WØCW - May 26, 2003

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Mayo J. 'Mac' Mc Allister Leewood, KS QCWA # 4275 Chapter 35

Recently we lost one of the best and brightest members of the KCDX Club, Mayo 'Mac' McAllister. It was not a big suprise as his health had been failing - but his spirit never wavered. Before he died, Mac asked me to help him pass his call along to the KCDX club. It's been an honor to get this last job done for him.

Mac was quite a guy - always inclusive, always interested, always a joy to be around. He was a gentleman in every sense of the term.

Below is the obit that Bill McGrannahan wrote for the Fall QCWA Quarterly. It tells quite a story. Mac was an original - in an age of originals - he stood out. We at the KCDX Club will miss him very much. Thanks Mac. WØCW lives on!

It is with profound regret that we announce the loss of one of our founding members (QCWA), Mayo 'Mac' McAllister - WØCW. He was a "hams' ham", well known to the DX community. He was first licensed in 1934 as W9UQV. Upon graduation from high school he attended the Kansas City Community College. Then came WWII. He took a civil service appointment to the U.S. Army at Wright Field, working with the Communications and Navigation Group. He was then assigned to the U.S. Army Air Corps. Finally the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) requested his services. He was given a rating equivalent to first lieutenant.

After WWII he joined the Pennsylvania State University engineering department where he did wind tunnel research and taught UHF techniques. There he met and married Jeanne Walters. Jeanne, who now survives him, holds the amateur call, WØJJC. Shortly thereafter they moved to Kansas City, established a home and a business, and have lived here ever since.

DX, especially CW / DX, was Mac's favorite part of amateur radio. Many of you old time DXers will recall some of the rare countries that he and his friends put on the air. For example, Mac along with WØAIW (now WØAR) and WØFNO (SK) put the French islands of St. Pierre & Miquelon on the air. This was in 1951. The call was FP8AN.

In 1956 the island of Socorro (500 miles west of the Mexican coast) was on the air as XE4A. Mac was with this group too. They had quite an adventure involVing a hurricane. (See: QST - August 1956; Socorro Island - 1958 by Lee Bergren, WØAIW and Mike Carmichael, MD, WØMAF (SK).

1959 - July - Mac and Jeanne, WØJJC, along with two amateur operators from Rome. Operated out of an old castle in San Marino as IlZFF/MI. San Marino is the smallest republic in Europe, covering only 23 square miles. The most difficult part of the adventure was getting Mac's radio gear out of Italian customs in Rome before driving to San Marino!

Later the McAllisters put several of the Caribbean islands on the air.

Among Mac's other interests was aviation. He was an officer in the Civil Air Patrol. He served in all of the various offices in Chapter 35 - some of them twice. All his many friends and family will sorely miss him.

Mac McAllister, WØCW (ex-WØUQV), of Leawood, Kansas, died May 26. He was 82. An ARRL Life Member, McAllister and Lee Bergren, WØAR, were partners in several businesses including Radio Industries that manufactured the Loudenboomer linear in the early 1960s. They eventually sold the company to Hallicrafters, where they formed the basis for a line of Hallicrafters linears such as the HT-45. WØCW and WØAR also participated in DXpeditions together, and McAllister was one of the first to operate from Aldabra (VQ9). At one point he was at the top of the DXCC list. Survivors include his wife Jeanne, WØJJC, Jeanne.