From: "Hale, Wayne" Laurel,MD. 1960I've got tons of memories too and reading some of the stuff has jarred some
of them back to the top of the pile. One of the more out of the ordinary
things we did during my Junior year was giving the car hops at the A&W root
beer stand down at the end of Main a hard time.
I was in
the local amateur radio club and we built about 30 small two way radios that used little 19" long antennas held on top of the car with a suction cup. To keep the cost down, we used the regular car radio to listen to our
buddies. We'd have transmitter hunts during the summer, some member would hide somewhere in or around town and the rest of us would try to find him by using small direction finding antennas we'd hang
out the car windows. After the hunt,
or whenever a couple of us would get together, we'd meet at the A&W.
What made it interesting was you'd give your order to your buddy who would stop outside the parking
area where he could see the car hop come to your window to take the order. You'd sit there with your mouth clamped shut and then your order would come out of the car radio speaker as your buddy gave your order. The poor
girls would look in the back seat to see who was really
speaking and not find anyone. It was great fun to watch their expression, but of course, they eventually caught on to our hi-jinks and it lost the luster it
originally had. You always kept a hand near the volume control as you never knew for sure what your buddy might say or what off color remark he might make. The quality of the audio left a lot to be desired so there was a
certain amount on anonymity for the guy placing the order which made it even more fun.
We had one hunt where the person hiding got in the back of an old hearse
that was parked in a dark alley just off of main street. He hid his antenna
in a bush next to the hearse and it took us a long time to find him. Nobody
was brave enough to go up to the hearse and try and look in or try the door.
Jim Spencer's girlfriend finally got up the courage to peek in the window
about the time the people inside opened the door, I think she aged several
years in a couple of seconds. We were gentlemen back in those days and
didn't check to see if there was a puddle where she had been standing.
As I recall, besides myself, Barry Cook (61), Don Gwyn (60), Jim Spencer, Don
Huffaker, Bob Jackobson, and some others whose names I've forgotten participated in these games with the local radio club. The Radio Clubhouse was on the Rodeo Grounds near the Country Club. I think Allen Lee came along
on a few of these hunts with me, we were always running around together and even today, when we are both in town, enjoy "dragging main".
Don Huffaker Sheridan, WY. 1945
Re: SHS memories,A&W Rootbeer stands,
Wayne's memories sent me thinking back! Those 2 meter radio transmitter\converters he talks about were designed by Bud Mcholland
and the construction was done in his basement under his supervision. This insured
that we built them right! We had quite a group in those days. There were the high school kids like
Wayne and there were the rest of us 15 to 30 years older. We all had a great time together.
The Ham Radio clubhouse at the fairgrounds was an old surplus wartime
housing unit from down in the north part of Sheridan. I helped the movers move it to the fairground location. We took it up 8th street across the bridge and over to 5th street. We had to take one
railing off to get it across the bridge. I remember unbolting the railing and putting it back after we crossed! We did this by ourselves with no help fron city personel and no objections.Can you imagine how much paper
work it would take to get it done today!
Talk of the A and W also brings to mind memories of Hobbies? ice cream
emporium. That was our gathering place in my teen years. It was just north
of Bino's on north main. The only such place in town in those days. Great
milk shakes
A little information on Bud. I first met Bud also when he lived at Story.
t was because we were
Hams. I remembered being impressed with Buds set and the fact that he was machining a hunting rifle!
Later he moved to Sheridan and designed and built Sheridans cable television
system. I worked at KWYO at the time and the owners were also envolved in
the cable system. The cable distribution center was built at KWYO and I got
to know Bud there. Bud was an active pilot and also a builder of airplanes. He rebuilt some and built some from scratch and
helped others build planes. One he built was anaerobatic biplane that won an award at the Experimental Aircraft Association fly in. He was never satisfied unless it was perfect.
John Crawford,1953, (now deceased 6/2000)
I haven't heard of Bud for years. When we were about 10 and 11, my brother
and I went to his encampment in Story and heard him tune into the whole world
by short wave. MOST interesting. We always wondered what Bud was doing up
there. Some kind of listening post?
Thanks for sharing.
Jim Spencer,1956, Cedar Rapids, Iowa
Thanks to Wayne Hale and Don Huffaker for bringing back memories of the
exciting times in the Sheridan Amateur Radio League. The stories about
harassing the A & W car hops and the transmitter hunts are true--I'm one of
the guilty parties. Building the 2 meter radios in Bud McHolland's basement
was a great experience for a High School kid which led to a 38 year career in
engineering designing communication and aviation equipment. Amateur Radio
has been a major interest for 48 years and now that I have just retired I am
able to get spend more time with the hobby
Barry E Cook, 61, CO Springs, CO.
Hello Jim, It's good to hear from you. I'm glad you kept active in ham
radio. It seems a lot of our old buddys have lost interest and dropped
there license. I have the 99 Amateur Callbook and tried looking up some
of the old calls that I could remember, but didn't have much luck. I got
into working DX in the last solar cycle and have 312 countries worked and
288 confirmed. We should try and make a sked on HF sometime Jim, I can
work 160m to 10m and would love to chat with you.
I worked with both Bud McHolland and Bob Jacobson at Clouds Peak Cable TV
for Two summers while going to school. They always gave me the dirty jobs
like climbing telephone polls or stringing coax cables in attics with
tempetures at 120 degrees. One summer we spent two weeks on Dome Mountain installing a microwave relay station to receive a Salt Lake Tv station.
That was my first ride in a helicopter since everybody and everything
including the building, equipment, food and water had to be flown in. We
had to melt snow to make cement. It was a great experience and a
wonderful view from the top of the mountain..
