Hi Fred,

Thank you for your service to this Great country.

Howard #3, W A 9 Y B W
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Fred Adams" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, May 01, 2013 6:29 PM
Subject: Re: Phone patches


> Thanks for a great e-mail.I was not a ham when this was going on but I did
> serve in VietNam and was blinded there.  I remember seeing the MARS radio
> tents before I was blinded and many of the guys were able to communicate
> with family and friends through you MARS guys.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: For blind ham radio operators [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> On Behalf Of Ronald E. Milliman
> Sent: Wednesday, May 01, 2013 12:22 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Phone patches
>
> Remember the days of the phone patch?
>
> In the late 1960's, during the Vietnam war, a group of us hams went out to
> Barry Goldwater's ham station at his home in Paradise Valley Arizona in
> shifts to handle phone patches between our troops stationed in the South
> Pacific islands, Korea, and limited other QTH's in Asia and their loved
> ones here in the states. Senator Goldwater's ham call was K7UGA. If you
> read what I just wrote carefully, you will notice I referred to Senator
> Goldwater's ham station, not his ham shack. Believe me; it was far from a
> shack. It was a totally separate building from his house. In fact, I was
> never in his house, just his ham station. When you walked into the front
> door of his ham quarters, you were walking into a fairly large room, about
> 20 feet wide by about 30 or more feet long. It had a really large 
> fireplace
> on the right end with a beautiful mantel that went above the fireplace the
> entire length. Senator Goldwater's Kachina Doll Collection was displayed 
> on
> that mantel and was a very precious collection. Off on the left end of 
> this
> main room was one step up to another little room that was a kitchenette
> with a very well-stocked refrigerator with all kinds of non-alcoholic
> beverages that we could drink when we were operating our shift. Of course,
> he had cups for cold water, and I think there were some snack items too,
> but I never snooped around in his kitchenette.
>
> When you walked into the front door and straight ahead was his ham
> equipment. It was the entire Collins station, receiver, transmitter, and
> amplifier. On the wall right above his ham gear was a large Bronze bust of
> General Chiang Kai-shek of Taiwan.
>
> Senator Goldwater's antenna tower was something you simply had to actually
> see to believe. First, his house and ham station were on top of a high 
> hill
> in Paradise Valley, just outside of Scottsdale, Arizona, which is just
> outside of Phoenix. The tower was on high ground to begin with, but it 
> went
> up another 75 feet to the huge, multi-element, tri-bander perched on top 
> of
> the tower. When we rotated the beam, the entire tower rotated, not just 
> the
> beam, but the entire tower. The base of the tower was bolted to the motor
> that was geared to slowly rotate the mast. The bolts were the largest 
> bolts
> I have ever seen. The head of each bolt was at least 15 inches across.
>
> That was quite an experience. At times, we were all sobbing and crying.
> Why? Because we were connecting our soldiers up with their parents, Moms
> and Dads, and their girlfriends and wives. Each soldier only had just a 
> few
> minutes to talk because we had so many to get patched into the states. The
> fellows were on places like Wake Island, Guam, Korea, and other Far East
> places. They didn't want to stop talking. The wives and girlfriends were
> crying and resisted hanging up in fear that they might never hear their
> loved one's voice ever again. The girls would cry out over and over: "I
> love you! Please, please be careful and take care of yourself! I love you;
> I love you; I love you!!" Just the memories make me choke up writing this.
>
> I'm sharing this with you because it is one more aspect of ham radio that
> never got much attention at the time, and frankly, there aren't too many 
> of
> us left that participated in these overseas phone patches that served a
> very special purpose and role in ham radio and is an important part of our
> ham radio history.
>
> Ron, K8HSY
>
>
> Dr. Ronald E. Milliman, retired Professor Western Kentucky University
> Ph: 270-782-9325
> Email: [log in to unmask]
>
> Chair, American Council of the Blind Public Relations Committee
>
> Chair, American Council of the Blind's Monthly Monetary Support Program
> (MMS) Committee
>
> President: South Central Kentucky Council of the Blind (SCKCB)