[Hallicrafters] Please Read! Very Special Event Is Coming!

Tue Aug 28 19:13:00 EDT 2007

Hi All,

As many of you are now aware of, the rare printed + video + audio historic 
material about William Halligan, Sr. was contributed to me by HB9RS, Dr. Max 
De Henseler of Switzerland. This was why I created what has come to be known 
as "HHRP", or the "Historic Halligan Radio Project". The DVD's and CD's are 
still available frome me directly. You can get additional details from the 
HHRP web site. It can be found at:

http://hhrp.w9wze.net

Dr. Max and his lovely wife Renate, were very close personal friends of Bill 
and Katie Halligan. It is because of this intimate and long lasting 
association that Max was able to procure, and now provide, us with some 
never before read or seen or heard historic materials. I spent twenty-two 
months organizing, editing (when or where necessary), recreating and 
assembling these materials into the two DVD's and six CD's that comprise the 
HHRP packages. Had it not been for the insightful wisdom, deep rooted love 
of Amateur Radio, incredible generosity and devotion to the preservation of 
and historic heritage of Ham Radio, the world at large, historians in 
specific and Hams in particular, none of the above would ever know the 
existence of or long lost truths previously classified or historically 
entombed within dust laden fileing cabinets. Thanks to Dr. Max De Henseler, 
and others, we now can "all" enjoy the wonders he has so thoughtfully 
elected to share with us and entrusted to me to preserve, protect and make 
available to all non-commercial interested parties.

I have corresponded with Dr. Max for several years and talked to him by long 
distance numerous times. However, I have never had a QSO with HB9RS. Why? 
Simply because Dr. Max lives in an area where Ham radio antennas "defacing 
and disgracing" the flora and fauna of the terrain is frowned upon. (Don't 
you guys just love those residential housing committees that not only tell 
you what color you can paint your shutters, but also the dimensions of said 
shutters, the manufacturer of and product identification code, how much 
light they can permit to enter into the dwelling at any given hour and so 
forth! I wonder if any major university has ever gotten a federal 
educational grant to do a study on how many of these committees members get 
their residences artistically decorated with toilet paper, bombed by rotten 
eggs emitting Hydrogen Sulfide and have mail delivery boxes frequently 
crushed more flat then an unfortunate miniature Poodle that the circus fat 
lady sat on! Plus or minus two days either side of Halloween) Hence, the 
good doctor HB9RS was not allowed to use his fabulous collection of 
Hallicrafters equipment that he had devoted the majority of his life to 
collecting, keeping healthy and gleaming like a beacon shining through the 
low hanging smog over LA!

I complained to Max on a fairly regular basis about this, as the old blind 
dude really wanted to have a QSO by radio waves doing a little hop, skip, 
Chubby Checker magnetosphere 'TWIST' and some ionospheric LimboRock that 
would get the right angle on the wave's dangle, and land right smack in my 
QTH's antenna farm! But Max assured me as much as he too would enjoy such a 
QSO, real estate conditions just would not permit it to happen.

Well Max did something, I am not sure exactly what, but he is going to join 
us on the air! I have a twitch in the third toe from the big toe on my left 
foot, not a funky bacterial blight or fragrant fungus or jungle rot, and it 
only does this when I am about to work some really rare DX! You guessed it! 
The Editors at QST were not interested in that technical tale either!

Frogzilla has been curiously absent the past several weeks and quiet as an 
Auctioneer with laryngitis since his return from wherever. Knowing this 
mythical amphibian and his frog pond antics quite well, it is a safe 
assumption that he has had a webbed foot doing more than just soaking in Dr. 
Max's decorative landscape botanical pond! So if someone in those famous and 
beautiful Swiss Alps heard a "Yelp!" with a bit of a kelp accent, chances 
are it was from a very large amphibian who had one ski in his mouth and the 
othersomewhere between Frosty The Snowman's Anthracite belly button and his 
Polyvinyl Chloride button nose! Rumor has it that a special Frogzilla Files 
misadventure will be magically appearing soon with all the details! Keep an 
eye open for it!

Whatever the case, Dr. Max De Henseler, HB9RS "WILL" try to join the Sunday 
September 23rd HHI 20 meter Net from Switzerland! Please listen in, even if 
you do not have a transmitter to participate directly in the Net! It will be 
a special thrill for you just to actually hear the voice of this man who has 
contributed so much to our beloved hobby!

Max has not told me where he will be operating from, so I do not know if he 
will be using his incredible collection of vintage Hallicrafters gear, a 
modern transceiver or perhaps operating from the station of a not too 
distant Ham friend. Perhaps Dr. Max will provide me with more details as 
September 23rd approaches.

I need as many as possible, hopefully "ALL", of you with directional 
antennas to be present that day! Use your favorite high suction dust blaster 
variety of vacuum cleaner to get that lingering ear wax out of the ear 
canal. Get some of those new high tech LASER ear hair vaporizing things and 
defoiliate the hairy jungle so that audio vibrations can navigate your sound 
passages without a GPS unit! If you wear a hearing aid, please take your 
stash of empty returnable soda pop cans back to the store and recover the 
previously paid cash deposit. Then buy some new batteries dude! The rest of 
you set your favorite alarm clock so that you get up "before" the Net, not 
thirty minutes after we are into the Vintage SSB Net!

Seriously, I do need as many of you as possible to be there to help me. The 
path from Switzerland to Michigan at 1715-1815 UTC on 14.293 MHZ usb +/- is 
"not" very good at this time! Hence, if we could get KG4KZG, Dale in 
southern Florida, W1JHS, Jack in Maine, W5WP, Dave in central Texas or 
WA5IGG, Adolph in Texas, WA6DIJ, Jim in southern California, (and any other 
CA station willing to help!), K7DDG, Roger in Oregon, NT0V, Dennis in North 
Dakota, W5JT, Jim in southern Indiana, K0EJF, Jerry in Colorado etc. Any one 
who has a directional antenna, hopefully a HF amp - but the amp is optional, 
and is willing to help, please contact me direct! Thank you 'very' much!

I have three antenna arrays for twenty meters: Mosley TA-33 tri-band at 55 
feet (18 meters), Hustler 4BTV - ground mounted with 16 foot radials every 
45 degrees and an IAC 20 meter Double Bazooka with east/west orientation.

I will be using an Ameritron AL-82 HF amplifier running at the legal limit 
of 1.5 Kw.

Hopefully the propagation entities will be in a good mood, or is it mode?, 
that day and smile upon our efforts. Perhaps between our mutual efforts we 
can hear Dr. Max, HB9RS in Switzerland and relay his words to all who are 
present for this historic event. Yes "historic"! Dr. Max De Henseler is also 
the author of the most brilliantly researched book on the life and times of 
William Halligan, Sr., W9AC, ever penned by anyone. It is entitled, "The 
Hallicrafters Story". (Not to be confused with the excellent book by Chuck 
Dachis, WD5EOG titled "Radios By Hallicrafters".)

So mark the date of Sunday September 23, 2007 on your calendar. Keep the 
time from 1:15 PM EST/EDT, or 1715 UTC, until 2:15 PM EST/EDT, or 1815 UTC, 
free! Here is hoping that it works and that the RF waves do a perfect bank 
shot off the D layer of the ionosphere and our listening antennas have a 
"touching" experience!

Duane Fischer, W8DBF/WPE8CXO
dfischer at usol.com
HHI: Halligan's Hallicrafters International
http://www.w9wze.net
HHRP: Historic Halligan Radio Project
hhrp.w9wze.net