The Philip B. Petersen Collection Broadcast February 9, 1989

     Bob Gunderson, W2JIO, was one of many radio amateurs I will always remember.  He was a very active and knowledgeable radio amateur and was one who kept abreast of the latest techniques in electronics.  We were both about the same age and talked frequently via amateur radio.  Bob was an innovator and he usually was trying out a new idea on how to operate and test his transmitter.
     In the early 1930s, just about every radio amateur designed and built his own receiver and transmitter and Bob Gunderson was no exception.  This technique is called "Home Brewing."  It's called homebrew because you never know how it will turn out.
     Bob was usually telling about how he was developing a new type of tester that would test various circuits with changes in the sound and how he could tell what the transmitter was doing by listening to these different sounds.  I wondered why he was doing it this way when everybody else was using visual indicators such as meters or neon bulbs.
     A few years later I attended a Hamfest; this is like a seminar of radio amateurs.  This is an opportunity to meet other radio amateurs in person.  I was talking to another radio amateur and suddenly we were interrupted and a fellow next to me said, "Hi Phil, W2DME.  I'm Bob, W2JIO."  I was a little confused at first since we never met in person before.  He recognized me by the sound of my voice and I knew him the same way.  Then I realized for the very first time that Bob was sightless and that was why my friend Bob Gunderson, W2JIO, was designing those special sound indicating instruments to help him operate his radio station.
     Since that time, I have come to learn much more about Bob.  He went on to become one of our very knowledgeable radio amateurs.  He was guest speaker at many radio clubs and hamfests.  He was a technical consultant on radio communications, publisher of the Braille Technical Press and a highly valued leader at the New York Institute for the Blind.  He helped many others overcome their handicaps.
     One of his students was not only blind but was also stone deaf.  Bob designed another device so this student could receive Morse code from feeling vibrations through his fingertips.  In this way they could communicate together and soon he also became a licensed radio amateur and he is now gainfully employed by a leading electronic laboratory on the West Coast.  That company wrote Bob and said that he was doing so well, we need more like him.
      Bob Gunderson, W2JIO, enjoyed life and was admired by his fellow radio amateurs.  He suddenly passed away a few years ago and his Morse code key and microphone is now silent, but he will always be remembered.
     I've come to know many handicapped radio amateurs.  There is one thing I notice about all of them.  They are always cheerful and upbeat about life and particularly about amateur radio.
     Want to know more?  Write to this address:  Courage Handiham System, 3915 Golden Valley Road, Golden Valley, Minnesota 55422.

February 9, 1989

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

Page updated January 12, 2004  page created June 11, 2001