QSL courtesy of W3CJF

Ross Binsley [W8BVH] about age 18 (circa 1924)
Photo courtesy of his stepson, Ralph Howes, current holder of W8BVH

W8BVH 1931 Lisbon, Ohio

My name is Ralph Howes and I live in Lancaster, OH. When I was first licensed in 1999 I wanted to know about my Dad’s call [W8BVH]. Since he was deceased I couldn’t ask him and mother didn’t know much about his ham history either.

Ross Binsley, my step-father, was born in 1906 and died in 1982. He was born and raised in Lisbon, OH and he built most of the equipment he had. I have enclosed a photo of him when he was approximately 18 years of age, in his bedroom where he had his ham shack. He told me one time that he used a KW spark-gap which caused a lot of trouble with his neighbors. He did say that he made up his own call sign until the FCC took over the air waves and made them all get call signs. Dad didn't tell me much about amateur radio; I guess I didn't show much interest so he wasn't going to try and persuade me into getting interested. I was wrapped up in CB's in the 60's, after getting out of the U.S. Navy, for several years and was quite active in REACT. I would spend many late nights on the radio with a few night owls and Dad would come downstairs and tell me it was time to knock it off and why didn't I get an amateur license and talk real radio. That was pretty much the most of what he told me. When he died my mother gave me the picture which is at the beginning of this article. I finally did get interested in amateur radio and got my first license in 1999. I have been trying to contact some of the older folks in the Lisbon & Salem, Ohio area who may have some of his QSL cards lying around. Dad had a close friend that mother mentioned a couple of times, George W. Morrow. He lived in Washingtonville, OH. No info so far.

While searching on the web one day I came across a scan of one of his QSL cards on the "hamgallery.com". All I did was go to the Google search page and type in W8BVH and click on google search. The first choice was "hamgallery.com". I looked on their web site and found the above listed QSL card. I wrote to Tom [K8CX] who owns the "hamgallery.com" and told him my story. He wrote back to me and told me that he got several old cards from a friend of his, John Tomko [W3CJF]. John passed away at the age of 99. After some discussion and a couple of nice e-mails, Tom [K8CX] sent me the original QSL card dated 1931. You can’t believe how excited I was to finally have one of the original hand made QSL cards from my dad.

I continued searching the google search engine and got a hit on the South Jersey Radio Association, K2AA, www.sjra.org. The club had an article in their newsletter about a popular club member, Gordon Kressel [W2BQ] (SK), and his log books dating back to 1914. Mary Vonlintig [KV2M], the club’s historian, provided me with a copy of Gordon Kressel’s, W2BQ (SK), log book page. She was very cordial and I surely do appreciate her help with this information.

On one of the log pages was an entry where Gordon had contacted W8BVH ON 12-09-1930 @ 9:00PM on 3750kc. The log further shows the contact to be a 5/9 with good note, not ac or dc hollow. These would have been CW contacts, not phone. It is also apparent that sometime between 1928 and 1930 call signs changed from using call district prefix to adding a W to the front of call signs. You will also notice that the QSL card is home made on a, standard at that time, USPS post card. The back was printed with home made stamps. I saw the stamps when I was young but didn’t know what they were for. Now I do.

My search continues for more information. This is leading to so many people that are willing to help with bits and pieces. It’s really fun and getting to meat a lot of nice hams. Right now I have a letter off to George W. Morrow [W8WFB], the son of George Morrow [W8BKP]{SK} in Washingtonville, OH. Hoping he has some information about his dad and mine. Also found that George had a close ham friend, Frank Lucas [W3CRA]{SK}, in Pennsylvania. Looked up his call and it comes back to the Collins Radio Association. Have a note off to Dave Knepper [W3ST], secretary of the CRA.

This is just another fun part of Amateur Radio. Try it, you may like it.

73, Ralph Howes, W8BVH