West Park Radiops Amateur Radio Club
W8VM/8
FIELD DAY 1962
Story by Pete Rimmel N8PR
I was a proud member of Westpark Radiops in the 1960's and 1970's until my job took me out of
town.
I happened upon your listing of Award holders, and thought I would add my name to the "old" list.
I have attached a few of the certificates that I was awarded while a member. I hope this will
qualify me for addition to your club lists. There was a 'B' award for 40 Members as well as the
'A' award for working 100 members, and as you can see, working 10 novices or 20 mobiles got an
award. You might note that Jack Siringer W8AJW signed the awards back then as awards chairman for
the Club. There were similar awards from Indian Hills RC and the Parma ARC, and if one got awards
from all three, then the WCLE (worked all Cleveland) award was earned.
I used to be net control of the evening 10 meter mobile net on AM 29.160 that went on for years
before 2 meters got popular. I got my ticket in 1960 as KN8UNP and then my General license as
K8UNP. In 1962 I took my station to field day, and we used it for 80 M CW and AM. I have enclosed
a couple of photos that I have of field day, as well. I won the Ohio section of the ARRL
Sweepstakes as a Novice (back when we were rockbound) and took 2nd in ARRL SS in the club in 1961,
and the rest is history. (BTW Rich, K8SCI and his brother K8TKQ were novices the same time as I
was.)
In October, 1961, at the Great Lakes Division Hamvention in Cleveland I was awarded the "Junior
Amateur of the Year" award. This was when the Cleveland convention was held downtown Sheraton on
the Square... Imagine hams lugging stuff from the swap tables to their cars in the lot below the
Terminal Tower !
About 15 years ago, I bit the bullet, and decided to change my call to my initials. Even though I
live in Florida, now, I applied for and got N8PR on the first try. It was a new, never issued
call sign.
I hope this trip down memory lane has been a bit of fun for you... It has been for me. I stop by
family in Cleveland, from time to time, and usually find someone to chat with on the 2 M
repeaters. I hope that some time my trip will coincide with a meeting, so I can stop by and see
who I can still remember.
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73 for now, and keep up the good work on the West Park web site.
PeteR N8PR
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Curator: af8c-at-arrl.net
Last Update: 1-May-2008
