[Hallicrafters] W9NZM Bob Bauman

[Bill]

After seeing Dave's comment below about my old and dear friend prompted 
me to

also comment about Bob W9NZM.  Bob was a very unique individual  and ham as
well.  His uniqueness begins with his QTH north west of  Chicago.  At one time
it was relatively isolated, 10 acres in the midst  of Illinois cornfields.

His QTH was once a contest group shack (I think W9LNM) and featured  wooden
"power poles" as antenna supports. Mono band 10m  20m and two  elements on 40m.
A beam on 40m was pretty unusual back in the 50's.   Other towers as well,
Tri-Ex crankup with 20m, and at least two or more  towers lying horizontal, some
day to be erected (they never were).  Back in the fifties a very talented young
ham named Don Miller operated from this station, a winning score only to later
be disqualified do to (unnecessary)padding of the log.

Later Bob  acquired the "club site" and began to build a home essentially by
himself.  He was very accomplished in many venues, including carpentry.

One of the challenges of having a ham station in this location was the AM  radio
station, WBBM at 50,000w which was a close neighbor. You could  light a neon
lamp or fluorescent bulb from the energy collected on the  fences.  The
house/shack was essentially a "screen room" as it was  completely shielded with
copper screening. It was very effective.

Bob  was essentially an old time manufacturers rep. Specialized in  components,
knobs, switches and most anything a customer wanted.  Bob  had a very complete
model shop, lathes, mills, presses and even molding  machines.  He could
fabricate a prototype control or switch for the  design engineer to review, and
it was a model for the manufacturer to go  to production with.  He had quite a
collection of tools, and on several  occasions I accompanied him when checking
out a shop closure for that  unique piece of equipment.  My first lathe came
from

Bob's shop -  and later it turned out to be a unique collectors piece.  Bob
called on most of the electronics manufacturers then in Chicago, Hallicrafters,
Zenith, Motorola, Warwick, and dozens of small component suppliers that he
represented. Bob did  acquire the design and tooling from Groth Dials and
continued to make turn counters for many years.  His declining health
(Alzheimer's)unfortunately  left many unfinished orders that I recall seeing
scattered over his desk.

I had just acquired the Cubex Quad company and was hoping to
take on  the Groth Dials as well.  The challenge of moving the heavy equipment
to Florida, and Bob's continued rapid decline never allowed that to come  to
fruition.

As the DX community in the northwestern suburbs  know, Bob and his XYL Edna were
very generous with Christmas parties  being held at their club in Itasca, and
the summer picnics in his  backyard.  Bob was a charter member of the Northern
Illinois DX  Association, a competitive ham, and a resource to many of the
electronic  equipment manufacturers in the Chicago area as well as a great
friend.   His thoughtfulness and almost impish smile and dapper mustache will
not  be forgotten by those who knew him.

Regards,

Norm W4QN
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> From the Hallicrafters List:
>
>  I saw Bob Bauman listed in the October QST Silent Keys.  Many of you may>
>remember him as the designer and later manufacturer of the Groth turn counter
>dial.  Later he made what he called the Groth Type counter dial under his own
>company name Bauman Manufacturing.
>
>  My last contact with Bob was in the late 1980's when he made a few special
>counter dials for ON4UN and others.  They do show up at hamfests and Ebay
>usually as part of a homebrew amp or tuner.
>
>  Bob was a very active ham on CW and AM in the 1950's winning his state for the
>ARRL SS and DX Competition.
>
>  73 Dave K4JRB