[NJARC] Uncle Bill Henderson's Radios :) :) :)

[Scott Roberts]

At long last, I have arrived home with an assemblage I
had been considering for a while, and waiting to
receive since my Aunt asked me last month if I knew
anybody who would want... My late Uncle Bill
Henderson's Ham and SW radios!

Uncle Bill had been a "Mickey Man", or radar
operator/mechanic with the 8th Air Force in England.
>From what I understand, he made a couple combat
missions, but usually was in the repair shop, fixing
early Radar. After the war, he took a job with a small
tech firm called "RCA" in Lancaster, Pa. Involved with
the development of color television, he remained with
the company until the mid 1980s. During the 35 years
with RCA he made many trips overseas, including a few
to Taiwan, Mexico and Russia(before we won the Cold
War), to instruct people in how to work with color tv
and other tubes. Uncle Bill was always a nice country
boy from Paris, Arkansas- his drawl never left, and
was my favorite uncle growing up... After his youngest
son (of 8 children!) passed away in an auto accident,
he was never quite the same; he developed Alzheimers,
and passed away in 2002. I still think of him from
time to time, and wish I had the chance to talk radios
with him now.

Now that I've introduced him, let me tell you about
the radios which my Aunt Mildred passed on to me from
his "radio shack", long cold now, and in need of TLC.
All have a heavy coat of dust, but I am pretty sure
they will clean up nicely. I have not looked up what
most of these do yet- if anyone can let me know their
true potential, I'd appreciate it...

To start with, a Hallicrafters "Sky Champion", which
appears to be a receiver;

Another Hallicrafters set, a "Super Sky Rider", which
appears to be a transmitter/receiver;

A Heathkit HX-20, which also appears to be a
transmitter/receiver, (along with a homebrew power
supply for it);

A Johnson Messenger 250 CB radio;

A brown bakelite or plastic RCA wedge shaped wall
speaker;

A nice CW key, looks like another nice one I have,
with ball bearing pivots;

And last, but not least, the one I had really, REALLY,
been hoping for, a Wells-Gardner BC-348Q, with a tag
marked "Equipment Development Lab", and which had been
given to him after he retired, by the RCA plant when
they were cleaning out their old storage. Having
looked inside this one quickly, I have high hopes for
some nice listening.

I intend to use these in my own "radio shack", along
with my Hallicrafters HT-37 & SX-111 Mk. 1

Thanks for reading along- hope you enjoyed the story:
I would have shown one of the radios, and told all
this  at RCA show and tell last month, but some
unforeseen circumstances occured.

Scott

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