 |
Francis F. Walton Browning, IL QCWA # 07428 |
Amateur Radio and many of us have lost a great friend. Francis F. Walton, W9ACU passed away on October 20, 1997 marking the end of an era in Amateur Radio for west central Illinois. Francis joined the ARRL in 1925 at the age of 15 years old, and obtained his Amateur Radio License in 1926 as 9ACU. Sometime in the latter 1920´s the Department of Commerce (which controlled Amateur Radio at the time) added the W to the front of everyone´s call, to make Francis´s call W9ACU. Francis used batteries, a wind charger (out of necessity because it was before they had electricity on the farm), and home brewed radio equipment to make his first contacts.
Francis was a wealth of information about the beginnings of Amateur Radio as it was in its infancy when he first got involved. The ARRL had just been established some 10 or so years before he was licensed. There was never a time in Francis´s life that he was not active on the radio aside from the world war years when all of Amateur Radio was banned. Francis F. Walton was a hams ham. His radio career spanned more than 70 years. A truly great man that I am proud to say was my friend. I am sure a lot of you as well as I will miss him dearly.
Photo #2: 1929 Amateur Radio Station of 9ACU. Francis first heard Spark CW on his brother´s 3 tube Crosley receiver around 1923 when he was 14. The photo shows Francis in front of his 1929 station, with his National SW-4 receiver. Francis built a 1 tube Reinartz receiver in 1924, started practicing the code, and on September 1, 1926, he received his license and call 9ACU. Not shown in the picture was his first transmitter a Heartly 210 and batteries. The batteries gave way to a 6/350 volt dynamotor.
Photo #3: W9ACU 1933 station. The receiver in the picture is a home brew 5 tube regenative receiver. On the left is a condenser mike using 2 - 237 tubes for amplification, the transmitter, built in a wooden rack in the mid 1930´s, used 112A xtal osc, 112A buffer or doubler, the finals were a pair of 112A´s, and a dynamotor suppling 350 volts on the plates. The transmitter had two crystals 3904 and 7100 CW doubling to 14.200 phone. The Modulators were a pair of 171A tubes. It is also interesting to note that Francis did not have AC power mains on the farm until 1941. He used various methods of producing voltage from Williard Storage "B" Batteries, wind charger and a 32 volt Delco System.
Photos, credit of W1FJI Museum http://www.vistech.net/users/w1fji/w9acu.html
Tim KB9FBI
CREDITS
Photo #1: W1FJI Museum
