[Hallicrafters] WPE1BVZ I have something of yours!

[Duane Fischer, W8DBF]

Joe, 	
	
I do not wish to demean the valuable contributions that Hank Bennett made to the
short-wave listening hobby. Let it suffice to say:	
	
When I finally found him, that is a story in itself, he was only casually
interested in sharing what he knew. He had tens of thousands of 3X5 file cards
with original WPE and WDX call sign information. Nothing on computer.	
	
He is getting on in years. I knew his memory was cloudy, as his wife was
correcting him frequently in the background. Not a criticism, just a fact of
life. 	
	
He had not answered his mail for months. People were not even sure he was alive.
but he could not understand why nobody wrote him to get a WDX call sign anymore.
Well, when nobody could find him for ten years, and he seldom answered mail to
the P.O. Box, people stopped being interested and caring. No mystery here at
all. 	
	
At first he agreed to help me. Then he decided to reactivate the WDX call sign
program and in his words, "This is a one man show". 	
	
I finally gave up after a year of trying to work with him. What he has is going
to the grave with him, I am afraid. Although the index cards are of no value, in
a monetary sense, they would provide a helpful database to recover lost or
forgotten WPE and WDX call signs. Unfortunately he has changed his mind on
letting myself and others build them into a computer database. I believe that he
simply can not let go of his past days of greater glory and pass the torch. But
it is his choice alone to make. 	
	
I can reproduce the original certificate now. As long as you know your call
sign, that is. I won't issue new WPE or WDX call signs, however. If call signs
are issued they will have a different prefix so as to avoid any possible legal
issues. Although none of what was done was copyrighted or protected by the
original publisher. So there really is not a legalissue here, as nobody cares
what was done forty some years ago anymore. 	
	
It would require one heck of a lot of work to rebuild the WPE call sign
database. A job I am willing to do, if there is enough interest to justify the
work. It may well take myself, and several others, a solid year. This is where
Hank Bennett could have helped by sharing those index cards. He made many great
contributions to the radio hobby and I will respect his decision, even though I
believe he made a wrong choice. He could have kept his own name alive by sharing
and received the attention he is due for what he did, but he chose to remain
obscure and keep the cards to himself.   	
	
Duane W8DBF	


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From: JOE <k1ike at snet.net>
To: hallicrafters at mailman.qth.net
Subject: [Hallicrafters] WPE1BVZ I have something of yours!
Date: Saturday, October 12, 2002 10:38 AM

Hello,

A while back, we were discussing the WPE calls that Popular Electronics 
used to issue to SWLers.  My "call" was WPE1EIT.  I was just getting ready 
to put something on that E place for auction and discovered that it has 
WPE1BVZ written on it!  By any chance, does anyone recognize this 
callsign?  I'd like to return it to it's original owner if I could find 
him/her.

BTW, did anyone ever reproduce the WPE certificates?  I'd like to get one 
to put my old WPE call on, I lost the original years ago.

73, Joe, k1ike

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