[QCWA] Fiction - sort of

[Bill Metzger]

Dan,

What a great story!

While I am not a member of QCWA (I should be though after 31 years of being 
a ham) I continually read all the postings.  Yours in particular brought 
back memories of my own childhood in Northern New Jersey.  Once day I was 
hiking in the woods in back of my parents house and found this unusual pole 
in the middle of nowhere.  It was about 6 inches round and seemed to be 60 
or 80 feet high (I was only about 13 at the time so it was pretty darn high 
to me).  At the top there was a wire.  I followed this and came across a 
house on the next street.  In all the wire was pretty darn long.  At the end 
there was another one of the poles with ladder-line leading down to a glass 
enclosed porch.  Being a kid, I went up to the house and knocked on the 
door.  An older German gentleman came to the door and I asked him about the 
wire.  That was the beginning of my interest in Ham Radio.  He brought me 
into his "shack" and there was all this equipment, some of which was about 6 
feet high.  He had a full Collins line, receiver, transmitter and I remember 
a floor mounted amplifier which was a Henry.

I spent a number of hours with him listening to stations around the world. 
Several times he took me into his basement where he had all sorts of 
electronic equipment.  He would always give me something that I liked.  At 
one point he gave me a glass tube that was about 24 inches tall and 4 inches 
round.  I kept it for years but now have no idea where it went.  Sure wish I 
had it today.  Unfortunately I don't remember his call or for that matter 
his name.  I'm sure he is long gone.

My second Elmer, and the one who really got me going was Hank Clark, W2IQ 
(K2DS).  Hank lived about 3 miles from my apartment in Totowa, NJ.  One day 
I pulled out an old receiver and was tuning around when I heard some very 
loud CW.  I slowly got all the letters down, went to the local radio store 
and looked up his address in the callbook.  I visited Hank and spent a lot 
of time with him.  He is the one who gave me my Novice test.  Hank was into 
AM and had a BC-610.  What a neat unit.  He had Collins and TenTec equipment 
and even loaned me his Omni D when he went on vacation.  Hank could carry on 
a CW conversation with someone while he chatted with me.  Unbelievable to me 
yet today.

I eventually moved away and learned that Hank had moved to Tennessee (near 
TenTec).  I corresponded infrequently and lost contact for quite a few 
years.  Recently I found that he passed away a few years ago in a fall. 
I've found pictures of him on the internet and was going to change my call 
to his in memory of the great conversations we had.  That call is now the 
club call to which he belonged.  Fitting for a man who gave so much to me 
and others.

Well, this is the new year and my first reminiscing.  Again, your story was 
great and brought back these memories.

By-the-way, any relation to any Metzger's from the Long Island, New York 
area?

Bill KF0OH (now St. Louis)