[W1SMH] Fwd: [gars2] Fw: Fwd: K1USN MINI FLEA THIS SATURDAY AND MORE!

Wed Sep 25 12:41:19 EDT 2013

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: <marjon3 at comcast.net>
Date: Wed, Sep 25, 2013 at 11:10 AM
Subject: [gars2] Fw: Fwd: K1USN MINI FLEA THIS SATURDAY AND MORE!
To: Genesis Radio club <gars2 at yahoogroups.com>

 *From:* Pi Pugh <pi.k1rv at gmail.com>
*Date:* September 23, 2013, 11:10:39 PM EDT
*To:* K1WN-BILL <K1WN at aol.com>
*Subject:* *K1USN MINI FLEA THIS SATURDAY AND MORE!*

Hi gang,

I'm happy to announce that we are having an impromptu indoor  K1USN mini
flea market THIS Saturday, Sept 28th, from 9 AM - Noon. Admission is free
(of course!).

We recently had a number of large donations of radio gear, components, test
gear, computer systems and accessories, book, music CD's, meters, old
stuff, new (sorta) stuff as well as some commercial grade kitchen equipment
including a Bunn coffee maker, restaurant bagel toaster and water chilling
machine!

We really need to clean out the K1USN clubhouse room so that we can
complete installation and upgrades to our 3 HF stations, HF, 6 meter and 2
Meter AM vintage station and the Navy Vintage station.

Any proceeds from this mini flea will go directly into our station
improvements including the 3 new station computer systems currently being
installed by Larry, K1LJK.

If you have any items that you wish to donate to K1USN, this would be a
perfect opportunity to bring them. Please try to arrive before 9 AM so that
we can get them onto the tables. We already have 12 tables full of stuff,
but there is always room for more!

Please spread the word to anyone else you know who might be interested in
attending this Saturday to find those “hidden gems” at bargain prices.

**************************************************************

Steve, W1OD, our K1USN clothing guru expects to have a fresh supply of
K1USN tee shirts available this Saturday in a selection of sizes. If you
had previously placed an order with Steve there should be a shirt assigned
for you. Any others will be available for sale and all proceeds (after
costs) go to the K1USN station fund.  Drop an e-mail to Steve (w1od at arrl.net)
for details.

***************************************

*NEARFEST APPROACHETH*

- http://www.near-fest.com:8084/nearfest/
*GO TO “INFORMATION” ABOVE, AND FOLLOW THE LINKS.* *The New England Amateur
Radio Festival
(NEAR-Fest XIV)
at DEERFIELD Fairgrounds*
*Friday, October 11th, 0900 through Saturday, October 12th, 1500, 2013*

*NEAR-Fest XIV GRAND PRIZE DRAWING
ELECRAFT K-3 TRANSCEIVER*
*NEED NOT BE PRESENT TO WIN*

*************************************

Here is a very good article about W0CM and his XYL - K0EPE. I imagine that
Pete would be the "Last Man Standing" at the Dayton DXCC dinner!

Pi

**********************************

http://www.leaderandtimes.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=13327:century-of-memories&catid=12:local-news&Itemid=40

  *CENTURY of MEMORIES *

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Saturday, 14 September 2013 08:49

Pete Wessel has seen quite a bit in his first 100 years. L&T photo/Rachel
Coleman

100-year-old Peter Wessel went to see the world, and continues to make
friends

By RACHEL COLEMAN

• Leader & Times

At 100 years old, Walter “Pete” Wessel ponders each word and sticks to a
slow and steady pace. He and his wife, Marte, maintain an independent
lifestyle, tucked away in the Seward County countryside.

But make no mistake about it: Wessel is far from isolated. He is thoroughly
a citizen of the world.

“Pete is the second-ranked ham radio operator in the world,” Marte said.
“He’s talked to radio operators in 392 countries. He’s kind of world
famous.”

Wessel started talking on the radio 75 years ago, when he was a young
serviceman in the U.S. Navy.

The QSL cards verifying unique conversations adorn the Wessel “ham room,”
where the boxy radio equipment occupies the main portion of the space. In
addition to the record-setting roster of countries, Pete has accumulated
thousands of QSL cards. Amateur Radio Relay League.

A postcard-sized, written confirmation of communication between amateur
radio stations, the QSL is a bit like a baseball card or a Boy Scout badge:
it proves the radio operator has accomplished a specific task, and is on
the way to checking off an entire set. In Pete Wessel’s case, the set is
someone from every known country in the world.

That’s a far-reaching goal for a Nebraska boy born in the early years of
the past century. From an early age, though, Pete Wessel had a sense of
curiosity about the outside world. He wanted to go places.

“Nebraska City, Neb., was where I was born,” Pete said. “They had a
department store. My father didn’t do much work. My mother took care of the
store with my sister and her husband. They wanted me to work in it, and I
did it for a while.”

“He said he couldn’t stand it,” Marte added. “He wanted to drive a truck.”

Pete and Marte Wessel pose recently at their home in rural Seward County
shortly after Pete celebrated his 100th birthday. The retired trucker is
also a life-log ham radio operator and has talked with another operator in
every country in the world. L&T photos/Rachel Coleman

Indeed he did, though it took persistence. Pete’s mother did not want him
to take the wheel — “My mother wouldn’t teach me how. She’d reach over and
try to steer it,” he recalled — so he went to Watson Brothers truck yard,
where the drivers gave him lessons.

“I was still in high school,” he said. “I wanted to drive a truck.”

More than 80 years on, Pete’s eyes still gleam with a stubborn focus. Truck
driving, Marte says, “was his first love.”

Taking deliveries around rural Nebraska did not satisfy his desire for the
larger world. Before long, he’d enlisted in the U.S. Navy. The service took
him to Great Lakes Naval Base north of Chicago, San Diego, Calif., Ontario
and Corpus Christi, Texas. He fought in the Pacific Theater in World War
II. In 1945, he met Marte.

Looking at a photo collage she created for his 90th birthday, Marte recalls
the instant photo booth where they took their wedding picture.

“68 years ago, and I still absolutely adore him,” Marte said. Looking at
another black-and-white photograph, this one of a tall man in boxing
shorts, she added, “Wasn’t he a handsome person? He still is.”

After a short Navy posting in Olathe, Pete completed his service and
reentered civilian life. For a time, he worked at Monarch Airlines in
Denver, a company that had started in 1946 and offered flights in all
weather conditions in the region. Though the company offered a cutting-edge
type of excitement, Pete was restless at the job.

“He wanted to get back on the highway,” Marte said. “That’s how he ended up
with Yellow Freight.”

Driving for Yellow Freight, Pete soon transferred to Liberal, where he
drove the regular route back and forth to Albuquerque. In those days, Marte
pointed out, “they didn’t have those big highways with four lanes or six
lanes. Sometimes it was really dangerous.”

Pete relished the challenges.

“Pete was so great, he’d work on all the holidays so the other people could
stay home with their kids,” Marte said. “We’d celebrate whenever we could.
He’s just such a wonderful, honorable man, and such a fine person.
Everybody admires Pete.”

Though age has rubbed the sharp edges off his vocabulary, he recalls
specific trips and recounts them as though he’s seeing the past blur along
through the window of his cab. Remembering one winter trek, he recalled:

“I just barely got out of town, and things started happening in the
weather,” he said. “I can’t remember how long I was in that outfit, and I
got over to the edge of that part of the world, and there was a place where
you had to stop and check your load.

“I asked the people if I could take my outfit to the side and wait for
things to happen. They said, ‘No, you have to keep going.’” The road was
coated with black ice, and he crept along all day, “just barely moving, and
I can’t remember anyone else even being on the road. Well, that’s just part
of it.”

On her wall of memorabilia,

Marte included many photographs of the standard Yellow Freight double
trailers, with Pete in high spirits.

“Pete — the Trucker!” she wrote in magic marker, beneath one image.

When Pete retired, the couple purchased the overnight camper-park on Old
U.S. Hwy. 54. Marte scrubbed toilets, she joked, but Pete got all the fame.
When an amateur-radio magazine featured the Wessels for their long list of
calls, “they only wanted to talk to Peter.” That was all right, she added,
because he was the main one interested in the radio.

Along the way, however, Peter had shared his enthusiasm for ham radio
operation. When his interest in the hobby became serious, during the years
in Denver, Marte got involved. Today, she leads a group for young ladies,
handing off the hobby to a new generation. It’s not the first time: Both
Wessels recall the friendship they formed with a neighbor boy in Denver.
George, whose father “didn’t think much of radio,” Peter said, took to the
airwaves with zest. Decades later, he places a weekly phone call to the
Wessels to catch up.

“He’s a nice boy,” Peter said. “He’s only 65.”

His traveling days behind him, Pete is happy, at last, to stay close to
home. What does he enjoy most about his everyday life at the century mark?

He answers with a wry laugh: “Just sitting here.”

When the radio isn’t humming with scheduled calls and meet-ups, the couple
enjoy watching sports on television, usually football and basketball. They
keep up with current events, comforted by the knowledge that their ham
radio connects them with the world, and gives them the ability to help
others when emergencies threaten.

“They use ham radios in all kinds of emergencies,” she said. “If all the
power goes out, we can get on with our generators to help.”

The Internet, Peter and Marte said, holds little appeal.

“We already have friends all over the world,” she said.

“If I’m not mistaken, some people might have passed my record,” Peter said,
“but we keep making calls.”

The calls kept flowing in on Aug. 28, when Pete officially passed the
100-year mark. With cards from the radio groups and friends and family
offering best wishes in person, Peter celebrated in style. More than 50
people attended his birthday party, and had plenty of time to peruse the
wall of photos, a record of one person’s life history.

Marte has already made plans to assemble an additional poster to add to the
story. She  stood back and examined the laminated posters that lined the
garage wall.

“It’s wonderful to have all these memories,” she said. “This is his life.”

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