This is a memorial page. Ashtabula
Bill became a Silent Key on Sept. 27, 2011
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Out-of-State AM Page
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years, William C. Dolvin, W8VYZ could be found during any week on
7.290Mc and 14.286Mc. He worked with and built vacuum-tube, AM radio
equipment for decades. Everyone in the radio community knew him as
Ashtabula Bill. He was also good friends with W5PYT, Ozona Bob, and
talked with him for many years. Bill was famous for his extremely
strong AM signal, especially on the 40 and 20-meter bands. His favorite
operating receiver was the Collins BC-348 with an outboard slicer. Ashtabula Bill provided many AMers here in Arizona with their first AM QSO outside the state and, with his strong signal, showed that AM was alive and well on the higher-frequency bands. It seemed appropriate to provide a presence on Arizona-AM.net in his memory. Below are four excerpts from a longer video taken by David Olsen, W6PSS, on 14 Dec 1988 when he and Rick Miczak, K8MLV, visited Bill at his home. That video can be viewed in its entirety on the AM Forever Website [[HERE]]. |
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In
this video clip, Bill shows David (behind the camera) the two most
famous BC-348's that were then in amateur-radio service in 1988, and
perhaps the most modified and supplemented as well. We also get a
view of the front of the modulator for Bill's main transmitter.
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The W8VYZ hamshack tour continues with a view of the back of the modulator and some of the'secret sauce' in Bill's strong modulation. Rick, K8MLV, relates a humorous aside about Bill's using the 833's to their maximum capability. |
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coils
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They don't make antenna tuners like this
anymore, as David aptly
observes. But this does show that one doesn't need a kilobuck box
if one is willing to wind one's own coils. |
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Bill
and David, W6PSS, exchange pleasantries on-camera. A
special thanks to David for making these videos available. |
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A snippet of audio from a memorable
W8VYZ transmission... |
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Bill's final resting place inside a pair of
833A's on top of a tuning unit from a BC-375 WWII aircraft transmitter. Click Here for a larger image. |
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