[Hallicrafters] Remember The Old Popular Electronics SW Calls?

[Duane Fischer, W8DBF]

Hi All,

About five years ago I attempted to put together a database that contained

as many as possible of the original Short-Wave Monitor certificate call

signs issued by Hank Bennet who wrote a SW column for Popular Electronics as

I could locate. These calls are began with the prefix of "WPE". After Hank

left Popular Electronics he continued to issue the call sings, but changed

the prefix to "WDX".

There were three different certificates printed by Popular Electronics over

the aprox. twelve years that Hank did this for them in his monthly SW

column.

Many of you remember your SWL call sign, but no longer have the certificate.

Some of you do not remember your call, but would like to find it again and

get a certificate to go with it. Others of you have your original

certificate, but time has not been kind to it and now it looks like one of

the Dead Sea scrolls!

Yes I contacted Hank Bennet, who had vanished. Most thought he was dead. How

I found him, is a story worth telling, believe me! But not here.

Hank had fifty thousand 3X5 index cards with all the SW certificate data

hand written on them. He was certain he could revive the long dead SW

certificate program again, but ... He was elderly, he was ill, his memory

had failed, and it was not going to happen. Especially when those who had

written to him for a number of years, never got an answer, figured the man

was among the dearly departed!

All of my efforts to obtain the information on those cards, were in vain.

Keeping in mind that a large percentage of the holders of the SW call signs

were no longer alive, as it was almost forty years since he wrote his last

column for Popular Electronics, many of those index cards had unseless data

on them. A friend of mine who was also interested in putting together a

database to help you who would like to remember your long forgotten call,

even offered to purchase the old boxes of index cards. He even offered to

drive to NY to pick them up, as Hank Bennet was in no condition physically

to box them up etc. Hank refused. He just knew that one day everyone was

going to want a SWL certificate etc. Sad, as that chapter on the life of a

man who gave so much to the SW hobby came to an unfortunate end.

Several of us have decided to try and build the database ourselves by using

the names and call signs printed each month at the end of Hank's SW column.

This is NOT a complete account of all who received the calls, but it is one

source!

Those of you who know your call sign can send it to me and we will enter it

into the database. Those who want a certificate reproduction, can obtain

one. NOT a new call sign, just a new certificate with your original call on

it!

This could be quite an expensive undertaking. So I am wondering how many of

you have copies of Popular Electronics from January of 1957 through December

of 1969?

I 'think' these are the years that Hank Bennet issued the "WPE" SW call

signs! If not correct, please give me the correct start and finish dates!

My original certificate is in excellent condition and can easily be

reproduced. If you remember, they came with blank lines for 'you' to fill

in; such as name, date etc.

Again let me stress! We are 'NOT' going to start issuing new SW calls,

regardless of the prefix! This is simply an effort to get each of you who

had a SW certificate and no longer have it, another copy of it. An effort to

help those of you who had one, but have lost the certificate and forgotten

your SW call sign, to locate your original call. Finally, to provide those

of you who still have your original certificate, but would like a new copy,

a new reproduction copy.

If you can help with loaning me issues of Popular Electronics to be scanned

into the database and returned to you, if you can help with the graphics

involved in preparing certificates for printing, or if you are interested in

getting a reproduction of your original certificate or want to find your old

SW call sign, please contact me direct. This is a HUGE project, but one many

of you thought was worth the time and effort to accomplish.

I wanted the project to be a tribute to Hank Bennet, but unfortunately my

hopes will not become a reality. Nevertheless, we can all still look at our

new reproduction Popular Electronics SW Monitor certificates and remember

those countless hours we spent staring transfixed at dimly lit dials,

straining to hear that faint voice of the announcer fade up and down in our

headphones and the excitement of when one of those stations on the other

side of the planet mailed us a QSL card and two pounds of propaganda!

I still have a little decorative metal pin that fastens to a shirt pocket

from Radio Bucharest that I received in 1961. I also have a QSL card from

Radio Habanna, Cuba after President Kennedy declared the mail embargo in

1962! How that postcard style QSL got through the mail, who knows! I still

have it.

I am sure that many of you also have momentos from that era that have

survived, as well as many fabulous stories that need telling. So, send me

the story and I will assemble a collection of Tales From When Short-Wave Was

King and make it available to all interested parties for printing and

mailing costs. If you should happen to have some photos of your listening

post, equipment etc., be sure to include a high resolution copy on a good

grade of photo paper. Besides all the work, this could turn out to be both a

lot of fun and a great way to recover the lost "WPE" SW calls.



Duane Fischer, W8DBF - WPE8CXO
E-Mail: dfischer at usol.com

Hallicrafters web site: www.w9wze.net

HHRP web site: hhrp.w9wze.net