W8DZ 1958 Cincinnati, Ohio

Operator: Jacob "Jake" W. Schott, ex: W8FGX

"The XF4 Socorro Island plan that wasn't!"
Using Jake Schott's QSL card because he made major comments on the operation in the article. The operation was a bust because last moment permission was not granted to land on the Island. They then set plans for Navassa Island KC4AF 1958 which was a complete success.

Credit to Dive the World

From the Cincy Enquirer 9 March 1958.

From the Tallahassee Democrat, 11 March 1958

TV Bob N6TV sent me a couple of interesting links about Arnold Spielberg, the father of Steven, of Hollywood fame.
An engineer, Arnold died recently at age 103 and thus he made the news.
He was recognized as an important early pioneer of the computing industry, at both RCA and GE.
Of course, he was a radio amateur at a young age. In World War  II he had worked on a radio-guidance system to help steer bombs dropped from aircraft.
After the war, he was at Wright-Patterson for some time.

Arnold Spielberg graduated from Hughes HS in Cincy in 1934. His buddy in HS was Jake Schott W8FGX (class of '33).
I recognized Jake's name right away, because I was a budding young DXer in the early 1960's, when Jake was mentioned often in publications I was reading.

Arnold was W8IDXN, W9AUM and W2IXM and Jake was W8FGX (later, W8DZ). Together they started the ham radio club at the high school.
In the online documents, we see comments from Steven Spielberg about his father:  a tinkerer, making things....
But Steven never mentions that he himself ever became a ham. The father is quoted as saying his son started making movies at age sixteen and never wanted to do anything else.  (How'd that work out?!)

Jake, of course, went on to become Police Chief and a famous DXer and DXpeditioner into the 1960's, but died an early death due to heart attack.

See the Tribute to Jake Schott W8FGX

QSL & Articles courtesy of W8SU
Info courtesy of K6NA, N2BTD, W9VA