The One and Only

I was going through some of my older Ham Radio publications and ran across some old QSTs and ARRL license manuals and study guides from the 60s and early 70s.  QST was still its smaller size then, as were the license manuals and the famous "How To Become an Amateur Radio Operator".  These were the publications that I constantly leafed through when I very first started dreaming about joining the Amateur Radio community as a youngster.

It was fun looking at the old advertisements AND the old prices; but the best part of the older ARRL publications (IMHO) were the cartoons by Phil Gildersleeve W1CJD.

I'm sure many of you are very familiar with Phil's work - an example of which appears above.  For me, Phil was the face of the ARRL!  Whenever I saw one of his great drawings, I knew it was an ARRL publication. Jeeves, the Podunk Hollow Radio Club, and his many QST covers were and continue to be the greatest! And back when I was first licensed in 1978, a lot of folks were still using his artwork on their QSL cards.  For more examples of his work you can visit W8JYZ's "Old QSL Cards" Website - especially:

https://picasaweb.google.com/115747543308902188110/OldQSLCardsGilGildersleeve

and

http://oldqslcards.com/W1CJD.pdf

There are a lot of talented cartoonists out there; but I doubt we'll ever see anyone come close to the caliber of "Gil", as far as Amateur Radio is concerned.

72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP - When you care to send the very least!