I recently stopped at a neighborhood house to ask the occupant a
question about the "antenna farm" in his backyard. He has a tower
with an array and three long wire antennas. I was hoping he might help
me figure out how to use coax and a lightning arrestor to connect my
old SW radios to a random length longwire antenna.

I had seen his antennas for years. He was a HAM when I was a kid in
the 50's. I was in classes with one of his sons and had been invited
to visit the house and watch his Dad work the radios. I was impressed
by him and it probably help start me wondering about radio.

I knew he was now quite elderly, but I didn't know he had suffered a
stroke. He had a little machine that allowed him to poke a couple of
keys to "speak" to me with a stored message, ie, "I am using this
machine to talk to you because I have had an illness."

He was obviously happy to have a visitor. I realized he was very
frustrated by his impairments. He is unable to form his words clearly
and might have trouble configuring the connection between thought and
speech. He also has pretty serious tremors in his hands and had to
use one hand to steady the other when he was punching the buttons on
his communicator.

He took me out to his shack and showed me his station rig. He was
able to explain how he fed the feedline from his wire antennae to the
multiport antenna switch on his station desk. I noticed that he had a
collection of CW keys sitting in front of the modern looking
transceiver (Kenwood -- I think). I asked him him if he was able to
work his radios by using the keys and he said, "No" and was clearly
frustrated about not being able to make the back and forth motions
required to use the bugs.

I asked him if he had ever tried to use a computer with a keyboard to
work the radios and he (I think) seemed to not understand my question.

In another room, he had several PC's that he currently uses to scan
and store photos that he took during his forty years plus as the
senior photographer for the Oak Ridge National Labs (and all of the
other "plants" here in Oak Ridge).
I asked him if he used the computers and keyboards to work with his
photos and he nodded that he does.

Long Post to get to this point, but

Can someone in the Oak Ridge/East Tennessee area help me explore the
possibility that this man can be helped to get back on the air? He
said he tunes in and listens on the HAM bands and I could see it in
his eyes that he would like to be able to say hello and check in with
his friends.

This guy is a stalwart in our community. He is know far and wide for
his incredible photography and he has literally captured the history
of Oak Ridge from the days when Pres. Roosevelt and Gen. Groves
authorized the condemnation of farm lands in the Black Oak Ridge area
in 1942. He has lost his wife and his two sons live far enough away
that they don't visit him very often. I am NOT a HAM and I don't have
any technical expertise -- I am simply hoping that one of you will
know how to help him or you will know someone-- hopefully in this area
-- who might be able to help him.

Thanks for reading. Please reply to me at:


Doug Calvert
Oak Ridge, TN