| In Tune With the Past |
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| Retiree Repairs Antique Radios & Test Equipment Condensed from an article in The Courier-Journal Newspaper, Tuesday March 14th 2002 edition. |
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| Wendell E. Hall working on a old battery powered farm radio |
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| Updated 04/28/2003 |
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| One of Hickocks first Tube testers |
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| 3 old tube testers |
| After nearly 60 years of repairing radios, test equipment and other electronics, Wendell E. Hall jokes that striving to keep up through tubes, then solid-state and then digital, "At some time I just gave up." Wendell has happily gone back to his roots, repairing and restoring antique radios, phonographs, tube testers, test equipment and other tube equipment. Working off little more than a classified ad in Antique Radio Classified (www.antiqueradio.com) and word of mouth Wendell receives, restores and ships items around the world. In his shop Wendell has created his own Nirvana. In a virtual museum of antiques, where deer have been known to peer through the windows. Wendell works off his half-century of experience and technical manuals as old as he is. Wendell said "One of my radios is the same vintage I am; 74 years old. That radio most curious feature is a convex speaker, where the cone points outward, opposite the way speakers are built today." Asked about the unusual design, the plain spoken shrugs and says. " Well, they had to start somewhere. The older radios, the main thing that goes wrong with them are the condensers. A lot of guys do what we call a 'shotgun' they just replace all them. Which is a good idea. Usually when you go into a rebuild, why, you just go in and replace all of the condensers. You'll have resistors that will change values, and that sort of thing. |
| Wendell puts in 20 to 40 hour weeks at his shop where his most lucrative niche is repairing old tube testing equipment, some of which dates to 1927. " I couldn't do what I do now if I wasn't retired basically if I make my shop's rent money, if I don't have to pay rent out of my pocket, I'm lucky. It just gives me something to do and some reason to go to work in the morning." Born in Louisville, Kentucky, where his father trained race horses, Wendell and his family moved to Missouri about 6 months after his birth. He attended grade school in nine states, by his own count, as his family followed the racing circuit across the country. In 1946, after a stint in the Navy he arrived at Fort Knox as a civilian employee for the Army and began plying his trade, going on to operate his own radio and appliance repair and other business before returning to Fort Knox in 1983 once again working as a civilian for the Army. He retired in 1990. While Wendell gets work shipped to him from all over the world, he said it takes time to get any one piece of equipment turned around. Wendell stays two to three months behind (sometimes more) and radios take a back burner. Radios may take more than 6 months since the tube testing equipment gets priority. People depend on their tube testers so they come first. One customer of Wendell's commented "That's the price you pay. Wendell is an excellent technician, but he is quite slow. The up side is that when you get it back it will be in great condition. Perhaps good things come slowly. |
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