A71AD 1985 Qatar

Mike had built a phasing SSB rig in high school. He was on an early 75 meter SSB net. One of the guys in the net asked him what he did for work. Mike’s father had died just as he was finishing high school. There was no money for college. He was bagging groceries. His friend asked him to come over to Cedar Rapids and apply at Collins Radio. He did and got hired as a parts gopher in the R and D parts room. He would get a list of materials from the engineers, pull or order everything and ride herd on their requirements. After a few days his boss came to him ashen faced. “What the hell did you do Mike? The boss is up front looking for you.” Art, W0CXX, had invited him to have coffee at work on the 75 meter SSB net the previous evening . Art told him he would come find him. Mike said he only had 15 min. for his coffee break so he had to be careful. He normally had some coffee or something to drink in the parts room because it took too long to get to the break room and back. He reminded Art that he was a new employee. Art told him it would “probably” be OK. Since it was pre-VOX days, there were not a lot of guys on frequency tripping the Vox laughing and coughing. True to his word, Art Collins had turned up the next morning at the parts room to buy Mike a cup of coffee. I suspect Mike never had any trouble with his boss after that.

QSL courtesy of HL1AV
Info courtesy of WA8MOA