[CW] Recollections of W1BB Stew Perry of Winthrop, MA

[Darrel]

The QSL I received from W1BB in 1965, when I was using G3SYS with 6 
watts out on topband, is the one QSL I have really treasured over the 
years.  It's the only QSL card I ever put up on the shack wall.

Cheers
    Darrel aa7fv & g3sys



On 7/15/2024 07:44, D.J.J. Ring, Jr. wrote:
> Recollections of W1BB Stew Perry of Winthrop, MA
>
> Stew Perry, W1BB was a good friend of mine, he lived in Winthrop, MA which
> is near Logan Airport (BOS).
>
> He was a radio officer in the 1920s and then he graduated 
> fromMassachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, MA and 
> was anoutside salesman for Greybar Electric in Boston. He had his home 
> inWinthrop with it's 40 foot vertical, his two element phased inverted 
> veesat Deer Island water tower in town,and during the summer, he went 
> to him farm up in Maine as W1BB/1. I guessat the time the Deer Island 
> location was W1BB/1 also due to FCC regulations
> operating away from his home.
>
> The 160M DXers gave Stew a book around 1977, we presented it to him at 
> "TheShip" restaurant in Lynfield, MA. Sadly this landmark is going 
> away along
> with the Hilltop Steak House cows.
>
> He was very pleased to get it. It was like a FOC meeting with W1HZ, 
> W1HX,W1PL, N1EA, W1BB (all FOC members) and the W4 fellow who bound 
> the letters
> - about 500 of them - into a book. My father WA1DRR and mother also 
> werethere because they loved "The Ship" - it had great fish.
>
> In the late 1980s he was confined to nursing home care inMelrose, MA 
> the same city where I lived at that time and I used to visit
> him.
>
> He had throat cancer, lost his voice box, so he used a throat buzzer 
> whichwas very difficult to understand. He also had had a stroke.
>
> I brought my McElroy 1939 bug to the nursing home and he had 
> greatdifficulty using it. The coordination just wasn't there. I also 
> brought my
> EK-430 keyer and used it's loud sidetone to fill the room.
>
> But suddenly, he tried something different.
>
> DE W1BB W1BB W1BB
>
> Squeals of delight came from him - and myself too, for that matter.
>
> He could "talk" again.
>
> I went to sea and came home and would visit him, but my last trip 
> around1990 was too long to see W1BB again, he died in March of that 
> year, before
> I came home in June 1990.
>
> But I'm sure that the moment that his "voice" came alive pleased him, 
> he toldme so.
>
> I also got him smiling, I told him the story of the seaman who 
> wantednothing more to do with the sea.
>
> I told him the seaman put an oar over his shoulder and walked inland, 
> andkept going.
>
> For hundreds of miles people would ask: "Hey, mister, what are you 
> doingwith an oar over your shoulder?" He kept on walking.
>
> Finally about 700 miles from the shore, he got a new question: 
> "Hey,mister, what's that funny looking thing you have over your shoulder?"
>
> He went into town bought himself a lot of land and built himself 
> hisretirement home.
>
> He was never bothered with stories that start "This is no s4!t" anymore.
>
> But the fairytales, they were a different thing, every day at four 
> thirty,a group of fathers and mothers came to his front porch and he'd 
> tell them
> the most interesting stories about all sorts of things. Just no sea 
> stories.
>
> BV OM Stu I miss your wonderful fist. Old signals never die,they only 
> fadeaway. =
>
> 73 de DR
>
> Photos of Stu, W1BB, his antenna put up with the Town's permission at Deer
> Island on the water tower just a half mile from his home, and a picture of
> the restaurant where the bunch of us gave him a hand bound book of all the
> 160 meter operators - it must have had 600 signatures and messages. He was
> delighted!
>
> w1bb1.jpg
> w1bb2.jpg
> w1bb3.jpgw1bb4.jpg
>
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> =30=
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