End of a "Love-Hate" relationship
"Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust"......If you can't talk it ain't my fault!
I am going to tell you about the end of a “Love-Hate” relationship; after inquiring about an old nemesis of mine, my friend told me that he had passed away almost a year ago. I felt a certain emptiness.
Let me start at the beginning, in 1977, I started working for my “Elmer”, W8ERG (sk) , he taught me everything there was to know about RF receiving and transmitting. Radio operators traveled 100’s of miles to patronize our shop. He build custom equipment, it was there that I was introduced to the 8877 tube.
By 1983, I built the first mobile amplifier using (6) 4CX250b tubes with the B+ supplied from a 3 Phase Alternator driven transformer. By 1985, I was a Superbowl Operator, the baddest one in town. I was so bad that my Elmer came to me and begged me not to key on / beat up on our customers because it was bad for business. ALL of the other operators wanted to be like me when they “Grew Up”.
Fast forward to 2002, I have long abandoned eleven meters but, my reputation was legion and it preceded me through the years, there wasn't anyone in town who could repair W8ERG’s amplifiers and, there were a lot of them out there. I get a phone call about a repair job and, I take care of it. This fellow has heard me / about me and wants to know if I can make him the local Superbowl King. I told him that if he had the money, I would put him on top of the world. And, I did; he was like E. F. Hutton, “When he spoke, people listened”, he had “Clear Channel Coverage” like Radio Station WLW. An eight element beam that was 40 foot in the air gave him an ERP of 200,000 watts in the forward direction.
In 2003, he commissions me to build him a single 4-1000z appliance that operated with 5200 VDC on the plates. All went well; in 2004, he commissions me to build a two hole 4-1000z appliance. This time it didn't go well, he paid for the components like tubes, transformer, vacuum variables but, he could not come up with the money to pay for the construction. He wanted me to let him “try it out first” and then we would talk about money. He had cooked his brain setting too close to his RF appliances. I said no deal and we were at an impasse.
After a month, I carefully disassembled the amplifier (completely) and gave him all of his components back in separate boxes; boy was he pissed, he was so pissed that he pulled a weapon on me. I backed out of his garage with my hands above my head and, called the local Police who came and arrested him. There was a trial.
He had a high priced lawyer, I had a Masonic brother as a judge and two witnesses; he was found “Guilty!”
He found a ”Lie Detector Expert” and took a Polygraph Test. His $200/hr Lawyer “Proffered” the results to the court and he was granted an appeal with another judge who decided that he was “Not Guilty” of Menacing because I didn't piss my pants and run away in fear when he pulled the gun. So, I must not have really felt “menaced” by him and his weapon. He paid the court system seven times more money than he would have had to pay me for the construction.
After the incident, he became a pariah in the local radio community and without my expertise, he quickly sank into the mud, he had no luck with equipment and, no one would do any work for him so, he had to travel to Memphis, Tennessee to get repairs. We would pass each other at local events and, in 2010 I asked him was it really worth all that and he said, “Gone Melvin, you have cost me too much money!”
I’m sorry too hear that he passed, I have no one to hate anymore.
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