[SFDXA] New Website Offers Treasure Trove of Vintage Ham Radio Photos, QSL Cards

Bill bmarx at bellsouth.net
Sat Mar 8 21:56:11 EST 2014


    New Website Offers Treasure Trove of Vintage Ham Radio Photos, QSL
    Cards

The grandson of Thomas "Tom" Russell Gentry, W5RG (SK), has developed a 
*website* <http://w5rg.donretzlaff.com/> that is certain to be of  
interest to vintage radio enthusiasts. Don Retzlaff, who is not a ham, 
said his grandfather was among the earliest Amateur Radio operators, 
getting his license in the early 1920s --- at one point identifying as 
NU5RG --- and remaining active until he died in 1979. The W5RG call sign 
has since been reissued.

"He collected QSL cardsfrom other amateur operators all through his 
life," Retzlaff said of his grandfather, some 5700 in all. "In recent 
years I became interested in those cards and my grandfather's hobby."

With the help of his father Donald Retzlaff, W5MIY, Retzlaff located all 
of the QSLs as well as other memorabilia documenting his grandfather's 
ham radio activities and his time in the Army Air Corps shortly after 
World War I. He painstakingly scanned both sides of each card along with 
dozens of photos of now-vintage stations --- many with operators --- 
that his grandfather had collected and posted them all on a website 
dedicated to his grandfather and his life as an Amateur Radio operator.

Among other features, the site offers an opportunity to leave comments. 
"This has definitely been a labor of love," said Retzlaff, who retired 
this year as a Principal Lecturer in the Computer Science Department at 
the University of North Texas.

  From ARRL News:
http://www.arrl.org/news/new-website-offers-treasure-trove-of-vintage-ham-radio-photos-qsl-cards



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