[QCWA Hotlist] Fwd: QCWA Chapter 119 Meeting on Friday, March 20

[Vic Culver]

Greetings QCWA Members.  The March meeting of QCWA Chapter 119 will be 
held on Friday, March 20, 2015 at Frankie's Place for Ribs, 5200 
Fairfield Shopping Center (intersection of Providence and Kempsville 
roads) in beautiful downtown Virginia Beach (Kempsville borough).  This 
is our regular meeting place and we will meet at our regular meeting 
time:  12:00 noon.

The weather forecast indicates the possibility of gentle Spring rain 
with temperatures in the low to mid-50's.  That's pretty good as 
compared with the weather conditions with which we have had to contend 
over the past several months.  Let's hope for a good turn-out.

There will be entertainment and a short program.  Vic, W4VIC, will 
provide a brief entertainment clip that is guaranteed to lift spirits, 
and the official program for the day is a video clip suggested by our 
Vice President Ed entitled _Amateur Radio Today_ hosted by our own 
Walter Cronkite, KB2GSD, now a SK.

Just for your enlightenment, here is the story about how Walter became 
an Amateur Radio Operator.  This excerpted material has been printed in 
many locations and is available in a longer treatment on the WWW.  
Thanks for the tip, Pete, NL7XM.  You are indeed a walking encyclopedia!

How Walter Cronkite, KB2GSD, became an Amateur Radio Operator


Steve Mendelsohn, W2ML, was Cronkite's radio engineer at CBS for many 
years. ''I had many chances to discuss my favorite hobby, ham radio, 
with 'the world's most trusted anchor man,''' Steve reported. 
''Gradually, his interest increased, but on finding that he had to pass 
a Morse code test, he balked, saying it was too hard for him; however, 
he told me he had purchased a receiver and listened to the Novice bands 
every night for a few minutes."


At the CBS Radio Network, Walter would arrive 10 minutes before we went 
on the air to read his script aloud, make corrections for his style of 
grammar and just 'get in the mood' to do the show. In those days Rich 
Moseson, W2VU, was the producer of a show called ''_In the News_,'' a 3 
minute television show for children voiced by CBS Correspondent 
Christopher Glenn. On this day, Rich was at the Broadcast Center to 
record Chris' voice for his show and had dropped by my control room to 
discuss some upcoming ARRL issues.'' At the time, Mendelsohn was the 
ARRL Hudson Division Director.


''When Walter walked into the studio, I started to set the show up at 
the behest of our director, Dick Muller, WA2DOS,''Mendelsohn recalled. 
''In setting up the tape recorders, I had to send tone to them and make 
sure they were all at proper level. Having some time, I grabbed ''The 
New York Times'' and started sending code with the tone key on the audio 
console. For 10 minutes I sent code and noticed Walter had turned his 
script over and was copying it.


We went to air, as we did every day, at 4:50 PM and after we were off, 
Walter brought his script into the control room. Neatly printed on the 
back was the text I had sent with the tone key. Rich and I looked at the 
copy, he nodded, and I told Walter that he had just passed the code 
test. He laughed and asked when the formal test was, but I reminded him 
that it took two general class licensees to validate the test and he had 
just passed the

code. Several weeks later he passed the written test and the FCC issued 
KB2GSD to the most trusted anchorman in America.''


Mendelsohn helped Cronkite make his first Amateur Radio contact:  
"Having passed the licensing test, Walter was now ready to get on the 
air.  His first QSO was on 10 meters about 28.390 MHz.  He was nervous 
and I called him on the phone to talk him through his first experience.  
As we talked on the air, a ham from the Midwest came on and called me.  
Acknowledging him, I asked the usual questions about where he was from, 
wanting to give Walter a bit of flavor of what the hobby was about.  I 
turned it over to Walter, and following his introduction, the gentleman 
in the Midwest said, 'That's the worst Walter Cronkite imitation I've 
ever heard.'


I suggested that maybe it was Walter and the man replied, 'Walter 
Cronkite is not even a ham, and if he was, he certainly wouldn't be here 
on 10 meters.'  Walter and I laughed for weeks at that one."



So that's how KB2GSD came to be an amateur radio operator. He was not a 
ham nearly long enough to qualify for QCWA membership, but had he 
continued I'm sure he would have been nominated and inducted as a QCWA 
member.



Let's have a great turn-out for the meeting on Friday.  Friends or 
relatives visiting?  Treat them to a nice lunch and a exposure to 
fabulous QCWA fellowship.  My sister from the frozen North lands  will 
be there, so don't miss that!  Visiting our area, perhaps on an early 
vacation?  What better way to spend a Friday afternoon than visiting a 
thriving QCWA Chapter meeting.  I hope to see you there if you can be 
there.  73,  Vic, W4VIC