A Tribute to
Harold Russell
"RUSS",  W9ERR

1903-1988
Harold Russell, W9ERR

Introduction

Nowadays it's quite common to remember your "Elmer" - the person who helped you the most as a newcomer to Amateur Radio. While many people helped me during those early years, I can't really say that I had an Elmer. It would have made things easier and more fun if I had.

After I had been a ham for several years, I met Russ, an older ham in the neighborhood that I now suspect had been an Elmer to many others through the years but was too humble to have mentioned his past deeds. I learned many things from Russ, not all amateur radio related.

His unique method of raising antennas

Russ would always chuckle about the time a young ham visited his station and saw the wire antennas strung across the tops of trees on his property and asked how an old guy like Russ was able to string the wires at such heights. Russ matter-of-factly stated that he merely planted the trees, strung the wires from seedling to seedling and waited twenty years for the trees to grow to their current height. The young ham nearly believed him for a few seconds!

The equipment
The equipment he chose was an Italian made Geloso transmitter, an RME 45 receiver, and a vertical dipole antenna. Looking back at those pre-transceiver days, certain transmitter/receiver combinations had been popular, mostly because they were manufactured as "twins" - models whose features and performance were evenly matched. But the Geloso/RME combo was an unusual one indeed. Neither unit seemed to have been popular yet they made an ideal combination during that era.

Later, when he became active on 160 meter AM phone, he obtained a Heathkit DX-100 transmitter. This was the transmitter that was destined to undergo some radical wiring changes.

I also recall working him on six meters when both of us were using the stinkin' Lincoln 6 meter transceiver which was popular in the Chicago area during the early 1960's.

He operated on nearly all of the shortwave bands, but I believe 20 and 10 meter phone were his favorites.



A classic freebie QSL card from 1968. Many hams during that era took advantage of the offer of free QSL cards with Pontiac advertising.

The experimenter

Never content with the stock factory performance of his equipment, Russ would frequently try out various circuit modifications to his transmitter. While having a QSO with Russ, it was not unusual for him to ask you to standby for a few minutes while he soldered a different value coupling capacitor into his audio circuitry.

He once admired the audio fidelity of the clamp-tube modulated Johnson Viking Challenger transmitter that I was operating and asked if I would send him a copy of the schematic of its speech amplifier and modulator sections. When I worked him about a week later, he had some great sounding audio, and said that he had incorporated some of the Challenger's circuitry into his DX-100 transmitter.




This view of Russ's DX-100 transmitter shows the numerous modifications made to the circuitry. Many of the components did not physically fit within the chassis. These outrigger parts made it necessary to operate the transmitter on its side at all times.

The "TVI Miracle"

Ten Meters was a great band for DX and a nice huge bit of spectrum for ragchewing with locals on AM phone.  But it did have one problem - it's second harmonic fell right inside Television Broadcast channel 2. Nearly every manufactured ham transmitter couldn't be operated on ten meters in an urban environment if there was a local broadcast station on channel two. Interference ranged from a slight herringbone interference pattern (rare), to a severe situation where the picture would turn negative, and the sound would be blanked out (more common).

I had only been able to operate on ten meters after the TV station on channel two signed off for the evening, sometime around midnight.

Miraculously, Russ didn't have these problems. I actually witnessed his DX-100 transmitter being operated without it's cabinet, into his antenna at full power on ten meters while his wife Erma, watched Channel 2 on the old black & white TV in the next room not more than twenty feet away. And there wasn't a bit of television interference (TVI)!

How had he achieved such a miracle, I demanded to know. He said that he merely had experimented with several remedies. He had optimized the L/C ratio of his driver and output tank circuits, used A.C. power line filters on the TV receiver and his transmitter, and experimented with power cord lengths and grounding, etc., along with the usual low pass filter, hi-pass filters on the transmitter and receiver respectively. These techniques were well known, but in practice, any one method alone would make little difference. Only with the time and patience of experimenting with all the techniques in unison could such a complete elimination of TVI occur.

That he had accomplished a TVI free operation where so many others had failed still amazes me to this very day!.


This is a typical 160 meter AM station from 1970. This was the station of Mike Winik, WB9ARY, now KC9F. On the table is a Hallicrafters SX-28 receiver. Above it is a Johnson Viking II transmitter with it's matching VFO under the lamp. A Heathkit Q-multiplier accessory to enhance receiver selectivity is above the transmitter. Note the homemade shielded 160 meter receiving loop next to the Q-multiplier. An Astatic JT-30 crystal microphone is in front of the receiver.


Political Views
While discussing politics, it was mentioned that if the people didn't like whatever is happening in politics, they can change things by voting the rascals out of office. His response was "Yes, we're given a great choice - A or B, and they both belong to C"

Sophie's
Years of experiencing the nightlife as a professional piano player during the Roaring Twenties and Prohibition gave Russ an appreciation of the pleasures of a few drinks at the local tavern. I'd drive him to a favorite hangout on Division Street called Sophie's place where the prices were reasonable and a piano was located at the end of the bar room. A shot and a beer (a.k.a. boilermaker) at that time was only thirty cents!

We had many eyeball QSO's at Sophies' but I can't remember that Russ was ever drunk. Either Sophie had been watering down the whisky or years of the nightclub life had taught Russ the benefits of moderation. I've learned much from Russ!






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