[Heathkit] OT: Nostalgia: Question on Tommy Rockford Ham Radio books

[Bwana Bob]

Hi Gang,

I have completed my research on "SOS at Midnight", by rereading the 1971 
edition and taking notes. The original publication date was 1957. I 
first read it when I was a kid, around 1964. It was reissued in 
paperback by Peregrine Press (Sagamore Books) in 1971. The 1971 edition 
appears to have only minor edits, which do not change the radio 
equipment types or detract from the story. I found the following edits:

"... but these are the 1970's, not the 1920's."  p 26

"The trend now is for single sideband all transistorized equipment."  p 126.

"That clock's ticking had an eerie sound; like the pulsing of a dying 
heart or the count-down of an Apollo moon launch."

The radio equipment descriptions were unedited in the 1971 edition, so I 
can state the following with authority:

Tommy's equipment: DX-100, crystal mike, matchbox, all-band 
communication receiver (unnamed), Q-multiplier, standby transmitter 
(unnamed), ARC-4 for 2 meters.

Tommy's antennas: 80 foot tower, 15 meter bowtie beam, twin-5 2 meter 
beam, vertically polarized, folded dipole.

His mobile antenna: 10 foot chrome-plated whip on the rear bumper, with 
a "gleaming copper loading coil".

2 meter mobile gear used by Tommy and Doc: Gonset Communicators with the 
green tuning eyes.

Doc's HF receiver is a "Hammerlund" [sic].

There is a nice endorsement of Heathkit equipment on page 124: "You can 
buy transmitters all ready to go, but you miss out on half the fun, 
doing it that way. These Heathkit jobs use top-grade components, too, so 
when you're finished you've got something that will last indefinitely."

There are literally dozens of names and call signs mentioned in the 
book. I wonder if these were friends of the author. It would be 
interesting to look up some of them. I wrote them all down, but that's a 
project for another day!

If there's any interest, I'll go through "CQ Ghost Ship" (The first one 
I read as a kid, and my personal favorite) and "DX Brings Danger". I 
don't have a copy of the fourth book, "Death Valley QSO."


				73 and keep it green!

				Bob WB2VUF





Paul wrote:
> Back in the late 50's early 60's I read several books about a teenage 
> ham named Tommy Rockford, K6ATX (the author, Walker A. Tompkin's 
> personal call). At a hamfest I happened across a few of the books that 
> had been reprinted by the ARRL and picked them up to reread. It appears 
> that they have been rewritten to bring them up to date equipment-wise, 
> so that from a "nostalgia" perspective, they didn't fit my time frame. 
> Does anyone have a copy of the originals, from the 1957-1964 timeframe?
> 
> What I'm trying to determine is what equipment the hams in the books 
> were using at that time. Some of it, primarily transmitters, I recall, 
> but I can't seem to remember what receivers were in use.
> 
> For example, in the book SOS at Midnight, I'm pretty sure Tommy used a 
> DX-100 transmitter. In CQ Ghost Ship, Tommy's uncle had either a KWM-1 
> or KWM-2 he used mobile, and Trudy (K6ZNT) had a DX-35, but again, I 
> don't remember what receiver she used. Likewise Noisy Noyce had a 
> homebrew transmitter, but what receiver? In DX Brings Danger, Tommy used 
> the equipment of W7RDR but I can't recall what gear.
> 
> Anybody have these old books or rememeber the original series and what 
> gear was used by the characters in the books?
> 
> Thanks, 73, Ray W2EC
> 
> 
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