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Helen M. Douglass Commerce, TX QCWA # 10937 A-1 Operators Club |
Helen Douglass, W5LGY, a 92 year old YL in Commerce, Texas, has an exciting and interesting story to tell. Her life has been spent proving that discrimination against the capabilities of the "fair sex" is a fallacy and working to erase these prejudices.
In 1913 Helen and her dad went to Galvaston where they visited a ship. The radio operator allowed her to listen to radio signals through his headphones and thus set a goal for this precocious 10 year old. While she was in high school one of her instructors built a radio receiver. Helen was fascinated. Her dad felt that ten dollars for a radio tube for a new-fangled gadget was a prohibitive cost for a hobby for his daughter. Helen graduated from high school at 16 as World War I ended. By the mid 20's she had earned both a BA and MA degree and spent two years teaching in a public school system.
Meanwhile, back home, her father requested her help in operating his flourishing hardware store which had been in the family 35 years. Suddenly the young woman was thrust into the hardware, plumbing and sheet metal arenas which she learned quickly and thoroughly to the surprise of the clientele but not her dad.
One evening in 1925 Helen's dad announced at dinner that he was taking on the dealership of Fada Neutradyne radio receivers, and as local representatives, the family would have the first of these miracles in their home. Her mother's reaction was negative. No one knew how to operate these contraptions let alone sell them. Her dad responded that the salesman had told him how they worked and would teach Helen how to install and operate them. The packaging of the receiver contained no written directions or manual. Helen tossed into a whole new field of endeavor as the official installer of Fada Neutradyne receivers. Somehow she succeeded, the home installation was in operation, and the Douglass family hosting "listening parties" for folks from miles around.
One Saturday a prospective customer refused to purchase a receiver because he was sure no woman could be smart enough to install it. Early the next Monday morning his wife came to the store, purchased the receiver and requested that it be installed and in operation before her husband came home for dinner. Helen made the sale and installation deadline gaining a gratified customer and proving her abilities as a radio expert.
Over the years Helen has been a prolific writer and researcher, spending spare time writing articles and columns for local papers, several trade journals and professional magazines for which she received small remuneration. These monies were put away and years later became the source of her first amateur radio equipment. In spite of the changes taking place in Helen's original plans for career, through her writing she made excellent use of her educational and family backgrounds by service to and interest in her community.
In 1939 Helen still had her interest in radio and recognized the importance of communication in a changing world. She began to study for her amateur license teaching herself code and theory. WW II intervened and she passed her test in February 1945, but had to wait till the FCC resumed licensing amateurs in 1946 before W5LGY was on the air.
Almost immediately she became a lifeline for her community in times of disaster. Ice storms in winter create havoc in her part of Texas felling trees, power and telephone lines, making road travel impossible and causing great property damage. On one occasion her own antenna was a victim of ice storm damage and required emergency replacement.
With other communications cut off from the rest of the world Helen established contacts with Texas hams calling for assistance and bringing in news from outside. Dallas contacts forwarded her reports on power disruptions and highway conditions to the Associated Press. Helen was recipient of great appreciation from her community and several ARRL Public Service Awards.
W5LGY also acted as a go-between for friends and neighbors who needed family emergency contacts which ham radio could accomplish. In 1947, her first year as a ham, Helen wrote a letter to the editor of QST which brought her responses from Italy, Australia, Switzerland and several US readers.
Among other accomplishments Helen was one of the founders of TYLRUN, (Texas Young Ladies Round-Up Net), which celebrated its 40th birthday last year in Commerce, Texas. Helen was an honored guest and enthralled the group with several stories of her early years in ham radio.
Another hobby which has been a joy for Helen and brought happiness to many children over the years was making and activating marionettes. For many years Helen and her puppets made the rounds of local schools presenting animated programs of educational and moral value to youngsters.
1995 marked Helen's 50th year as a licensed amateur. In that time she has not only been an active ham in community service but she's had fun and enjoyed the radio hobby that presented so many obstacles in becoming a reality.
Today, at 92 and legally blind, Helen resides in a nursing home in Commerce, Texas. Thanks to her indomitable spirit and the help of local OMs who are determined to keep her station operable, Helen is still on the air. She treasures her amateur radio experiences and does an excellent job of relating them. She cherishes the many fine friends that 50 years of QSOs have produced and considers ham radio the greatest of all hobbies.
Credit: 1924 Fada Neutroceiver Mode l175
Neutro Receiver