The AM Forum

I attended an annual QCWA picnic today in the Parkesburg Pennsylvania area, west of Philadelphia.  This property was originally the QTH of Harry Davis W3FDY, SK.  Then the QTH was bought by Bill Finley W3FEA SK, and now owned by Woody W3TTW.

Harry was a mainstay on 75 meters AM in the Philadelphia area.  Many of us who grew up in the 1950's and 1960's listened to Harry on the air with "super modulation".

The property is on the ridge of a good sized hill.  There are 5 masts with many wire antennas including a Sterba curtain.  Several vertical antennas and 1 or more repeaters.

Below is a photo of his shack in true early radio meaning :

I used to work Harry often during the 60's, before I got my first SSB rig, an HW-100. I was then living in NJ.

Walt

Tom,

When I was a very young JN and only had a Star-Lite A-120 five tube 4 band shortwave receiver with a whip on the back for an antenna that I got for Christmas in 1964, one of the first stations I heard was Harry W3FDY. He had one of the best sounding signal and the strongest on 75 meters. I remember getting home from school and running to my room just to see if I could hear Harry on the air and who he was talking to. I would listen to him for hours on end and just be fasinated with his antics and stories. I never got to work or meet Harry or vist his shack, but he influenced me tremendustly in becoming an amateur, pilot and doing radio for a living. I have seen some pictures of his shack and of Harry, but really feel that I missed meeting person that to me was larger than life.

Many memories for sure......
Besides Harry, I used to listen to W3EBM..........3 empty beer mugs

Me too....I think he was in Scranton....he was running a Johnson Desk KW...Wow! what a signal into Indiana back in 1959-60.  Brings back fond memories.

73,  Jack, W9GT

W3EGC (3 Empty Garbage Cans), Scranton.

Steve,
That should have been 3 FULL garbage cans............
What ever happened to him??????

Bill

Sorry!  Definitely not the same guy!!!  I'm sure there are (were) multiple hams in Scranton.

73,  Jack, W9GT

Jack,
No NO NO....not the same guy.......I guess u were never splattered by egc! Thats a joke between us folks on the east coast!!!

Yes!  I have been, that is the point...NOT the same guy as EBM  :o ;D

73,  Jack, W9GT

W3EBM was Roger, who lived in the western suburbs of Philadelphia also.  I did not know Roger but as a kid at Field Day in the 1960's I do remember club members talking about him.

Harry W3FDY was the radio mentor for young Joe WA3GMS (now W3GMS) and others.

Last I heard about  Johnnie, EGC, he was confined in a NUT HOUSE!

Bill, W3DUQ, keeps in touch with a cousin of  his but I haven't ask Bill lately
what is happening with him.

Now there's a surprise... ::)

I was just notified that I was a bad boy by the original poster of this thread........
I will not make anymore posts about egc....even though it was not me that brought him up.


Sorry,
Bill 

OK Tom,
Understood......I will remove them.

Tom,
My purpose was NOT to degenerate the topic of the post.....Im sure u read my first post............many memories.... anyway I removed the stuff u dont like.,
Bill

Thanks Bill.

Things kinda deteriorated in the discussion, but I wanted to call attention to that little stand-alone ham shack.  That is really cool and I wouldn't mind having something like that myself.  I think such outboard ham shacks used to be fairly common.  Might be a little unhandy in the winter though....wading thru snow to get to the shack and having to provide heating and cooling, as well as ....perhaps....some plumbing capabilities.  How many times, however, I have longed for some way to be able to operate in the "wee hours" without disturbing the household.  The out-building would surely provide that capability.  Only problem is...especially in the city...might take an Act of Congress to get the necessary permits or approvals to build such a structure.  At least presently...we don't have any tower restrictions, but ya never know.  I wouldn't want to call too much attention to the situation by adding another questionable structure to the back yard.  Anyway...sure looks like a nice little shack!

73,  Jack, W9GT

That is a cute little ham shack, but I don't think I could get many of my rigs to fit inside.

Mine is 24' X 32' with 12' ft. ceiling.  I have to wade through mud in winter, and occasionally, snow.  Heating it to a cosy warm temperature is out of the question, since it would be roughly equivalent to heating the interior of a barn, so I only strive to get the chill off with a propane heater, and use a small electric radiant heater near the operating position for comfort.  If I tried to warm the whole thing above about 60° in cold wx, the gauge on the propane tank would descend towards zero about like the second-hand on a watch.  A  couple of ceiling fans and on hot days, a window air unit, keep it tolerable in summer.

No plumbing.  Plumbing in the main house is PITA enough to maintain, especially when it drops below about 16° F and pipes start freezing.  But the purpose is adequately served by the open space behind the shack.  I like being able to turn up the volume on the receiver at 3 AM without waking up everyone else in the house.

I live out in the country outside city limits, and no permit was needed for the 127' tower, but I did get a permit (no questions asked) for the house mover to relocate the building onto my property in 1990.

Jack said:
I had one of those shacks. It served double duty. Half housing the mower and other gardening implements of destruction. The other side was a 8'X12' room that became my ham shack. Those of you will recall references to the "steaming holly bush". I ditch the shack for reasons as Don stated. No plumbing and no heat. I would have to fire up the filaments about 2 hours prior to transmitting in order for it to be sufficiently warm ;) Tom, any pictures of the inside of this guys shack?

I suggest you add some partitions to separate the operating position from the rest of the space: you might be pleasantly surprised, as I was, at how much difference a roll of R-17 makes.

73,

Bill W1AC

Alan,

Wow, I had never seen that picture of me operating Harry's rig before!  If you could send both of those in jpeg format to me I would like to get them printed! 

Alan is already aware of all of this but for those that don't here is a summarized version. Other's on the board maybe would not have the insight into Harry's giving generous nature in passing along wisdom. 

Harry, W3FDY was not only a mentor to me, but to other kid's as we were growing up.  We called ourselves "The Friday Niters".  Harry and his lovely wife Marian would open up their home to us each and every Friday night and this went on for years.  CW classes in the kitchen and theory in the living room.  The dinning room was reserved for food which Marian always kept well stocked for us.  Harry guided not only my Ham Radio path, but was equally influential in guiding me professionally as well.  He was a very positive influence on all of the Friday Niters and as a group we were extremely fortunate to have a guy like Harry guide us.
 
Harry and Roger, W3EBM were great friends.  I will never forget Roger talking about the Western Electric "Salt Shaker" microphone.  Harry had many good friends and some may remember these calls which are just a sampling of the folks that would come up and visit Harry---W3SCC, KZ3AB before Al had that new call, George W3YAM-later W3OW, Jake W3QQV, Bob Lewis W2EBS, Sam (Floyd) K3DUM, and many others. 

Harry was always pushing the envelope with bigger antennas and not only building big rigs but developing new topologies that always had a clever twist. 
As you can tell he truly was my second father!  One of the greatest things he did was to teach you how to think.  He would not give you the answer to a question but talk you through the thought process and have you come up with the answer yourself. 

Sorry for the long post but I could not resist telling all the tremendous impact he had on many of us...

Joe, W3GMS   

Alan,
Yes we were all a lot younger.  A lot of water over the dam since then!  I still have that photo from the Daily Local News.   Bob Wick, formerly WA3JYT, now N2HM is due to stop up this week.  I have a sprained ankle and he offered to do some antenna climbing work for me up at the old W3FDY site.  When the old gang gets together Harry is still the major topic of conversation.
Joe, W3GMS who is now 57!
 

Wow,
Thats Roger? Its funny to actually see the guy I used to listen to almost 40 years ago but never met.
Thanks for all pics guys.

Bill

Hi Joe,

Nice words, indeed.

It is particularly refreshing to hear of a man (and apparently Marian as well) who was so unselfish and giving to those who were of a younger generation than he. Obviously, Harry made such a profound positive impression on you and several others to the point where career paths were influenced by his mentoring. I suspect this was one of his goals all along, and we could all use more men like Harry nowadays, regardless of the field of interest.

He must have been quite a guy. I do vividly recall listening to him on 75M on my parents Sony all-band transistor radio in the late '60s just before I obtained my license. Harry was truly a member of what Tom Brokaw called "the Greatest Generation" in his book of the same title. A real Renaissance man by all accounts; a pilot, radio amateur, volunteer police officer, etc. Apparently a man who gave his time back to his community as well.

It has been my experience that the most interesting people in this world are those who are intensely and passionately interested in many different things, versus perhaps only one or two different things.

I for one would have liked to have known him.

Thanks for sharing this.

Best 73,

Bruce

No Bill, read the statement just above the pix.  It  is a very young Joe Fell, 10 years after the first pix, at the  same operating position abet with a more modern receiver.

By that time the old HQ129  had been replaced and some other stuff added like the
OS-8 mini-scope...

Read and comprehend!

My mistake...............regardless.....the pics are great.

Bill

For those that do not know the folks in the various pictures, let me list them to avoid any confusion.

First Picture-Harry, W3FDY

Second Picture-was me when I was 17 years old operating Harry's station.  Harry had a bad fire and that was his turning point in going from AM to SSB.  He converted the push pull 250 amp to a pair of 3-500Z's in grounded grid push pull.  It was very stable but took plenty of drive.  On top of the Globe Champ was either a Galaxy GT-300 or 350 and later went to a GT -550 as a driver for the GG push pull 3-500Z amp.  Harry ran lots of plate voltage on the tubes and he never just bought a pair of tubes.  He always bought in bulk!  He loved watching the Wide Vue Simpson meter swing when he drove it!  He had lots of air on them and they really put out the soup!  In the picture is still one corner of the Globe Champ along with the HQ-129X along with the mini scope which later he put a Styrofoam cup with the bottom cut out to compensate for the aging CRT!  On top of the HQ-129X was a homebrew audio mixer he built.  He used that with his Hi Fi system as well.  It had RIAA along with NAB tape equalization built in.  The original mic was a EV 630 and later he switched to EV 635A's.  Behind the chair was a Viking tape recorded that replaced the original record cutting machine.  The monitor speaker which was driven from an Ultra Linear Williamson tube amplifier was also used as an audio driver when he had the Push Pull 450's as modulators. 

When I first met Harry, I was 13 years old.  My Dad was in the insurance business and he sold Harry a family policy.  My Dad heard him on my Silvertone floor model radio and said "I know that guy" .  I said do you think you could introduce me to him and he said sure.  After I met Harry he stopped by my parents place with one of his early Cadillac's and took me up to his radio location which was west of where he and his wife lived in West Chester.  I will never forget when he said I could sit behind the desk and operate at that time the big KW on AM!!!  I can still hear the contactors when I hit the transmit switch.  Talk about being on cloud 9 and being nervous at the same time! 

The 3rd picture posted is one that the local newspaper took of the Friday Nighters.  From left to right...
Seated is Harry, W3FDY
Standing L to R is  Bert-WA3JYU, Chuck-now NA3CW, Bob-now N2HM and lastly me W3GMS

Hope that helps...

Bruce, thanks for your kind works.  I need to document the Harry story since he gave us so much.  As he aged he constantly told us how much he got from us and thanked us for how we helped him out so much.  That was typical of Harry!  I told him, no it was the other way around.  He gave us his time and wisdom and we are indeed indebted to you.  He would smile but was unwilling to accept any credit.  Its a real shame his heath turned bad.  He passed away way to young.  He was sharp and still thinking about new ways to do things right up until the end.  From what I know he passed away very peacefully. 

Joe, W3GMS             

Joe, would you be willing to write up some of your memories so we can place them here for posterity? Maybe we can start a new section for Elmers or influencial hams of our early days.

Steve,
I would be happy to do that.  You can tell that Harry was one special guy and I owe so much to him.  It would be good to document the story.  I will send it to you and you can post it as you see fit. 
Thanks,
Joe

We have a similar building on our property, and I've been eying it as a shack ever since I got here, but Maggie rents it out to the shoobies for $500 a month in the summer, and I can't afford the rent. Maybe someday that'll be Studio B.

Johnny is at the Funny farm? Not surprising.

For clarification, Shoobies are folks from Pennsylvania who visit the Jersey shore.

Excellent! It's not only a good story, it's a good example for all of us. It's doubtful we'll ever see a major influx of newbies into the hobby again, but we can help what newbies we get - quality over quantity.

That's pretty cool.  What a team. Harry sounded well organized and made it a fun time. You guys were lucky to have his guidance. 

Wish I had someone like him to advise me back then. Maybe I wouldn't have chosen an ungrounded Gotham vertical to call CQ on 3716 for three days - with no answers ... ;D

T

What a wonderful thread, and what wonderful stories!   


I remember some of those calls from back in the mid/late sixties, just before I got my ticket!  (I got it in July of 1969.)  I'm of the  same  vintage as those "kids" in the newspaper photo - I'm 58.  I was 18, when I got my ticket.

Boy, I'd love to hear some recordings from back then!

Hi folks!

Residential ham stations were around as early as 1910, my grandfather had his station in a room in his parents house.

Harry's shack had a telephone and power, no running water. I suspect the power was 220 split phase. The shack wasn't heated, and the air conditioner ran all year round. The amplifier provided more than enough heat even in winter, the door was generally left open until Harry installed an air conditioner.

Interestingly, this holds true even today with cellular telephone sites.


It certainly did garner attention, as posted elsewhere in this discussion someone set fire to it in the 1960s, causing extensive damage. Also, the local neighbors would occasionally become unruly and vandalize the property. Fortunately that ended.

It's located along a ridge about 3 miles north of Parkesburg, PA. The elevated location helped propagation. Here's a satellite view of the site:
http://tinyurl.com/kuf8eb

Since it was a large lot by today's standards, it was an ideal location for field day. Here are a few images from our photo collection:
(http://i147.photobucket.com/albums/r290/PA_Rifleman/web_page_images/field_day_1967/small/HIDatshack-fieldday1966-67.jpg?t=1244599735)
Harry in front of the shack. The white object on the right is an old single-insulated refrigerator. Turning the plug over in the receptacle electrified the housing, which ensured lunch was still there at noontime.(Field Day 1967)
(http://i147.photobucket.com/albums/r290/PA_Rifleman/web_page_images/field_day_1967/small/RonBaileyHydrogenballoon-fieldday19.jpg)
Here's a 160M balloon lifted vertical being assembled. I'm the scrawny kid on the left. (Field Day 1967)
(http://i147.photobucket.com/albums/r290/PA_Rifleman/web_page_images/field_day_1967/small/1966-fieldday-radhydrogenballoon.jpg)
Here I'm about to get a hydrogen balloon tied to my arm. I think this topic appears in the same book about childhood of yore, walking barefoot to school in the snow (uphill both ways), ate dirt and grateful for it, etc. (Field day 1967)
(http://i147.photobucket.com/albums/r290/PA_Rifleman/web_page_images/field_day_1967/small/FieldDay1967.jpg)
Here's the article about field day 1967 that appeared in our local newspaper.

It was an interesting experience having Harry as a father. Is it any surprise I specialize in disaster recovery in the cellular telephone industry?

Thanks for the great posts, guys.

Rick Davis
W3FDY

That is a great idea..
How did we get interested and who Elmered us.
Carl
WA1KPD

56 here ... but look older in my avitar

Rick,
Can you repost that in a way we can read it?
Thanks
Carl
/KPD

Rick,

As there are a  lot of old pilots in this group of AM ol'buzzards, either you
or Joe might want to go into some of the adventures Harry  had over at
"Stoltzfus Field", etc...

great thread.


I did the same thing, with a vertical made by butternut, no grounded and no radials. never did get anyone.  ::)

using the very first Viking 2 I owned......got all my BA's for free then, people would b thrilled when I showed up in the 1963 Ford Fairlane station wagon to cart off stuff.

Mom and Dad were both pilots, they both flew out of Stoltzfus field (N08) . I assume this is how and when they met.

Details:
http://www.airfields-freeman.com/PA/Airfields_PA_Lancaster.html

(http://s147.photobucket.com/albums/r290/PA_Rifleman/web_page_images/Aviation/th_stearman7-color.jpg)
This was their first aircraft, a 1944 Boeing Stearman (Photo circa 1944-45)
(http://s147.photobucket.com/albums/r290/PA_Rifleman/web_page_images/Aviation/th_HIDinSwiftcockpit.jpg)
Here's Harry in his Globe Swift (undated photo)

(http://s147.photobucket.com/albums/r290/PA_Rifleman/web_page_images/Aviation/th_SittingonStearmanwheel-1945.jpg)
Mom, sitting on landing gear of her 1944 Stearman (photo circa 1947-48)

(http://s147.photobucket.com/albums/r290/PA_Rifleman/web_page_images/Aviation/th_harrydavisswift.jpg)
This photo was in Harry's shack for decades, aircraft is his Globe Swift (undated photo)

(http://s147.photobucket.com/albums/r290/PA_Rifleman/web_page_images/Aviation/th_stearman5.jpg)

Stearman, with the later and larger engine. Cooling made the engine cowl necessary. (Photo taken circa 1948-49)

(http://s147.photobucket.com/albums/r290/PA_Rifleman/web_page_images/Aviation/th_swift-buzzingairport.jpg)
Swift in a low-level banking pass over Stoltzfus field. (undated photo)

Dad was a deadly combination of incurable prankster and technically competent, this made for some pretty spectacular events. I've been trying to document this anecdotal part of our history so my kids can enjoy it as well, but they won't see it until they're old enough. Part of this is his lifelong affinity for explosives.

A quick one: Dad agreed to buzz his parent's house when he bought the first aircraft. This was intended to be a signal that he had arrived safely. What actually happened: his parent's cats were startled by the sudden roar of the radial engine and panicked. As the cats tried to scatter in the house, their dog chased the cats. In an instant, the household became sort of a housepet hippodrome as the animals ran in circles through the various rooms. Since his parents were preoccupied with damage control, they didn't appear outside. Not seeing his parents outside waving, Harry turned around and...you guessed it.

About that time Harry's mother began to get control of the situation, Harry came through again, but lower & louder. Unfortunately, this caused most or all of the animals to panic again, and become incontinent. As the story goes, they simply ran over his mother and continued running for some time. Having the floors "lubricated" also hampered recovery efforts.

When Harry arrived home, his mother was not amused. His parents were the typical combination of domineering housewife & milquetoast husband, so she tore into Harry and also Harry's father to join in. When his mother was done, his father quietly asks..."is she gone? Good job boy, bring 'er through again so we can get rid of those cats once and for all!"

I suspect this is when he learned the value of a good old-fashioned buzzing.

Dad was obviously proud of this, and enjoyed recalling the story. He could paint a picture with words that left little to the imagination, and skillfully spiced the story with occasional bawdy lexicon. He recalled some of this story in a 1985 video interview at Coatesville airport. I was fortunate enough to get a copy, and transfer it to DVD. If I have time later, I'll see about a possible youtube option.

Time and space really doesn't permit me to go more details with this this post, but let's just say laws were a *lot* more lax back then.

Did he always wear the white shirt and tie while piloting his plane?  That photo reminds me of the  ham shack photos in magazines from the 30's.

Those were the big days for Hamdom. Young kids were infatuated with radio.
I would almost be tempted to buy a nice house type shed as Harry built. Heat and A/C, of course. It would have to be a home to the Raytheon, besides the 8X15 room I'm occupying now.
Looks smaller than Don's K4KYV, shack
Fred

A couple of years ago I saw a small building like that on skids for sale.  It had been used as a used car lot office.  It even had a restroom facility in it.  It may have been 10' x 15' or so....would have made a great hamshack...if you had a way to move it.  I think the selling price was $1750.  Many years ago, I knew a local ham who had a similar building...it wasn't detached...but much like a small garage...except it was his hamshack and workshop.  It was really nice, but he had some issues with his homeowner's insurance.  I don't know how it was resolved.

I also recall seeing some old pictures in an old QST or Radio mag of a very small hamshack building built into the base of a windmill tower,  The tower, of course held the antennas....really cool, but not very big...wouldn't hold much gear.

73,  Jack, W9GT

I believe Harry did meet his wife at the airport.  At least that is what I remember Harry mentioning to me years ago.  I am sure Rich or Alan could confirm if that is true.  Harry was not just passionate about Ham Radio and flying but he was an excellent golfer along with many other things.  He use to tell me how to cut grass to make it look like a golf course!  He took great pride in his Parkesburg Radio site.  The lawn never looked poor and was maintained very well.  He also told me stories about the best kind of motor oil to use in lawn tractor.  

He loved Cadillac cars!  He told me they were great cars and never buy a new one but wait a few years until they depreciated.  I remember the first Catty he picked me up in and I commented on how good the AM radio sounded and he told me he modified the audio amplifier.  Much later he shared with me his tremendous audio design knowledge.

He gave me a project to build an audio mixer like he built many years ago.  I had to go out and buy a drafting table since he was a stickler on drawing good schematics.  He taught me how to calculate all the component value which was priceless information for a young kid!  The design requirements were to have 6 audio inputs, RIAA equalization along with tape equalization and line level output.  I would work on the calculations and schematic during the week and then on Friday night he would go over my work.  Once the design was solid, we got into making drawings to do the sheet metal work.  Everything had to be symmetrical and the layout had to look professional.  Of coarse it had a big VU meter on it!  I could not afford a Simpson so I settled for a Calrad from Lafayette Radio.  He showed me how to wire to avoid ground loops and how to use lacing cord.  He told me that if I pay attention to the little things everything would work as expected.  Then we got to painting the cabinet.  He told me to bake the paint in an oven for a hard finish and showed me what kind of lettering to use to label all the controls.  My mom did not thing much of me putting all the sheet metal in the oven!  Well to this day I have that audio console.  I could never bear to get rid of it.  When I completed it, Harry made arrangements at different radio clubs for me to give a presentation on my work.  He said that talking to a big crowd of people would help my presentation skills once I got into the electronics business.  Boy was he right on that!  Sometime people would comment on my presentations over my 36 year career at Unisys and I said all the credit goes to my mentor Harry.

I could go on and on, but that's enough for now.  

Joe, W3GMS      

Wow Joe. that is a great story and wonderful to hear about what a great mentor Harry was for you and your friends.

We had a similar experience in the late 50's here in Fort Wayne.  Myself and a few of my friends (ages 12-14) were mentored, assisted and just generally encouraged to get started in ham radio by a really nice old timer in our neighborhood.  Bob Hale, K9AFP was, unfortunately, blind, however, he didn't let his visual incapacity rule his life or limit his activity whatsoever.  He even prided himself on his homebrew projects and skillfully did such things as running a table saw very proficiently and without injury!  As a matter of fact, he was very meticulous about safety and careful procedure.

Bob helped us with theory and code and even assisted with our homebrew projects including novice transmitters, etc.  We would frequently stop by Bob's house after school and visit with him about radio.  Per Bob's instructions...we would just step inside the back door and holler for him and pretty soon he would appear and ask us who was there...we would then proceed to the living room which was dominated by a big old Zenith floor model radio , grab a chair and then have a nice visit.

Bob was a great CW operator.  He had worked for the airlines in the 40's as a radio operator and actually ran traffic on point-to-point HF nets.  He loved radio and his experience was, of course awe inspiring for us kids.  Bob, passed away a couple of years after I got my amateur radio license.  I will always remember him, though, as one of the major influences on my life and certainly credit him with giving me the needed encouragement to start out in radio.

73,  Jack, W9GT

Hi Jack,
Thanks for the positive comments on the FDY story.  The experience you related about your blind friend reminds me somewhat of Bob Gunderson, W2JIO.  He was blind since birth and that never slowed him down.  He had fantastic home brewing skills and did fantastic work.  Unfortunately, Bob passed away sometime ago following a Gal Bladder operation.  He and his wife Linda, K2LY use to visit us in their motor home.  He was very sharp technically and we had fun discussing things of that nature.  He also did a lot of work around the home.  I remember the time he put a new roof on his house in the dark and the neighbors would kid him and ask him to wait for day light hours so he could see! 
Yes, its nice to here the mentor stories.  Some of us were very fortunate to have had very positive role model mentors.
Joe, W3GMS           

Joe,

Can you post a photo of Audio Mixer #1 here?

Thanks,

Tom

Sure Tom, just tell me how to do it.  Maybe just cut and paste the jpeg into the attach line below?
Joe, W3GMS

Yep,  hit "browse" and select the .jpeg file on your hard drive, then "Post".

Thanks Tom.  I will post some pictures of that console over the weekend.
Regards,
Joe, W3GMS

Hi Joe,

I noticed looking at the new picture of Harry's shack and the old picture with Harry standing in the front of it, that there is a house built behind the shack now. Was some of the property sold off or is that the new owners?

Joe  WA2PJP

Hi Joe,

That is the neighbor's house.  The property is not too wide really.  I regret not taking some wide view perspective photos of the property while I was there last Saturday for the QCWA picnic.  For the first half of the picnic, the neighbors were cleaning their pick-up truck with Country-Western music blasting at us.

Joe GMS will have to chime in and tell if the property size was bigger in the past or not.

Hi Joe,

As I had indicated in my earlier post, Harry was quite obviously a very impressive person, a true Renaissance man. He was most perceptive as well, as evidenced by his mentoring of you in the fine art of public speaking. He was absolutely correct in that the ability to speak confidently in front of large groups of people would be an invaluable skill in terms of furthering yourself professionally within your chosen career.

But in what field was Harry's education and training, and what was his occupation? I seem to recall hearing recently that he may have been a broadcast engineer at a Philadelphia area TV station, but I do not know how accurate this information is.

I also find it quite nice that he met his wife at an airport,  that she too was a private pilot, and that they both shared the same hobby. I must assume Marian was his real soulmate, something that is all too rare in marriage. Harry must have really enjoyed a charmed life, between his marriage, his family, his hobbies, and the personal fulfillment he received from the Friday Niters and seeing his tutelage pay off more than he could ever imagine.

73,

Bruce

The same Friday Nighters shown in the earlier newspaper posting happened to be over at our house this past Friday evening.  We made sure the order was the same as the original picture.  My we have gotten older!  I found and included a picture of Harry, W3FDY operating his famous "Big Rig". 
L to R in the photo...Bert-WA3JYU, Chuck-NA3CW-Bob-N2HM and Joe-W3GMS and of coarse Harry in the picture.
Joe, W3GMS   

As promised to Tom, WA3KLR here are the pictures of the Audio Console Harry, W3FDY taught me not only how to build, but how to design all the audio circuity as well.  I was 15 years old at the time.
Joe, W3GMS

Wow Joe!! Thatz some fine lookin stuff!!

Hi Frank,
I owe it all to Harry, W3FDY.  At the time all of us (Friday Nighters) knew we had a unique opportunity in front of us and as years went by, I realized really how extra special they were.       
Anyway thanks for the commpliment.  Some day, I will freshen up the panel and put new label on it along with a new paint job.  Shoot, that was 42 years ago! 
Joe, W3GMS     

HUH?  Wot happened to the images?

Al

Very nice Joe! I'd be proud to build something that nice now, let alone as a JN.

Frank, there will be some people fondly remembering their radio Friday nights at your place, in the years to come.

Thanks for the compliment Steve.  For me the fun part of Ham Radio is to build or modify stuff.  Now that I am retired I am finally getting time to do some of that.  Now, what project to build first????
Its been fun sharing my memories of Harry.  I will document them and you will get a copy.  I should have written it up for Electric Radio when they ran that special issue talking about mentors. 
See you on the wireless...
Joe, W3GMS

Hey, What happeded to all the pictures of Harry?

Photo bucket blows. Just attach them here.