 1929 |
 |
Eric H. Palmer Brooklyn, NY New York, NY Coney Island LI, NY Middletown, RI QCWA # 1454 |
Eric H. Palmer Jr, Born in Brooklyn NY - 6 January 1912, expiring August of 1986, the widower of Frances Miner Palmer. Their children Carol Dana and Warren Palmer, a brother Russell and sister Patricia Vigneau survive at Staten Island.
W2ATZ makes the Newspapers
Eric tells the story where his parents were worried that he spent too much time on his radio and not enough time eating, going to school, sleeping, etc. It got so bad that one night his father removed all the tubes from his radio and forced Eric to go to bed at a reasonable hour.
He said this about his father, "But he was busy, I found where the tubes were hidden, and the next night I was chinning with a chap on a boat in Shanghai".
Eric continued operating too many hours on his radio, and after switching schools then being suspended, his parents threatened to take the radio away from him.
He said, "About two months before he [his dad] had threatened to write to the Radio Commission and ask for a suspension of the license, but he felt that this would be rather foolish. Now he got so darn mad he sat before a typewriter and addressed a letter to the commission. He rushed right out and mailed it".
Someone in Washington leaked his Father's letter. Three days later the Associated Press sent out a long story about it. The story had also gone out via the United Press, the International News, and a story was even written on the first page in the New York Times, by Orrin Dunlap, Jr, the radio editor.
Now famous, Eric received copies of newspapers with his story from around the world, with headlines like:
RADIO KILLING SON, FATHER SEEKS LICENSE SUSPENSION
DAD INVOKES U.S. AID TO CURE BOY OF RADIO MANIA; ASKS LICENSE BAN
DEVOTION TO RADIO SAPS VITALITY OF BROOKLYN YOUTH
Expedition into Brazil
Thus began the next phase of Eric's radio adventures. When a noted explorer wanted to search the jungles of Brazil for treasures in lost cities, and needed a radio operator, Eric was asked, Of course his mother said no, but his dad came through and allowed him to go. So at 17, Eric was off to Rio de Janeiro and the beginning of a great two-year adventure.
Eric's first expedition into Brazil communications wise a success but funding did not materialize and was called off.
Just two years later young Eric W2ATZ was a member of 'The Nicholson Expedition'. They set up a 50 watt transmitter and Grebe CR18 receiver in an underground chamber of Carlsbad Cavern, some 400 feet underground. The antenna was a voltage fed hertz, supported by a stalactite. He logged several broadcast stations, one being W2XAF, Schenectady some 2,400 miles away. A call on 20 meters resulted in a return call from W9BCT in St. Paul, Mn. Stations in Fla and Calif were also contacted. These contacts were all made using CW - Stations in UK , Rio and Holland were also heard.
Through out the trip Eric kept regular contact with his family via ham radio with Robert M. Lloyd, W8CFR. I've included several photos from his book, including one of W8CFR's station.
Finding this book
You'll have to find a copy of this book if you want to read it. Eric's book written in 1930 'Riding the Airwaves'. I've included a photo of its unique cover to help you spot it. Copies are around, but they're not common.
There are also articles about Eric in some of the old magazines, like Radio News.
Eric Palmer Jr, W2ATZ, in his later life, became a Dentist and lived on Coney Island.
So at 17, Eric was off to Rio de Janeiro
W2EA - Otto Eppers Cartoon
Wow, a mile a minute! Kin me eyes deceive me.
Is it possible fer a kid like Palmer to shoot
out messages at such a triffic speed.
