radio Corp. may have been responsible for my early 
interest in radio and fostered a lifelong hobby, the Chicago 
manufacturer -- ironically -- was also the agent of a career ending 
episode.  I was one of the "Hams at Heath" back in 1979 when The Heath 
Company was bought by Zenith. Six weeks after receiving a nicely worded 
letter from the new bosses assuring employees that our jobs were safe 
under the new regime, I -- along with scores of other Heath workers -- 
got "furloughed."

Ah, well.  That old Zenith tombstone sure was  a pretty radio 
nonetheless and I certainly hold no grudge.

73,

Craig
W3CRR