Tribute to Harvey S. Laidman

Tribute to Harvey S. Laidman - N6HL, W8DX
1942 - January 3, 2025

W8DX, Harvey S. Laidman, became a silent key January 3, at the age of 82. He was a longtime supporter of The Daily DX. Licensed first, at the age of 12 in 1954 as WN8SLR, he passed general class in 1957 in Cleveland, Ohio at the Federal Building, with at the time the original W8DX, Richard Cotton, being the test administrator.

Harvey moved to California in 1963 and got his extra in 1972 and got the N6HL callsign in 1977, and "assumed the protectorship" of the W8DX callsign in 1997. Harvey had 5BDXCC, 5BWAZ, etc. An active DXer, of course, he was a past president of the Southern California DX Club.

Harvey was a film director and teacher of cinema and television arts at Cal State University Northridge. He preferred CW DXing and said "I am at the key in the early morning and late evenings." As of January, 2020, he was at a new QTH in the Simi Valley, California, and had 340/353 current/total in the DXCC mixed.

Harvey's mother was a librarian, his father an electrical contractor. As a young man, for three summers, he worked with the Kenley Players theater company in Warren Ohio. He studied electrical engineering at Kent State, then transferred to the University of Southern California, USC, for a cinema degree. He worked at station KTTV and Lorimar Productions. His first directing job was for The Waltons in 1975. For 30 years he directed hundreds of TV programs including Matlock, Seventh Heaven, Scarecrow and Mrs. King, Magnum P.I., Knight Rider, JAG, Tales of the Gold Monkey, Knots Landing, Paper Chase, Eight is Enough, Airwolf, Chicago Story, the Fitzpatricks, Lou Grant, and others.

Photo and QSL taken from Harvey's QRZ.com page
Info courtesy of W3UR, K3LR