[JMS] RE: W1AXL vs W1HRX

[Edward Gable]

I went to visit Jim in 1985, when the hill top farm house was at the end of 
Tar Box
Lane.  Our directions from Jim were to turn right between two house numbers 
and
yes, that would be the right place.  The dirt drive off the road went a few 
hundred
feet and then entered a woods and you started a steep upward climb.  Half 
way
up the (road ?) took a sharp turn to the left and there was a curious, 
small, out building
at that left hand turn.  The road then curved around and ended up at the 
top.
A large barn was on the left, the house and the cottage that had the 1936 
Millen
transmitter shack was on the right.  As soon as I got out of the car I said 
to myself
"this is a million dollar piece of property."  In a later conversation I 
asked Jim about
the funny shack at the turn in the driveway.  He said that way before the 
days of four
wheel drive the only way to get up the driveway was to use an electric winch 
that was
housed in the shack.  You parked at the bottom of the hill. pulled down the 
hook and
cable, hooked it up to your Maxwell or Duesenberg, threw the switch, and up 
you
went.

In 1968 I went to school at National Radio at the Melrose, Washington Street 
site.
I recall it wasn't a pretty place.  I had expected a large, modern company, 
but my
impression was that the various departments were scattered about a very old 
building
in a not very organized way.  I was there for the Military side of the 
business (MD-777)
but did see the Amateur engineering section (very small) and saw someone 
working on
a new NC-1000, as I recall.

Much more interesting than the radios was a small group by themselves on the 
third floor
designing and building music video machines.  Drop a quarter in the slot and 
a juke box
type mechanism selected a film cartridge of your choice and you could watch 
a music
video.  Clearly 25 years too soon.... and waiting for digital video.  It was 
a good
place to spend your lunch hour and watching machines on burn-in playing a 
small
choice of videos over and over again.

While there I went to Boston a few times.  One evening I returned to my car 
and
found (1) a parking ticket for parking too long.  Only my car with NY 
plates, of
all the cars there got a ticket, and (2) sometime while the cop was writing 
the ticket
someone broke in and stole my ham rig.  I've never been back to Boston.

Buy me a few beers sometime and I'll tell you how I, personally, had a lot 
to do with
the demise of National radio.  Weapons will be checked at the door.

Cheers,

Ed Gable  k2mp/w2an
AWA Museum
visit www.antiquewireless.org



----- Original Message ----- 
From: <GARDGORE at aol.com>
To: <james_millen_society at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Sunday, January 15, 2006 9:34 AM
Subject: Re: [JMS] RE: W1AXL vs W1HRX


> Hi everyone:
>
> I did indeed visit Malden, Massachusetts a few years ago to see how much 
> from
> earlier times was still there and what has changed. I discovered the site
> where National once stood at 61 Sherman Street was gone because of urban 
> renewal.
> My research seems to imply it disappeared sometime in the late Fifties 
> which
> probably explained National's move to Washington Street in Melrose which 
> was a
> short distance away. There is a Safeway grocery store in a small shopping
> center now where National once stood. Sherman Street and Jackson Street no 
> longer
> exist and Abbott Street was moved over to make room for a large bank
> building. I also visited North Reading (or Middleton) to see what remained 
> of Millen's
> homesite and the old farmhouse. James Millen Drive is still there but it 
> is
> now a residential street in an upper middle class neighborhood. There was 
> a
> half million dollar home on the site where the farmhouse once stood and I 
> saw
> young children's toys in the yard and a young man was washing the family 
> SUV in
> the driveway that afternoon. I stopped and asked him if he knew the 
> history of
> the area and he didn't know a thing about it.
>
> 73, Greg
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