Tribute to Robert Kitts Trump

Tribute to Robert Kitts "Bob" Trump - 9JW, 9BT
July 14, 1898 - February 14, 1922

No one anywhere in the Mississippi Valley will have the least difficulty in remembering old 9JW of pre-war days. When the late ones were thinning out 9JW was coming on for the routine business of taking them from Ohio and passing them to old 6DM at Phoenix, Arizona.

Robert Kitts Trunp was born July 14, 1898 in Topeka, Kansas, where he resided until the fall of 1918 when he enlisted in the Navy and was sent to Cleveland for service. Later on he was transferred to the Great Lakes Hospital because of illness which resulted in the loss of his voice, which he has not recovered. He was sent to Arizona where he remained untl 1919, and returned to Topeka. Recently he has moved to Ottawa, Kansas, where plans to stay if the power line induction doesn't get too bad.

Trump began at the age of ten to learn that a fuse blows when two hot wires are shorted. In 1913 the radio bug got its hold and in 1914 9JW was started and passed from the spark coil stage to the full 1 KW and status of a star station. He was repeatedly heard on both coasts and by ships at sea off both coasts and worked old 6DM at Phoenix, Arizona, regularly, a distance of 1300 miles. Eastward his consistent range was about 600 miles and 3CV in Washington copied 9JW with fair regularity. Perhaps a lot of his range was due to a 120-ft stick which looked many times that high in flat Kansas.

"BT" was a charter member of the Topeka Radio Club and has held all of the offices of that organization at one time or another. He was also one of the organizers of the old Central Radio Association "from the Rockies of the Ohio" and was on the famous southwestern route.

When the lid went off in 1919 9BT was one of the first to open up the old spark of 9JW. The performance of 9BT was even superior to that of the old station. A new 9BT is in operation at Ottawa now with a one-half KW spark and 20 watts of CW. Ill health has prevented regular watches and late hours but the old Topeka gang tell us that the same touch that made 9JW and 9BT famous is very much in evidence and has made the little bottles perform miracles.

Bob Trump passed away in the same month the above article was published in QST. He passed away February 14, 1922 after a long illness.

Hope Cemetery, Ottawa, Kansas.

Tribute courtesy of W5KNE
"--Courtesy February 1922 QST. (text and photo used with permission of ARRL)."