Mid summer 1998 I received e-mail from Tad Cook, K7VVV who had seen these license plates in the window of the Antique & Classic Autos store in Port Townsend, Washington. Tad looked up the call in the QRZ callsign database and our web page was listed and my e-mail address was listed with the web page. Tad sent along the phone number of the store and I arranged to have them sent to me. I thought they'd look better at the club house than in a store window.

By the way, Tad writes the weekly ARRL Propagation Bulletin for the ARRL. He is formerly KT7H and back in 1973 when Ray Sechler was using these plates Tad was WA7CSK, a 21 year old working at the counter at the old Amateur Radio Supply in Seattle.

Craig Moore, K7FZ (You're still WA7ILC to me Craig) answered my query about Ray and these license plates. Craig and Ray were best of friends and I'm copying his e-mail to me in its entirety.

Regarding Ray Sechler, W7DG (Previously W7JKZ), I don't remember when the exact date was that Ray received the W7DG callsign, but it was very late 1960's or early 1970's. I was working day shift at LPD and would stop over at Ray's for my lunch break. I can remember the anxious apprehension Ray had about him as he was waiting for his newly applied for 1X2 call to arrive. The day that it arrived, he made me guess what it was. Of course I had no idea, however, he finally took the license out of his billfold and said, "It's WHISKEY SEVEN DIRTY GERTIE!". We then dove into the Pennsylvania Dutch pea soup that he had made for lunch, discussing the various phonetic arrangements possible for W7DG. As I remember, Ray died in November of 1973 and it was after that that I was elected trustee for the club and I started the ball rolling for obtaining the W7DG callsign. Many papers to fill out, along with the old FCC form 610B (Club license form), death certificates, etc. Anyway, I think it was February of 1974 that we received the W7DG call.

As for the W7DG license plates, Ray had those on his little red VW Bug. Oh! if he wasn't a picture driving down the street in his Bug, pipe clenched between his teeth. Don't remember what year model the VW was but it was probably an early 1960's version or so. Mentioned in your e-mail was the fact that the W7DG license plates ended up in Port Townsend... I have no idea how that happened. Possibly, after Ray passed away, one of his boys, Ray, Ed or John may have sold the car and it ended up in that area with license plates useless to anyone else other than Ray himself.