W3VKD 1957 Indiana, Pennsylvania

Meet Art Lewis, born around 1908, he is the originator of Ham Register 1957 and 1958. He earned his BS from Pitt in 1935 -radio engineering for many years then retail merchandising business which took him to Central and South America doing a lot of DXing. He was first licensed in 1927 and held W3VKD, W3LXE, W8CNZ, W3TV. Sounds as if he earned many awards and had a fine cw fist. Too bad he didn't continue with Ham Register.

I had conversation with W8JPG Ron, head of WKSU-FM engineering, growing up in Indiana Pa., stating he was very familiar with W3VKD Art Lewis - Art's home sat on a high hill on the outskirts of Indiana Pa, very much like a Shangri-La - The first family TV set when Ron was a kid, came from Art's retail store in town. It was a small Crosley black and white with rabbit ears! Little did any of us realize Art's little book (Ham Register) would give us pleasure even in 2011.

Lewis Became W3TV in the late 60's, born in 1907 and expired 20 Dec 1997 in Indiana Pa. He reached 90 years.

I knew Art Lewis - W3TV. His old call was W3VKD. In the 1960 call book his address was 37 S. Sixth Street in Indiana, PA.
My FOC number is 1186, dating back to October 1972. Art's number was 1187, issued in December 1972. He was a member until April 1995.
I had LOTS of QSO's with Art, and in fact met him, most likely at one of the first FOC dinners in New York in the period 1973 to 1976. I can remember Art as a nice guy, very gracious.
I'll throw some more trivia your way . During that same period there was another multi operator powerhouse in the Pittsburgh, area.
That was Dr. Anthony (Tony) Susen -W3AOH, shown in the 1960 callbook at 204 Church in Pittsburgh. I'm not sure, but Tony may have had a bigger multi station than Art.
For some period of time, Tony sponsored the "W3AOH World Cup" in CQWW. This "may" have been for World High Multi Single.
I know it was not for USA, as W8FJ (then W8CQN) and I won Multi Single high USA for CQWW CW in 1966, operating from a block house in Washington DC as W3MVB.
Those were the real FUN TIMES for me in ham radio. Foot switches, zero beating, manual check sheets, the whole gamut!
At W3MVB, changing bands from 80 to 40 required opening up the rear door of his monster pair of 6C21's amplifier, and moving a switch position.
Of course you had to be very careful to not electrocute yourself.
I did some single op contests from that station too (as a "ghost operator"}.
 Once the transformer on a 4-1000 amplifier went up in smoke, forcing me to evacuate the attic ham shack for about an hour!

QSL K8CX Collection
Info courtesy of W8SU
Last paragraph info courtesy of K8MFO