The array of people I meet when giving tours of Oak Ridge never ceases to amaze me. Recently, I had the privilege to take on a tour Major General Kenneth Nichols’ niece and her husband, along with a historian who showed great interest in our history. Of course, we went by the house where Nichols lived when he was here during the Manhattan Project.
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And then there are the even more unusual connections such as the one made with Jim Grant, who was a part of a bus tour from Florida for whom I was a step-on-guide. When we were in the Oak Ridge History Museum, Jim came up to me and said, “I want to show you something I have found.” Not knowing what artifact he might be referring to, I followed him to the Ed Westcott exhibit in the east end of the museum.
What he wanted to show me was the “QSL” (acknowledgement) card on display on the bottom shelf of the case containing many of Ed Westcott’s memorabilia. You may know this already, but I just learned what “QSL” stands for by searching for the term on Google.
From Google: The term “QSL” comes from the international Q code and means “I confirm receipt of your transmission.” A QSL card is therefore a written confirmation. The sending of QSL cards dates back to the 1920s when AM radio broadcasts were still a novelty and stations wanted to know how far away they were being received.
I took Jim’s photo pointing to the card and posted that image on Facebook, along with others from that tour. He and I agreed that his “QSL” card with call sign W4UVU was so close to Ed’s W4UVS that they could well have gotten them at the same time and place.
Read more – The Oak Ridger: https://bit.ly/3Gk3whr
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