[South Florida DX Association] Uncle Leo to All - Leo Meyerson, WØGFQ SK

[Bill]

 From The ARRL Contest Update:

I had those QSL cards...every Novice did. I still have His personal QSL 
card from a contact with him in 1958.
Bill Marx W2CQ


Uncle Leo to All

I got into the ham radio game a few years too late for the reign of 
World Radio Labs gear but my Novice QSL collection included many cards 
from other Novices bearing that self-confidence-building "My QTH" arrow 
pointing right to your station's location. (My QSLs were from the Little 
Print Shop.) It is now, much later, that I am learning more about what 
Leo Meyerson, WØGFQ who passed away last week at the age of 100, meant 
to so many. I pass the editorial baton to my friend Rich Strand, KL7RA, 
for his wistfully wry recollections of his relationship with "Uncle Leo".

73, Ward NØAX

Ham radio lost one of its finest members last week when Leo Meyerson, 
WØGFQ went Silent Key. At a recent gathering to help him celebrate his 
100th birthday he mentioned he really didn't do that much for the hobby 
but as a young teenager with a new Novice license I can tell you that he 
did.

We called him "Uncle Leo" and he owned the magic ham radio store across 
the mighty Missouri river from Omaha, Nebraska [where Rich lived - Ed.] 
in Council Bluffs, Iowa. Every weekend I and my friends would try to 
make the pilgrimage to the World Radio Laboratories (WRL) just to walk 
the aisles of ham radio "stuff" and it was packed with "stuff". Of 
course all the famous WRL gear like the Globe King, Scouts and Chiefs 
with the Galaxy line, but also "stuff". All kinds of surplus military 
receivers and just about anything you could imagine as a kid but had no 
chance of buying ever in your life.

You may recall this video of G7VJR working K3LR with 0.1 watts on 40 
meters - the two finally got to meet in person (G7VJR - left, K3LR - 
right) at the Visalia International DX Convention. (Photo by NØAX)

On the way out the door there was a large wooden box of crystals. All on 
7173.333 kc and every Novice within three hundred miles had that 
frequency. It was Uncle Leo who told me not to keep the xtal's on top of 
the hot transmitter but to use his xtal holder case. I believe he also 
made xtals and I would skip lunch at school, so to speak, to have the 
few bucks to buy a new freq each visit. Back then a man's worth was 
measured in the number of rocks he had on the chief operating desk.

I bought a pair of headphones, probably WW2 B-29, and at 8 pounds with a 
head clamp pressure of 15 lbs per square inch just a tad uncomfortable. 
Uncle Leo to the rescue. I was able to find in the WRL the solution. 
What appeared to be toilet plunger cups were really headphone cushions 
that fit the B29 headset perfect. And they were cheap. No mention of the 
fact they caused your ears to sweat and the cups would heat weld to the 
side of your head and soon dispense an awful smell. They worked great.

WRL had copperweld wire. I was going to be cheap and buy the 18 gauge 
but finally did things right for once and bought the 12. Very heavy roll 
tightly wound in a surprisingly small package. Trying to get the 
exploded slinky of wire out of my bedroom that evening is best described 
by my mom. I had the world's first 80 meter dipole that was only 20 feet 
long counting the "coils" and even after some high Nebraska winds didn't 
really stretch out that much.

Uncle Leo would give a Novice a free WAS map, in color. If you can find 
a 1950-60's copy of Popular Electronics, look for the "Novice of the 
Month" column and often you would see that map on their shack wall. I 
hope all of you who covered Uncle Leo's picture with your QSL card have 
a few moments of guilt. I did.

The hams reading this from the 50-60's who knew Uncle Leo and the WRL, 
maybe got your first rig or built one of his transmitter kits and 
continued on in ham radio to be contesters, will recognize what he did 
for the hobby and we say, "73 Uncle Leo, BEST DX OM SK."

73, Rich KL7RA