Jonesy, W3DHJ -- Penna., 1955

It is "Jonesy, W3DHJ, Colorado" now because the first "W3DHJ" was my father, Melvin R. Jones. Back then it was "Jonesy, W3DHJ, Pennsylvania". My father was a career U.S. Army officer -- serving from before WW II until his retirement as a Lt. Colonel in 1962. (Which, of course, makes me a bona fide Army Brat.)

My father was born in 1917 and grew up in Big Bear, California (as did his wife - my mom.) He started his deep, life-long interest in amateur radio in the early 1930's. He once confided in me that he did some bootlegging as "W6MJ" before he had the opportunity to travel to Los Angeles and take the FCC exam(s).

My dad first enlisted in the U.S. Army on February 26, 1937, and served his enlisted hitch in The Ordnance Dept at the brand-new Hickam Field, Hawaii. He mustered out in early 1940 and knocked about on the west coast before being swept back up by the events of December 7, 1941.

He found his prior enlistment experience was a 'plus' in those early days of the war, and he was entered into OTS (Officer Training School.) He was a 90-Day Wonder. This picture is from 1942, and was taken when he was a Lieutenant stationed at Aberdeen Proving Grounds, Maryland.

He traveled the world as a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers officer. Shortly after WW II he was assigned to the rebuilding of Tachikawa Air Base near Yokohama, Japan. My mom, along with me and my younger sister, were on the first boatload of American military dependents that sailed into Tokyo harbor after WW II. I remember, vaguely, his ham shack in a 'spare' bedroom. And, I remember his 75M and 40M dipoles hanging from tall telephone poles in our backyard in the newly-built housing area. (Being an officer in the Corps of Engineers had its perks for a die-hard amateur radio operator!) One pole also held up a homebrew 20M yagi.

He held the JA2BF license while stationed in Japan. For a time he was TDY to Clark Field in the Philippines, and I believe he operated as KA1AF while there.

After returning state-side, we moved from duty assignment to duty assignment: Florida, Utah, Wyoming, Arizona, California (twice), and Washington state. This was back in the days when the FCC required amateur radio operators to apply for a new callsign within 90 days of moving into a different call district. A couple of the calls he held during this time were: W4RYA - Fla., and W7PFM - Utah, Ariz. and Wash.

In 1952 he was transferred from The Hanford Atomic Energy Commission site in Washington state to West Germany (USAREUR) as Deputy Post Engineer of The Bremerhaven Port Of Embarkation (B.P.O.E.). There he was licensed as DL4ER and his ham shack (again, a 'spare' bedroom) contained a BC-610 transmitter and an HRO-50 receiver.

He had a 50 foot 'shop-built' tower and a full-sized, interlaced 10-15-20M 'shop-built' yagi on top -- rotated by a war surplus prop-pitch motor and aimed with a pair of war surplus selsyn motors. (Again, being an officer in the Corps of Engineers had its perks.)

In April, 1953 he was promoted to Major. Then in May, 1955 he was transferred back to the states -- as Post Engineer for The Valley Forge Army Hospital near Phoenixville, Penna. And, as was required, he applied to the FCC for a new. in-district callsign.


1955:

W3DHJ - "Double Headed Jones"

This was a "PR" picture dated "Sept., 1955" taken at Valley Forge Army Hospital for the post newspaper. It probably accompanied some sort of Introduction-to-the-new-Post-Engineer article. No doubt the intent was to show his 'softer side' as an amateur radio operator. HI!HI!

The vehicle is a 1955 Ford station wagon. No air bag on that steering wheel, and no safety belts were needed when you had a 16 gauge steel dashboard protecting you!

The mobile equipment consisted of a Harvey-Wells TBS-50C "BandMaster Senior" transmitter (AM - 50W Input) bolted to the drive shaft hump and dashboard. It is crystal controlled in this picture. Later he added the Harvey-Wells BandMaster VFO. For receiving he used a Gonset HF converter (bolted to the steering column) piped into the car's AM radio. (You encountered damn few 'appliance operators' in those days!)

We lived in Creamery -- some 30 miles northwest of Valley Forge Army Hospital. This rental house had no 'spare' bedroom, so the ham shack was in one corner of the kitchen! My mother, a life-long suffering Army Wife and a life-long suffering XYL, was a saint!

His "shack" consisted of a National HRO-50 receiver, a National speaker, and a Central Electronics Sideband Slicer in a short 19 inch rack, together with a Hammarlund HC-10 SSB Adapter, a Collins 32V-3 transmitter, a Central Electronics 20A exciter, an Astatic D-104 microphone, a Phone Patch (remember those?) and an clunky, black telephone -- all sitting atop a Johnson Viking Kilowatt Desk! -- in the corner of the kitchen!!! That's the kitchen table by his right forearm! His operating chair - when turned around - became his kitchen chair! My mother was an über saint!

The mannequin head was a gag gift to Ol' Double Head from a fellow ham.

If you click on the image to the right (or, above right), you'll load a 300kB copy (in a new window or tab) and you can spend some time, yourself, trying to locate and identify all the gear there -- including things I may have missed. Email me any discrepancies, please.

In the backyard were two telephone poles holding up a 75M dipole, an HF yagi, and a 10M ground plane. The 75M dipole was put to use on the Pennsylvania Phone Net -- evenings on 3,815 Kcs (AM).

It was during these next 3 years (1955-56-57) that my dad first took an interest in SSB -- using the necessary adapters for the Collins 32V-3 transmitter and the HRO-50 receiver. He spent his evenings with the gang that camped out on 3999.9 Kcs. -- lower sideband.

Also, he took an interest in 10M mobile and was quite active in the Phil-Mont Mobile Radio Club. A tribute article about him in the PMRC Blurb can be found here. The club freq's were 29.493 and 28.888 Mcs. back in those days. He was also very, very active with The North Penn Amateur Radio Club -- loosely centered on Montgomery County. The club freq. was 29.520 Mcs. He served in many officer positions in both clubs - including serving as president of each. I was 'active' with him (tho' unlicensed myself, at the time), and we shared times at Field Day, at the frequent auctions held during club meetings, and on the monthly 10M Hidden Transmitter Hunts. Great Days, those!

In early 1958, he was assigned to MAAG (Military Advisory & Assistance Group) Headquarters in Saigon, South Viet-Nam. He spent a year there without us (- the family), and during that time, he and another fellow ham stationed in Saigon, got the W3ZA/3W license under 'special circumstances' -- because South Viet-Nam, along with Albania, East Germany, and a few others were FCC "banned countries" for U.S. amateur radio operators at the time. They operated a MARS station and some amateur HF. After doing some research, I found a reference in the Dec'58 QST, page 87, left column: "W8YIN perceives W3DHJ performing as W3ZA/3W's second op on 20 side band".

In 1959 he returned from South Viet-Nam and was assigned as The Post Engineer at The Philadelphia Quartermaster Depot in south Philadelphia. So, he was able to keep his W3DHJ callsign. Now we lived in a rented house in Rahns -- out in Montgomery County near the old Creamery QTH -- and this time there was a 'spare' bedroom to make over as a ham shack.

Upon his return from Vietnam he picked right back up where he left off: active once again with The Phil-Mont Mobile Radio Club and The North Penn Amateur Radio Club; active on 75M SSB; and active on 10M mobile during the daily 40 mile one-way commute between home and south Philadelphia.

I highlight the 75M SSB, because he was an "evangelical" convert from AM to SSB. He had started "dabbling" in SSB operating when he returned from Germany in 1955, but that activity had been put on hold while he was in Viet-Nam. Back in the day operating SSB was not straightforward. One need to hack into the receiver and lash up an external product detector -- which was superior to using the internal CW BFO. As well, one had to build or buy a (usually) phasing exciter and inject the signal into the transmitter/ amplifier chain at some point.

There were Great Debates in the day about whether phasing or filtering was the proper way to generate single sideband suppressed carrier signals. Phasing was simpler for the homebrewer, but took a lot of (constant) fiddling to "get it right". Filtering -- using expensive crystals for the filter -- offered a more "set it and forget it" process, but the expense of the crystals made it prohibitive for many.
There were no transceivers in those days. One operated with a separate transmitter (or, exciter plus amplifier) and a separate receiver. And, it took a bit of technical skill to cobble up proper SSB receive and transmit function(s).

My dad was a member of the SSB Amateur Radio Association ("An organization of licensed radio amateurs dedicated to furthering SSB") -- loosely concentrated in the E. Penna., New Jersey, New York, and New England area. They hung out most evenings on 3999.9 Kcs lower sideband -- or so they claimed -- because with suppressed carriers and no upper sideband in their "pristine" signals they were operating with full legality within the 75M band.

To the right (above) is a clipping from the February, 1960 SSBARA newsletter, The Sidebander, announcing my dad's presentation about his Viet-Nam army tour as the program for the meeting in the NBC Studios building at 30 Rockerfeller Center, NYC.

Field Day 1960 with The North Penn Amateur Radio Club. That's him at the mic. in the photograph -- with me logging -- on the tailgate of a station wagon. That's a Central Electronics 100V exciter in front of my OM, and I'm sitting in front of an Hammarlund HQ-180 receiver. The mic. was his -- I recognize it in the picture as one of the microphones I got from his estate. Field Day was a lot different in the days of vacuum tubes! The club had at least 2 bodacious, trailer-mounted, gasoline-powered, exhaust belching generators that required constant attention to run the full 24 hours of the 'contest'.

He still had the Johnson Viking Kilowatt Desk. For awhile, an HRO-60 replaced his old HRO-50 receiver. Later he upgraded to a NC-303 receiver (which I still have.) I forget what SSB exciter he had. And, once again, in the backyard were two telephone poles holding up a 75M dipole, an HF yagi, and a 10M ground plane. He loved those telephone poles!

He was promoted to Lt. Colonel in June, 1961. This was his last duty assignment until his retirement in September, 1962. (I had graduated from high school and enlisted in the U.S. Air Force in 1961.) This unmarked and undated photograph is believed to have been taken just shortly before his retirement. Upon his retirement, he and my mother moved to Glenwood Springs, Colorado. Once again, as was dictated by the FCC, he was forced to to give up his W3 callsign and apply for a new one in the tenth-call district.

He was assigned the call letters: WØHLD. "Here Lies Doublehead" as his old buddies back in Pennsylvania proclaimed.

For a number of years he and my mom traveled with a trailer throughout the American southwest, and into N.W. Mexico. He operated mobile with a Hallicrafters SR-150 during those days

His final station setup consisted of a Kenwood TS-520, the SM-520 station monitor, and alternated between the Johnson Viking Kilowatt Desk and a kit-built Heathkit SB-220 that was a piece of art. I still use his TS-520 on the (pre-WARC) HF bands. His telephone pole climbing days were behind him, and he was using a CushCraft A3-S tri-bander on top of a tilt-over, crank-up mast.

He died in a V.A. Nursing Home in Rifle, Colorado at the age of 78 in November, 1995 due to COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease.) His early death can be blamed on smoking 2-3 packs of Chesterfields per day for as long as (or longer than) he had been licensed.

Over his long running Amateur Radio years he held or operated under the following calls: W6MRJ , W4RYA , KA1AF , JA2BF , J2NZI , W7PFM , DL4ER , W3ZA/3W , W3DHJ , W0HLD -- that I know of now; there could have been more. Some of his duty assignments were so short that he probably had no time to to apply for, and receive, a new call for the new district he was (temporarily) in.

It was in the early Summer after his death (1996) that the FCC instituted the "Close Relative of Former Holder, now Deceased, Provision" under the "Vanity Callsign Program" whereby I, as his son and a licensed amateur radio operator (WBØGNO), could apply for his call. And, it was no longer an FCC requirement that license holders be assigned in-district callsigns.

My dad was never 'excited' about his last callsign: WØHLD. It didn't carry the 'cachet' that his old W3DHJ did. I, too, held the old W3DHJ call letters in more reverence. I did some research and it had never been reassigned since he had given it up in 1962. So, with photocopies of his old FCC licenses, I applied for it. It was with great excitement that, late in July of 1996, I saw my new call letter assignment in the FCC database. It was several hours later - when I was starting to calm down - that I realized that the date of issue: July 24, was my dad's birthday!

My dad was a great tinkerer, as well as a great operator. He built almost all of the antennas he used over the years. He constructed many pieces of equipment from QST articles. He applied his engineering talents and attention to detail to his homebrew gear. Each was a piece of art -- neat, tidy -- no haywire jobs for him.

From time-to-time, I run into some of dad's old friends on the bands. And, I keep in touch with several by email. I know of a couple of active hams that were about a half-generation younger than my dad, and who were elmer'ed (mentored) and coached by him during their 'formative', novice amateur radio days. They still remember him vividly. Since this web page went 'live', I've heard from a couple more hams from back in those days -- the last in a June, 2018 email out of the blue. But, as time marches on, there will be fewer and fewer around and active that I'll be able to say "Hi!" to and exchange memories of him.

What we do today is possible because we are standing on the shoulders of giants.

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Last updated: 03-Mar-26 -- now "Mobile Friendly"