[SFDXA] “The Mail Must Get Through” - Joe K8MP

Bill bmarx at bellsouth.net
Mon Mar 23 12:14:16 EDT 2020 

/A very interesting Story from the CWops Group. One man's search to 
return a QSL card, for one sent to him 40 years ago...several 
interesting responses as well. I'm not sure others can read it so I 
included a few responses. - Bill W2CQ/

*January 2009: The Search for WA8RQQ*
Howdy from Joe’s Place…
*“The Mail Must Get Through”*
On Christmas Day, my brother, one of my sisters, and I were going 
through some old greeting cards and letters my mom had saved over the 
years. Many of them were from the ‘60’s. We kids had mailed them while 
we were in college, in the military, or in some cases, just gallivanting 
around the country, maybe in search of Woodstock or Monterrey. I had 
forgotten what a prolific letter writer I was in those days. There was a 
3-inch stack just from me.  (After reading some of what I wrote, I don’t 
think I’d wanna go back to that time in my life again)
Anyway, as I was shuffling through the envelopes, a QSL card appeared. 
It was from a QSO that took place in 1966 but the card wasn’t mailed 
until ’68, after I was in the Navy. Mom probably put it in with the 
letters thinking she’d give it to me when I was home on leave. Instead, 
the card sat in a drawer, unread and unanswered, for over 40 years.
WA8RQQ front.jpg

The card’s design immediately caught my attention. I had my own cards 
with the same design in the mid-60’s. They were available to members of 
The QRP Amateur Radio Club, which I had joined.
In the years since that time, I had sometimes wondered what had become 
of the group. I couldn’t even remember my membership number after all 
those years. But, a flip of the card and Wow !!!  The sender had written 
my QRP club number on it. Now the wheels were really turning in my 
brain. I had to try and contact WA8RQQ and tell him the story and then 
see if my 40-plus year old membership in the QRP A.R.C. was still valid 
(Dream on Joe…)
WA8RQQ back.jpg

By the way, back when the QRP A.R.C. was new, anything under 100 watts 
was considered “QRP.” Anything under 5 watts was nick-named “QRPP.” 
Membership in the club was based on a commitment to make all QSO’s 
running 100 watts or less. Since my old Heathkit DX-40 was incapable of 
putting out 100 watts, and I had no amp, the QRP club was a great fit 
for me.
OK, back to the present:
I looked up WA8RQQ on qrz.com and found nothing, not even under the “Old 
calls” link. I wondered if “Eddie.” was even still alive. Next I tried 
an internet search and got two hits. One was from Geocities, regarding 
“Old QSL cards.”  Heck, I already had one of those, so that didn’t help. 
The other was from a commercial web site for a company WA8RQQ had formed 
in 1971. In a “Company history” section, it mentioned how Ed had become 
interested in Ham radio and that an uncle who was a Ham became his 
Elmer. From that history section, I also found out Ed was 11 months 
younger than me, so he was probably still “’Live and kickin’”
Check out the below link for more info his Ed’s Ham history, including 
his days with the OSU Ham club, etc.
http://www.hymarkconsulting.com/history.html
Now, back to my quest to find him:
I sent an email to the “Contact us” link but it got kicked back. Another 
link on the site was an image of Ed’s business card.
Aha !!! It had a phone number. I called and got a lady’s voice on the 
answering machine. I didn’t leave a message. I figured I had other paths 
to explore before possibly upsetting the XYL of a potential “silent key.”
I went back to qrz.com and searched by name. Perhaps the most likely 
scenario was that Ed had changed his call at some point. Well, I 
couldn’t believe how many Hams were named “Winkle.” I had to narrow 
things somehow, so I tried searching for his town name. After all, how 
many Hams could there be in Sardinia, Ohio, a place I’d never heard of? 
Well, there weren’t any “Winkle” Hams there, but there were a lot of 
Hams with other last names. Maybe it was something in Sardinia’s water.
At this point I was starting to feel like I was just spinning my wheels. 
I went back to the business card image on Hy-Mark’s web site to get that 
phone number. Upon closer inspection, I noticed it had a different email 
address than the “contact us” link and also a different town than what 
was on the QSL card.  No wonder I hadn’t been getting anywhere!!!
I called the number again and this time the lady answered. I asked for 
Ed Winkle and explained why I was trying to contact him. She said they 
had had that phone number for years and that about once a year someone 
would call and ask for Ed Winkle. She always wondered where they people 
got the wrong number from. I told her, “I can explain that part. Ed’s 
old number is on a web site, so the calls may keep coming for a while.”
The phone call had been another dead-end but I had a new town to search 
in for “Winkle” Hams (Blanchester, Ohio) and a new email address to try. 
I sent another email and figured while I waited for a reply I’d check 
out Blanchester Hams. After all, how many Hams could there be in another 
town I’d never heard of?
Well, there were /only 37 of them/! How could there be that many Hams in 
a town whose population was just over 4,000 people? Also, several of the 
listings were for non-US calls. I came to the conclusion that this Ed 
Winkle guy must have fathered a ton of new Hams in both Sardinia and 
Blanchester and was also a QSL-manager for some foreign Hams. Well, this 
was all interesting stuff, but */STILL NO ED !!!/*
I still had my ace-in-the-hole though. My second email hadn’t been 
kicked back, so there was hope. Then, on December 29^th , I got a phone 
call from /The Man/ himself. I explained the whole story and we talked 
about what we were both doing now. At some point, Ed had gotten out of 
the hobby, but was tickled to hear about his long-lost QSL card. And 
yes, he had been the one who brought all those Hams in Sardinia and 
Blanchester into the hobby.
Before we said “good bye”, I apologized for the /slight/ delay in 
replying to his card. Afterwards, I scanned his QSL from ’68 and emailed 
it to him. I wish I had some of my own old cards so I could reply in the 
proper way.
Regarding the QRP A.R.C., I googled it and found one called QRP A.R.C.I.
“Sounds close enough to me”, I thought.
“Heck, it could very well be the same group, just 40 years removed, from 
the one I had joined in the ‘60’s.” I did a member look-up using my old 
call and voila, there I was, (along with a request that I renew my 
inactive membership)
Wow, those guys kept good records.
Well, I suppose that about covers it.
Ed and I have exchanged a few emails since we talked. Who knows? Maybe 
this will re-kindle his interest in Amateur Radio. Perhaps it’s fitting 
that I reimburse this deserving gentleman, who produced so many Hams 
over the years, by introducing him to Ham Radio in the 21^st century.
I hope you all enjoyed reading this story as much as I enjoyed living it.
See you all next month…      At Joe’s Place.




Bill Gilliland WØTG
Mar 22 #37823 <https://cwops.groups.io/g/main/message/37823>

Great story Joe! I have fond memories of those days and have this 
membership certificate framed and proudly displayed on my wall.

A screenshot of a cell phone Description automatically generated

I too have spent a lot of time searching for friends from those times 
with little success. I’m happy your search worked out. I have thousands 
of QSLs and looked for yours among them, but guess we didn’t have a QSO 
or we didn’t exchange QSLs. These days I really enjoy the memories that 
those old QSLs hold.

Thanks for sharing your story!

73, Bill WØTG

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Joe K8MP
Mar 22 #37827 <https://cwops.groups.io/g/main/message/37827>

It's awesome that you saved that certificate Bill.
My number was 1246.

Joe


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David Yockey
Mar 22 #37828 <https://cwops.groups.io/g/main/message/37828>

I used to know Ed quite well.  I actually helped him get his license 
initially in Sardinia. The last place I know he lived was just east of 
Blanchester.  He taught agriculture there.  If you contact him more say 
hello for me and find out where he lives now.  He is a little younger 
than me.  Dave Yockey, K8CMO
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Don Murray
Mar 22 #37829 <https://cwops.groups.io/g/main/message/37829>

WOW...

The WA8RQQ story gets more fascinating as the time goes by!

It is indeed a small world, even when
ham radio is involved.

Now I need to dig out my QRP Club
Certificate, #56 as K4FMA was known in the day!

73
Don
W4WJ
#654



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Joe K8MP
Mar 22 #37830 <https://cwops.groups.io/g/main/message/37830>

Great Dave. You added a lot to the story by telling about being Ed's elmer.

It turned out one of the guys in our local club also knew Ed back in the 
day, in the OSU ham club.

I was hoping to find Ed's contact info for you but apparently I didn't 
save it.

Take care, Joe


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Joe K8MP
Mar 22 #37831 <https://cwops.groups.io/g/main/message/37831>

This keeps getting better and better Don!

Maybe Hiram Percy Maxim will weigh in next. HI HI

Later, Joe


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