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Ham Radio Shep's passion from childhood

From early childhood Shep was intrigued with Radio and he began as a ham radio operator when he was about 13 years old according to his stories.

According to the October 22, 1999 ARRL Letter, Vol 18, No 42. he was issued call sign W9QWN in 1938. This is confirmed by the callsign's first appearance in the Summer 1938 Amateur Radio Callbook, which would have made Shep 16 and not 13. The last listing for W9QWN was in the Summer 1947 Callbook.

From 1947 to 1955 as he moved around Kentucky, Ohio, and PA he was issued several other call signs as was the practice at the time when moving to another radio district.

In 1955 he received his fifth call sign, K2ORS, which is the one listeners became familiar with in his stories. Accordig to the Amateur Radio Callbook for Fall 1955, the first listing for K2ORS, he was living in New Milford, NJ. He continued to use ham all through his career and was still active on the air until he died in 1999 and K2ORS* became silent.

*When the K2ORS call sign became available Shep fan Warren Ziegler quickly picked it up to insure that the call sign would continue it's connection to Shep.

Thanks to: Pete "The Greek," NL7XM, Radio Amateur Callsign Historian and Steve Glazer

Shep's Call Sign History

Callsign	Time Period (approx)	Address (as reported to FCC)
W9QWN	Spring 1938 to Summer 1947	2907 Cleveland Street, Hammond, Indiana
W4QWN	Summer 1947 to Winter 1948/1949	808 Madison Avenue, Covington, Kentucky
W8QWN	Winter 1948/1949 to Fall 1950	3440 Bishop Street, Cincinnati, Ohio
W8QWN	Fall 1950 to Winter 1951/1952	3136 Bracken Woods Lane, Cincinnati, Ohio
W3STE	Winter 1951/1952 to Spring 1954	10-B Fairfield Apartments, Wayne, Pennsylvania
W8QWN	Spring 1954 to Summer 1955	3811 North Broadlawn, Cincinnati, Ohio
K2ORS	Summer 1955 to Fall 1960	283-B Reichelt Road, New Milford, NJ
"	Fall 1960 to Winter 1962/1963	1307 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY
"	Winter 1962/1963 to Spring 1970	340 E. 57th Street, New York, NY 10022
"	Spring 1970 to Fall 1980	230 W. 10th Street, New York, NY 10014
"	Fall 1980 to Winter 1984/1985	Box 28, Buttermilk Bridge Road, RD 1, Washington, NJ 07882
"	Winter 1984/1985 to October 1999	P. O. Box 1186, Sanibel Island, FL 33957

Hammond Hams

Here is a list of known Hams in the Hammond area around 1938 when Shep was living there.

Call Sign	Name	Call Sign	Name
W9YEI	Anderson, John Stanley	W9CB	MacCalls, Thomas C. Jr.
W9ABC	Barnhart, Charles Egbert	W9PUP	Malkewicz, William A.
W9SAF	Beatty, Phillip Henry	W9QBV	Mehan, Robert C.
W9QWK	Rutkowski, Boles Stanley	W9CP	Miller, John Ralston
W9KRT	Chandler, Marshall R.	W9DDA	Miner, Jack
W9YCA	Church, Allen Wayne	W9WJU	Minor, Harold E.
W9VIZ	Delegan, John A	W9EZK	Murden, Adolphus J.
W9TEX	Fisher, John Charles	W9QWJ	Roper, Stanley Ashton
W9JZA	Galambus, Gilbert George	W9SBA	Rosinski, John A.
W9ETA	Hineline, Orville A.	W9QWN	Shepherd, Jean Parker Jr.
W9UIO	Kazen, Harold	W9QVQ	Sherry, John
W9ROF	Kocman, Edward	W9DRJ	Westerwelle, Eugene
W9LMO	Harnack, Vernon L.

An interesting article about how many of the above contributed their services as ham operators to various govenrment agencies.

Thanks to Steve Glazer

ARRL
The American Radio Relay League

ARRL - Surfin'

Stan Horzepa, WA1LOU, the Contributing Editor for Surfin', which is a weekly on-line column that appears on the American Radio Relay League (ARRL) Web page, has dedicated this weeks column to his own memories of the man who inspired so many of us.

ARRL - "Oscar and the Ham" Video

In 1975 Shep hosted a 30 minute video for the ARRL
about Oscar - the Amateur Radio Satellite

More on Oscar: http://www.astronautix.com/craft/oscar.htm

Thanks to Bill Pasternak and Mark Wilson of AARL for providing the video
and for giving permission to post the photos.

ARRL - Morse Code Training Tape	ARRL Newsletter
In 1976 Shep did the introduction to the ARRL Morse Code Training Tape. Thanks to Lowell Thelin for sending a copy from his collection	The National Association for Amateur Radio Newsletter had this article about Shep's passing away The ARRL Letter Online Volume 18, Number 42

QST Magazine

April 1967 QST Magazine

QST Profile

In an issue of QST Magazine, Shep was 'profiled' by Carol Colvin regarding his views on Ham radio.

Anyone know which issue this was? It is not Dec 1981 as previously thought.

Dayton Hamvention©

Shep appeared at the annual Dayton Hamvention three times as guest speaker.

Thanks to Bill Pasternak WA6ITF of the Amateur Radio Newsline, I have received the following two audios of Jean Shepherd K2ORS speaking at the Dayton Hamvention.

Shep tells the story of the Little Orphan Annie
secret decoder ring.

(Note: This was recorded using a microphone on a table near the dais. There is quite a bit of echo.)

Shep tells the story about how, as a kid, he got into ham radio and then about how he goes out on a blind date with Schwartz and soon realizes that HE is the blind date.

(Note: This was recorded directly off the P.A. system and the sound quality is excellent)

Audio files copyright © Dayton Amateur Radio Association
NOTE:These tapes were provided courtesy of the Dayton Amateur Radio Association for Shep fans to hear and enjoy. They remain the property of the Dayton Amateur Radio Association and may not be reproduced for the purpose of sale, rental or any other fee based purpose without the express written consent of the Association.

QSL Cards - Links

Shep's 1938 QSL card

From May 1, 1938, in the days before he was K2ORS and was almost 17 years old.

courtesy: Tony Ricicki (W2VRK)

Steve Glazer's QSL Card

Attached is my QSL card autographed by Shep with his ham radio call. I had him do it in the late 1960's at Rutgers University when he performed there.