W6FEW 1949 Willits, California

Operator: John "Jack" S. Ross

Email received from Chuck Ross 1-10-2002:
I was amazed to see my father's QSL card in your collection. My father, Jack Ross died in 1950 and our home burned to the ground in 1956. I have been searching for one of these cards since then. I would appreciate any help you can offer in that regard. I do not believe that I have ever even seen my father's handwriting. Unfortunately, his own QSL card collection burned many years ago. My brothers and I can only fix, firmly one memory of Christmas inWillits, CA, and that was 1949, my father's last Christmas with us. Remarkably, this card is dated the evening before that. The only object left in the family that belonged to him is a defunct Hammarlund SP-400X. For your information, regarding the image. We (my father had seven children now in our fifties and sixties) have had discussions about the QSL photograph. No one of us knows for certain where the picture was taken. It is genuine. It has also appeared in a book, but we do not know where or when. My father owned a sawmill in redwood country, as did his father before him. Most of us agree that the picture was taken prior to the turn of the century but it is not clear whether the scene is coast redwood (sequoia sempervirens) or Sierra redwood (sequoia gigantea). In any case, a very large tree. The largest tree that I ever heard of having been felled in our home, Mendocino Counry, was one near Point Arena. The stump still stands, with the bark and sapwood burned off, at 21 feet in diameter. It has been used as a dance floor. This tree is about that size.

I do remember a few times, visiting his "radio shack" where the younger children were not often welcome. It stood between our house and orchard in Willits, California. It was a small wood-frame building built over a hole in the ground that, reportedly had once been a bootleggers storage place. I can recall hearing distorted voices over his speakers and know that he also had a "bug" telegraph key, and sent code pretty rapidly. One wall of the shack was covered with QSL cards from all over the world. He had one aerial atop an 80' wooden pole, which he erected using ropes, pulleys and his 1948 Pontiac, and the rigging skills learned in the woods. He had another longwire antenna of some sort which I recall seeing cut by a low-flying airplane.

I believe that my father hosted a gathering of radio hams at the old hotel at Elk, across the street from the building in the picture. This building had been my grandfather's lumber company office and is, today, the visitor center for the Greenwood Creek State Beach. My father, Jack Ross is second from the left, in "tin pants" and suspenders, typical logger garb of the time. The two children in the right foreground are me, left and my brother David right, I cannot explain our costumes. The object on the ground we are looking at is a coupling pin from a Shay, geared locomotive and would I love to know where that went. The rest of the people are not known to me or any of my brothers. My mother believe that the sherriff was from some town along the Sierra Nevada foothills. She did not actually know anyone here, she just cooked for them and cleaned up the beer bottles next morning.

The QSL card was removed from my collection and immediately mailed to Chucks family. If you have any W6FEW cards in your collection please contact me and Chuck.
Tnx...K8CX...

Elk, California approximately 1948. Gathering of radio hams.

Left to Right: W6EXP Ralph, W6FEW Jack, W6FRQ Norm, W6WDM Ted, W6FDT Bob, W6IQC Eddie, W6SYN Jim.
The two children are W6FEW's sons: Chuck Ross & David Ross.

QSL Card was from the estate of W6ARC
Back of photo courtesy of Martin Christiansen