OD5CT 1960 Lebanon

Operator: Lyman M. Rundlett 1912-1986 last residence Florida, W3ZA, K4ZA

I (K8MFO) do believe that he first came to the notice of the DX world when he was in Vietnam with the group from Michigan State University. Among other things, the MSU project trained the South Vietnamese police force, which was under the direction of their President. One of my professors at MSU, Dr. Wesley Fishel, was apparently the head of the mission with the South Vietnamese government, and I'm sure he would have known Rundy very well. In the fall of 1963, I was taking a class from Dr. Fishel. When I arrived one morning, an intern came in to address us. He said there would be no class for a week, as Fishel had been called to Vietnam. President Diem, whose brother's wife was the famous "Madam Nhu" had just been assassinated, and the State Department needed Fishel. Madam Nhu was the wife of Ngô Ðình Nhu, who was the brother and chief-advisor to President Ngô Ðình Diem. As Diem was a lifelong bachelor and because she and her family lived in Independence Palace together with him, she was considered to be the first lady. I have no knowledge of what all was involved, or what Rundy was doing there.

An anonymous source said that Rundy worked for Westrex (see OD5CT QSL card)... out of his apartment in Beirut and all over the Near East. I believe he sold and installed airport equipment. He would design a control tower, lay out a long list of required gear, wangle a contract, and spend a couple months installing it and getting everything working right. The trouble was incompatibilties with equipment which may have come earlier from four different countries.

Fred - K3ZO knew Rundy from PVRC, when Rundy held the call W3ZA. He also had K4ZA at a later date. Fred had a business card from Rundy which provided his "occupation" at that time. "Staff Engineer, EIA, Electronic Industries Association" says it all. He was a Washington "insider". In his quiet way he served as an expert in an organization which was essentially formed to lobby for the interests of manufacturers of consumer electronics. This may have been after Westrex.

If Rundy was a Washington "insider" who knew his way around, perhaps he contracted out his expertise.

Perhaps Rundy's most active radio period was when his home base was Lebanon, and he held the call OD5CT. He also held various MP4 licenses, plus FL8ZA and certainly others. During that time he seemed to travel freely around the Mid East.

Gus Browning teamed up with Rundy and made use of Rundy's connections to secure various licenses for himself.

After digesting the information from a few sources, here is how I review Rundy:
He seemed to be a guy with both technical and entrepreneurial skills, ready to pursue whatever came his way. I think the "MSU Vietnam Project" was particularly interesting. I'm certainly not an "insider", but I'm sure that the US Intelligence Community would have been heavily involved in such a pursuit. I can't believe that a university from the Big Ten would be able to unilaterally pursue a project which included the training of the Republic of Vietnam President's personal police force! How Rundy fit into this is anyone's guess.

It would seem that his association with Westrex came next, with HQ in that Beirut hotel, as well as from the MP4 countries. I believe that his association with EIA came after Westrex, and when he was in the greater DC area.

Quite an interesting and remarkable man, who was on a number of expeditions and semi-permanent operations from fairly rare spots. It's hard to find people "in the know" from that period, but there are thankfully still a few around.
73, Don K8MFO

Go to QSL Museum and type Rundy into the search engine on that page to bring up all his QSL cards on the gallery.

QSL from the estate of W5LAJ
Info courtesy of K8MFO, W8SU, K3ZO, G4UZN