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Perry F. Crabill Winchester, VA QCWA # 03726 Chapters 20 & 137 |
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Perry Franklin Crabill Jr., 97, of Frederick County, Virginia, passed away at home of natural causes March 7, 2018.
He was born September 9, 1920 near Waterlick, Virginia, at his Grandfather Barr's home in Powell's Fort Valley, the first of Perry F. Crabill Sr. and Ethel Barr Crabill's six children.
Perry grew up in Northeast Washington, D.C. and graduated from Eastern High School in 1938.
He became an amateur radio operator with the call letters W3HQX after graduating. Perry attended Bliss Electrical School in Takoma Park, Maryland, graduating 1939.
Perry's first job was in 1939 as an electrician's helper with the U.S. Engineering Department, which was supervising the construction of Washington National Airport on the Potomac River above Alexandria. He worked the midnight shift on the project, caring for electric generators floodlighting excavation and fill areas, resigning in November 1939 to accept a Central Office craftsman's job with C&P Telephone at its Downtown Dial Center in Washington, D.C.
During WW-II Perry was classified as 1-A by his draft board, but received three six-month deferments because of the Downtown Dial Center's importance to the federal government's war effort.
On January 22, 1944, Perry married 2nd Lt. Harriet Frances Moist of the U.S. Army Nurse Corps, who was stationed at Walter Reed Army Hospital in Washington. The wedding was held at the Church of the Brethren in Lewistown, Pennsylvania, Harriet's hometown.
Perry and Harriet lived in Washington, D.C. until September 1944, when he was drafted into the Navy as a Radio Technician Trainee because of his amateur radio experience.
After Boot Camp at Great Lakes Naval Training Station in Illinois, Perry attended a series of Navy radio schools. He graduated from the Radio Materiel School at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C., as an Electronic Technician's Mate 2nd Class in January 1946. His training included radar and sonar, along with transmitters and receivers for voice and Morse code. he was the third man in his class.
Upon graduation, Perry was sent to the Algiers Naval Base at New Orleans, Louisiana, a radio maintenance facility for U.S. Navy installations in the Gulf area.
In March 1946, Perry was discharged from the Navy. He returned to his previous job at C&P Telephone, living in the house that he and Harriet had bought in Prince George's County, Maryland while he was at the Navy radio school in Washington, D.C.
In 1948 Perry transferred to the C&P Radio and TV Center. This location was the control point for local wire channels for radio and TV broadcasting and mobile radio service, and for temporary microwave relay of remote TV pickups. In 1949 this center handled President Truman's inauguration, the first time that this event had been televised.
Later in 1949, Perry was transferred to work on the new A4A four-wire toll switching system being installed in Washington.
Perry was promoted 1953 to a management job in C&P Engineering to work on Transmission Engineering for TV and radio services. He was responsible for planning the local network of 50 temporary TV channels in 1957 for President Eisenhower's second inauguration. Other duties included clearing cases of noise and interference to telephone systems and designing special circuits.
In later years Perry became involved in systems engineering for high-speed digital channels and other services for various three-letter U.S. Government agencies, as well as the White House.
Perry retired from C&P Telephone on September 9, 1981 at the age of 61, after 41 years and 9 months of service.
He and Harriet moved to the Winchester area July 31, 1982, to live happily ever after.
His hobbies included amateur radio, photography, and astronomy. Perry enjoyed going on group hikes organized by Frederick and Clarke Counties, and made many friends on these outings. He has collected stories of 293 of these hikes from 1983 to his last hike in 2005, when he was 85. They are in three-ring binders labeled Hikes, Nature Walks, and Other Outdoor Adventures of Perry F. Crabill Jr.
Perry and Harriet enjoyed attending local theatrical performances at the Winchester Little Theater, Wayside Theatre, and Shenandoah College, which later became Shenandoah University. They also went to productions at the Old Opera House in Charles Town, West Virginia.
Perry was fond of Bluegrass music and attended with Harriet many of the Wednesday night Bluegrass concerts held by Red & Murphy Henry in the basement of Dalton Brill's Barbershop on Winchester's Old Town Mall. They also attended Handley Library's Noon Music concerts over the years.
The Lunch Bunch program in Winchester, Virginia, was started in 1983 by Perry. It was intended to give local amateur radio operators, their wives, and friends an opportunity to get together for informal luncheons on a regular basis. The first luncheon was attended by six people, who decided to meet on the second and fourth Wednesday monthly. Before long attendance averaged 30 people, including residents of Maryland, the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan area, West Virginia and even Pennsylvania. Lunch Bunch is now only on second Wednesday, with attendance averaging a dozen or more.
Perry wrote about these and their other doings in a journal that he had begun in Maryland as soon as he had retired. It expanded in scope as he and Harriet began their new life in Virginia. This journal was a fairly detailed account of their activities, and twice a month installments were sent to family members. He kept writing his journal as along as he was able to use his computer.
The paper archive of the journal is intended to be donated to the Stewart Bell Jr. Archives of Handley Regional Library in Winchester.
Perry enjoyed writing, and frequently contributed Letters to the Editor of The Winchester Star. He also had 16 Slice of Life stories and 14 Piece of Mind stories published in The Star when those features were running. In addition, the nationally syndicated newspaper columns Hints from Heloise and Dear Abby have printed a number of his contributions. For eight years he edited a monthly newsletter for the Blue Ridge Life Member Chapter of the Telephone Pioneers.
Perry was a life member of the American Radio Relay League, Telephone Pioneers of America, Quarter Century Wireless Association, and Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation (AMSAT).
He was also a member of Preservation of Historic Winchester, the Winchester-Frederick County Historical Society, and previously belonged to the Alexander Bell Pioneer Repeater Association, National Radio Club, Shenandoah Valley Amateur Radio Club, Shenandoah Astronomical Society, Blue Ridge Fine Arts League, and the Hottel-Keller Memorial.
For many years Perry took daily morning exercise walks carrying a hand-held amateur radio, talking to friends who were commuting to work. Eventually these conversations included trivia questions, known as Questions of the Day. These QODs attracted considerable interest and covered a variety of subjects of Perry's choosing.
He carried on this activity from October 1993 until December 2007, operating from his home station when he had to give up his morning walks because of aging. His last QOD was #1854, and he has saved printouts of all of them.
Another of Perry's interests was dining out, especially as restaurants opened up in the area with new ethnic cuisines as well as the usual varieties. He began writing reviews of his dining experiences and submitting them to Wincfood.com, a local on-line restaurant directory; and over 100 of his reviews have appeared in these listings. Perry also distributed the reviews to family members and friends as e-mail attachments. Although Perry didn't claim to be a gourmet, his dining-out advice was sought after by friends.
Perry was able to drive until about halfway into his 96th year, when he became handicapped from a fall and had to use a walker. He still enjoyed eating out and shopping when his daughter Susan or a friend would take him with his walker. This enabled him to continue with writing and distributing his restaurant reviews.
Surviving are four children, David W. Crabill of San Jose, California, Martha A Crabill of Williams, Arizona, Susan F. Crabill of Winchester, Virginia, and Richard A. Crabill of Gwynn Oak, Maryland; brothers, Norman L. Crabill of Newport News, Virginia, and Jack A. Crabill of Mitchellville, Maryland; six grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.
Perry was preceded in death by his parents; his wife, Harriet; his sister, Anne Crabill Glick; his brothers, Roger D. Crabill and Ward B. Crabill; his son, Peter M. Crabill; and his daughter, Virginia R. Crabill.
A secular memorial service will be held at Jones Funeral Home, 228 South Pleasant Valley Road, Winchester, VA 22601 on March 24, 2018 at 3 p.m.
Memorial contributions may be made to the Calvary Church of the Brethren's Building Fund at 578 Front Royal Pike, Winchester, VA, 22602, in honor of the memory of Perry's wife, Harriet Crabill, an active and involved member of the church for years.
From www.qrz.com
My call is the original W3HQX and dates back to August, 1938, a month before I was 18 years old. I took the Amateur Class B Exam at the FCC location in Washington, DC. I was living with my parents at 1116 Staples Street, NE, Washington, DC and operated from that location until the FCC closed down amateur radio operation on December 8, 1941, after Pearl Harbor. My initial operation was on 40 meter CW with a 47 pentode crystal oscillator on 7,032 kc with maybe a couple of watts output.
The three-tube receiver had an untuned screengrid RF stage, screengrid regenerative detector, and pentode audio output; transmitter and receiver were homebuilt. The most expensive item was $3.35 for the Bliley BC-3 crystal. The antenna was an insulated wire running over the ridgepole of the house to a telephone pole in the back alley. A knife switch transferred the antenna from the receiver to the transmitter. It took three days of calling stations and CQ before my first contact with a local.
In those days only CW was allowed for US amateurs in the 40 meter band. Also, Class B amateurs could operate phone only on 160 meters, 10 meters and VHF; a Class A license was required for phone on 20 and 75 meters. There was no 15 meter band; that came in 1947. As I improved my skills and equipment I was able to reach out farther and even work VEs. After I had held the Class B license for a year I took the Amateur Class A Exam at the FCC in 1939 and passed it the first time. The Eighth ARRL Field Day in 1940 marked my first participation in this annual operating event. The official hours were beginning at 4:00 PM Local Time on Saturday, June 22, and ending at 6:00 PM on Sunday, June 23.
My 40-meter Field Day CW station was battery-powered, home-built, and very simple. The transmitter was a single-tube crystal-controlled oscillator on 7,032 kc/s using a type 33 power pentode, with 3.4 watts input. The receiver was a single-tube regenerative receiver with a type 30 triode with headphones. Both tubes had 2.0 volt filaments, and were powered by dry cells. I built this station specifically for this operation.
The antenna was a 66-foot half-wave antenna using a single-wire matched impedance feed, a predecessor of the Windom antenna. It was only about 18 feet above ground, supported by 1x1-inch pieces of lumber bolted together. I also built the antenna system, using No. 22 tinned wire, and it was the first time that I used that kind of antenna. My antenna at home was a 66-foot Inverted L. I don.t remember what we used for a ground for Field Day.
This was a three-operator station. Merlin Olmstead, W3HSD, and Marion Shorb, W3IFF, and I pooled all of our 45-volt dry batteries for plate power. Merlin had the use of a small Ford sedan, and provided our transportation to the Field Day site in an open field off Wheeler Road, in a rural area of Prince Georges County, Maryland, just outside Washington, DC. Our operation was for one day only, on Saturday.
My log shows that Marion, W3IFF, made our first contact at 11:43 AM with W8LZK, Toledo, Ohio. Signals were 579x both ways. Merlin had gone home to listen to our signal at his home station W3HSD, nearby, and at 12:00 PM I worked him with signals 599x both ways. At 12:18 PM Marion QSOd W2MRN, John, in Garfield, New Jersey. He was 589x and we were 579x. Merlin was back at 2:55 PM and worked W8NUJ in Pennsylvania with 569x signals both ways. None of the foregoing QSOs counted for Field Day because they were prior to the official starting time of 4:00 PM. I made our only bona fide Field Day contact at 4:37 PM, with W1EH/1 in Connecticut. Signals were 579x both ways.
I should comment about the station in Pennsylvania using a W8 call. At that time the FCC assigned the Western part of Pennsylvania to the Eighth Call District, and the Eastern part to the Third Call District. After WW-II the entire state was in the Third Call District. Western New York was also in the Eighth Call District, and the Eastern part was in the Second Call District. After WW-II the entire state was in the Second Call District.
Also note that in those days crystal control was used by almost all stations. As a result, after you made a call, you tuned up and down the band, above and below your frequency, to see if anyone was calling you. Conversely, if you were looking for a contact, you tuned around up and down the band looking for stations calling CQ. If there wasn't much activity, your QSO might be with a station 20 or 30 kc/s or even further from your frequency.
I was so pleased with that single wire matched impedance antenna that I installed it at home later, replacing the Inverted L. It gave me better signals on the West Coast, along with my first contact with Hawaii on 40 meters. This antenna also worked well on 20 meters later when I had that capability. I used that antenna until the FCC closed down amateur radio operations in December 1941.
I had very limited funds, but was able to print my own QSL cards on US penny post cards. My father had a printshop in the basement as a sideline to his US government job, and I was allowed to use it. I had taken print shop at Eliot Junior High School and learned how to set type and run a printing press. Several people who received my QSLs asked me to print cards for them, and I made a little money for my radio hobby that way. Some of my QSLs on US penny postcards have been posted on the Internet.
Local VHF activity in those days was mostly on the 5-meter band, 56-60 megacyles, or on 2-1/2 meters, 112-116 megacycles, using simple two-tube equipment. In metropolitan areas the 5-meter band was quite popular with bootleggers; i.e., unlicensed operators, who weren't often bothered by the FCC because they didn't interfere with BCB radio reception. I decided to get on 2-1/2 meters because the antennas were smaller.
The two-tube rig I built for 2-1/2 meters had a 7A4 loctal triode that was a super-regenerative detector when receiving and a self-excited modulated oscillator when transmitting. A 6K6 pentode audio power amplifier drove a loudspeaker when receiving and modulated the oscillator while transmitting, with speech input from a carbon mike. The plate to grid audio transformer had a third winding for the microphone, and a four-pole double-throw Mallory rotary switch changed connections from send to receive. I used the transceiver both as a base station feeding a vertically polarized dipole antenna, with rubber lamp cord as the feed line instead of coax, and an AC power supply. I also used it as a mobile station in my 1935 Packard 120 sedan with a Mallory synchronous Vibropack.
Some local hams built special 2-1/2 meter receivers using the 955 acorn tube triode as the super-regenerative detector. Because of its structure, the 955 had lower losses at VHF. Occasionally, people made DX-peditons to Skyline Drive in Shenandoah National Park on weekends to see if they could make it back to Washingon from east-looking overlooks. These tests were marred by the radiation by people listening with super-regenerative detectors which didn't have an RF amplier stage, and I don't remember anyone making the path successfully.
During a trip to the World's Fair in New York in September of 1940 I was able to visit W2USA, the Fair's amateur radio station that used the latest equipment donated by manufacturers. Visiting hams were allowed to operate it if they had their amateur radio license with them. I had previously arranged with Marion Shorb, W3IFF, to put my station W3HQX on the air around 3 o'clock on Saturday, September 21. I was able to contact it from the Fair, so I could hear how my signal sounded to other hams. I found that it had a slight key-up back-wave because the crystal oscillator ran continuously and the 45 final was not properly neutralized. It was quite a thrill to hear my signal from 200 miles from home.
In January of 1941 two of my younger brothers also obtained Class B licenses. Roger became W3JGJ and Ward became W3JGK. Each of them had his own transmitter, receiver, and operating position in different parts of the basement from mine. The antenna could be patched to any of the three stations We erected a second antenna, but found that the key clicks were so severe with simultaneous operation that both contacts had to be local.
As a member of the Washington Radio Club I was involved with President Franklin Roosevelt's third Inauguration on Monday, January 20, 1941. The club provided radio communications between Red Cross first aid stations along the inaugural parade route and a base station at Red Cross Headquarters at 17th and E Streets, NW. I was second op in a car parked in the Pennsylvania Avenue area near Constitution Avenue with Ted Diedrich, W3HIQ, using battery-operated equipment Ted had built and set up in the back seat. The transmitter was crystal-controlled and the receiver was a superhet, as I remember. We operated in the simplex on a common frequency for all stations, with net discipline.
We weren't located next to the aid station we supported, but a Boy Scout was our runner to carry messages back and forth. No real emergencies happened, and the message traffic was routine. I didn't get to see the parade because of where we were parked, but I had the thrill of participating in the biggest public event happening in the country that day. Franklin was the only US president who was elected three times.
When the War Emergency Radio Service was activated in WW-II as a part of the Civil Defense organization, I was one of the operators assigned to the WERS station at the Ninth Precinct Metropolitan Police Station in Northeast DC, with a ground plane antenna with six radials fed with copper tubing coax with ceramic insulators, assembled by Ted Diedrick, W3HIQ. We manned the station every time there was an air raid drill. My job as a switchman at the C&P Telephone Company dial office in Downtown DC allowed me three six-month draft deferments because it served the White House, Navy Department, War Department, and Pentagon.
I was married in January of 1944. I was finally drafted in September 1944, and entered the Navy as a radio technician trainee after taking the Eddy Test to check on my knowledge of radio fundamentals. After boot camp at the Great Lakes Naval Training Station in the Chicago area, I attended Preradio School at Wright Junior College in Chicago, Primary Radio School at Bliss Electrical School in Takoma Park, Maryland, and Radio Materiel School at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, DC. Meanwhile, my wife and I bought a home in Prince Georges County, Maryland while I was attending the school at NRL and living off-base. I graduated as third man in the class with the rating of Electronic Technician's Mate, Second Class, ETM2C, and was sent to the Algiers Naval Base in New Orleans in January of 1946. I was discharged in March of 1946 and returned to my home in Maryland and my job with as a dial switchman at C&P Telephone in Washington.
In 1946, when amateurs were allowed to get back on the air on part of the 80 meter CEW band after WW-II, I operated CW from my Maryland QTH using a 6V6 crystal oscillator, with a Philco Model 635 All-Wave receiver equipped with a BFO and a 135-foot inverted L antenna. I also modified my 2-1/2 meter transceiver to operate on the postwar 2 meter band, but soon bought an SCR-522 VHF war surplus aircraft rig that allowed me to use crystal control and more power.
