The Philip B. Petersen Collection Forward

Bob Buus

     Phil Petersen, W2DME, had been an active radio amateur since 1931.  He was an active member of many radio organizations including The Society of Wireless Pioneers, The Quarter Century Wireless Association, The Antique Wireless Association, The Garden State Amateur Radio Association, The Monmouth County Repeater Association, The American Radio Relay League, The Middletown Office of Emergency Management Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service, and The Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers.

     In 1988, Phil Petersen was asked by local radio station WADB to prepare some short public service announcements about amateur radio.  Phil made up some notes for five such programs, each a few minutes long, and recorded them at the WADB studio.  These "spots" were broadcast on WADB in October and November 1988.  These programs were an instant success with the radio audience so Phil proceeded to produce additional programs.  Broadcasts were made three times a week so each program was aired at several different times.  This continued for three years and a total of 86 programs were produced.

     Phil died on April 14, 2000 and his widow, Alene Petersen, KB2OJL, kindly made Phil's notes and audiotapes of these programs available to me.  Working with this material resulted in this booklet, which is essentially a transcript of each of the 86 programs produced by Phil over a three-year period.

     I chose to present this material in the same order in which it was broadcast - essentially the order in which Phil created the programs.  I also chose not to change the grammar or structure of the programs to preserve them with Phil's presentation.  I did make one concession along this line.  The broadcast tapes often contained many sentences linked together with the word "and."  Although this was not annoying in listening to the tapes, I found that such long sentences were a bit awkward to read in the transcript so chose to omit some of the "ands" and break the long sequences into several independent sentences.

     Some subjects were repeated in subsequent programs.  I assume that later versions include corrections and additions, but chose to include all versions in this booklet to reflect Phil's notes and records.

     Each program has its own title at the top of the page and occupies its own page.  The date at the bottom center of each page is the date that material was first broadcast by WADB.  I have also included an index, which you might find useful.

     I hope that you enjoy reading this material as much as Phil enjoyed creating it in the first place and as much as I enjoyed putting it together in printed form.  I would appreciate being informed of any typos or errors in this material so that it can be corrected on subsequent printings.

      Bob Buus, W2OD
      April 14, 2001

Page updated December 31, 2003   page created June 11, 2001
Copyright©  InfoAge 1998-2001 InfoAge. All rights reserved.

** Broadcasts recordings preserved and presented here by Mr. Robert Buss and Mr. Bernie Ricciardi, Phil's friends and fellow Marconi Chapter 138 QCWA members **