[JMS] RE: W1AXL vs W1HRX

[Don Buska]

Great Story Ed.

"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."

I think your uncompensated contributions to the JMS are adequate penance
for your personal responsibility in the demise of National, hi.

73

Don

-----Original Message-----
From: james_millen_society-bounces at mailman.qth.net
[mailto:james_millen_society-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of
Edward Gable
Sent: Sunday, January 15, 2006 2:23 PM
To: The James Millen Society Members Email Reflector
Subject: Re: [JMS] RE: W1AXL vs W1HRX

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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