[Hallicrafters] Radio Pioneer Frank Lester SK

[David Thompson]

Frank I. Lester W4AMJ, Ex W2AMJ and 2MJ passed away recently at 99.  The
Fall issue of the QCWA Bulletin has a recent picture.

Frank was first licensed in 1920 and worked for  Mesco and Lafayette before
World war II.  He met his wife at Lafayette and got Lafayette started in the
Kit business way before Heath came along.   He worked for Insuline during WW
II and after the war went to work for Link along with Stu Meyer W2GHK.

In the mid 1950's hammarlund had lost their way in Amateur Radio products
and Frank Sylvester then sales manager at Hammarlund signed on Frank to be
the sales tech.  Frank said there were no hams on the engineering staff and
he pushed them to get their ham licenses.  Soon Frank was the man from
Hammarlund you saw at shows and hamfests becoming the Sales Manager.   His
first project was to call Frank Sylvester at Henry Radio and tell him not to
sell them the requested 100 Pro-310's.  The receiver was a mess and the drum
mechanism cost hammarlund $75 each so they would not make much on each
receiver even if sold.  Frank led the process to bring the 310 to specs but
since the profit per unit was so low Lloyd Hammarlund soon decided to pull
the receiver from the market.

In addition to being the Sales Manager, Frank soon functioned as Chief
Design Engineer and the new look arrived in a General Coverage Receiver, the
HQ-100.  But Frank was hard at work on a new design that would be profitable
and put Hammarlund back on the map.  He churned out a Ham band Only Receiver
in 1957 called the HQ-110.  But his real accomplishment was the Hammarlund
HC-10 converter that made virtually any 455 kcs IF receiver a modern
CW/SSB/AM receiver.  The design was later incorporated in the HQ-170, 145,
and 180.

Frank also took ownership of the Super Pro 600 and produced numerous notes
and sold several dozen versions to hams and the military.

Since the ownership of Hammarlund changed several times Frank brough in his
old friend Stu Meyer W2GHK to be the Chief Engineer and later President.
Stu was the architect of the modern factory at 7388 mammarlund Drive In Mars
Hill, NC.

When hammarlund moved everything to mars Hill Frank became a independent
sales Rep for hammarlund and W2AU products.  He retired and moved to
Englewood, Fl in 1970.

Frank was a charter member of QCWA (Member number 3) and actually came up
with the name for the organization.  He was a VHF pioneer and a Dxer.  I
remember W4 April May and June working DX on Long Path 20 in the early
1970's.  His QSO pals included W8GZ (Windy Windom), W5AG and others.  Frank
ran a small amp and a tri-bander but with his Florida QTH could hang in with
the best of them!

He was active to the end although he moved to an ssisted living home several
years ago.  His first request was for a 2 meter rig to stay in touch with
QCWA and friends.

I have an excellent taped interview with Frank from May 1997 which I
translated to a written interview and sent to Electric Radio 2 years ago.
So far ER has not seen fit to print the interview.

RIP Frank we are all indebted to such pioneers!

73 Dave K4JRB