[Heathkit] OT: Nostalgia: Question on Tommy Rockford Ham Radiobooks

[Bwana Bob]

Thanks, Ian,

Sounds like you are a part of history. I think the book mentioned the 
ARC-4, but one would expect the fictional K6ATX to have somewhat 
different gear from the real K6ATX. I read somewhere that Tompkins worte 
some episodes for the TV series Death Valley Days.

SOS at Midnight lists dozens of names and calls. I wrote them all down! 
The book also mentions several nets. Maybe you know of them:

The Mission Bell Net, a CW traffic net
The Channel Cities Net on 2 meters
The Wild West Net on 3.820 MHz (Mc/s in those days)
The Monday Midnight Modulators on 10 meters.

So Santa Bonita in the novel is actually Santa Barbara? I need to check 
a map of CA.

Thanks again and 73,

			Bob WB2VUF

Ian wrote:
> Tommy (the author who is also the main character as Tommy "Rockford") did
> NOT have an ARC-4 on 2 meters.  I think I was the only one among the Santa
> Barbara 145.8 2 meter group with an ARC-4.  Tommy and Doc both DID have
> Gonset Communicators and it was common to have dual vertically polarized 2
> meter beams.  Most were Gonset beams if I remember correctly and my dual 8
> element skeleton slot was an odd ball at the time.
> 
> Yes, the characters, including Doc were actual hams.  Doc was an MD,
> pediatrician as I recall, and he used to do house calls driving with one
> hand inside his coat so it'd be warm when he examined the kids on a cold
> winter night.  My recollection is that he often had his Communicator in the
> car.
> 
> Tommy (Tompkins) the author got permission from many of the 2 meter group in
> Santa Barbara to use both their call letters and their first names or a
> suitable pseudonym.  By the time that most of the books were written I was
> in graduate school and not in Santa Barbara all year so I sort of lost track
> of who was actually in the books.  I guess I should find some of the
> original versions of the books and read them to remember who was part of the
> 2 meter group and what their calls were.
> 
> Tommy was not very technically inclined.  His expertise was writing and his
> job was at the Santa Barbara News Press where he did a lot of local history
> stuff and general news.  He also wrote a few TV shows that he sold.  ($5,000
> a script as I recall for some reason.)  Mostly his scripts were westerns I
> think.  His call, K6ATX, when I last looked was held by a young boy in Utah.
> 
> I don't ever remember him having a tower but a push up mast with his 2 meter
> beam/rotator on it.  I think his ham activity was mainly on 2 meters (AM of
> course in those days) and there were few evenings that he failed to check
> into the 145.8 net.  I don't remember if he was also active on 10 meters
> with the fairly large AREC group that gathered once a week at the upper end
> of ten meters for a net controlled from the Red Cross building.  For a fair
> period I used to do the net control duties.
> 
> If you're familiar with the Santa Barbara and Goleta area you can easily
> pick out landmarks and places in the books.  You would also, even with a
> disguised name, recognize local hams from the 1950s and 60s from some of the
> descriptions though I think just about everybody Tommy asked to use in the
> book said yes so many, if not all, of the calls were real.
> 
> Ian, K6SDE
> On the air in Santa Barbara from 1955-56 to 1968 with a couple of breaks
> when away at college during the school year.
> 
> 
> 
> 
>>>> -----Original Message-----
>>>> From: heathkit-bounces at mailman.qth.net
> [mailto:heathkit-bounces at mailman.qth.net]
>>>> On Behalf Of Bwana Bob
>>>> Sent: Sunday, October 29, 2006 2:41 PM
>>>> To: Paul
>>>> Cc: List-Heathkit
>>>> Subject: Re: [Heathkit] OT: Nostalgia: Question on Tommy Rockford Ham
> Radiobooks
>>>> 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
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>> List Administrator: Duane Fischer, W8DBF        ** For Assistance:
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> site
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>>>>>
>>>> _______________________________________________
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>>>> ** For Assistance: dfischer at usol.com **
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