According to the description on the 5RH QSL cards below, the station transmitter in the early 1920s consisted of a 1/2 KW Packard-Hyrad, Sink Gap, Dubelier, O.T transmitter and the receiver was a either a Pancake OT receiving - Clapp Eastman Regenerative with 1-step audio (note dated 1922) or a Grebe CR-8 with Rork 2 step Baldwins (QSL below left of March 1923).
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A brief story about the discovery of these items
Shortly after hurricane
Katrina devastated the greater New Orleans area, Mike, W5UM, removed his
law office shingle and erected a large sign with his call sign in front
of his office. Mike’s son had moved into the office with his family
because their house had been flooded and was uninhabitable. A lady who
saw the ham call on the sign stopped and told Mike’s son that she
was trying to find someone who would like to have her late father’s
ham radio memorabilia. She explained that his home had been flooded and
was to be demolished. She wanted to donate the ham memorabilia to someone
who would have reason to preserve it, as ham radio had been one of her
father’s life's passions. Mike and his son agreed to go to the house,
salvaging many QSL cards, old QST magazines, and an envelope that contained
photographic negatives of an old spark station. Within a month the house
and all of its contents were gone.
Mike was familiar with the location of the house because of the large
antennas that he had first seen there in the early 1960s, but did not
know the ham that lived there. After sorting through the QSL cards and
doing some research, Mike realized the importance of what had been salvaged.
This was the station of Roy Alciatore, one of the foremost ham radio operators
in the New Orleans area. Roy’s call sign, W5RU, had been adopted
by the Delta DX Association in his honor after he became a Silent Key
in 1972. Mike told two of his friends (Frank, W5UP and Ray, KB5GA) who
are members of the Delta DX Association about what he had found. They
suggested that he speak to Don (W5FKX), a former president of the association.
Upon relating the story to Don, W5FKX on the club’s 2 meter repeater,
arrangements were made for Don to copy some of the negatives and cards
in order to include them in the history of the DDXA. Thanks to Mike and
his son, these items are now available for preservation.
FInally, for a YouTube video of an operational replica of a rotary spark transmitter, see:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ybYxkt3UxU
************** Thanks to those below for useful commentary: **************
Howard Stone (http://stonevintageradio.com/)
Russ, WA5Y
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