[CQ-Contest] ROSS Hull Who was he?

[James Cain]

Nice work, Trent, on the cq-contest post!

I looked at the Wikipedia entry for Ross Hull. It's very short and could be
greatly expanded. He surely had an amateur call sign and I may have known
it but it escapes me now.

Ross Hull may have lived in Vernon, Connecticut (as Wikipedia says), but
from what I heard in the 1970s, from a real old timer, Hull had his VHF
station at a "cottage" in Bolton, Conn, which would have been pretty much
empty pasture land in the late '30s. George Washington, with his troops on
the way from Rhode Island west, camped in either Bolton or Andover. Coins
and other 18th Century relics have been found all over the area.

I lived in Vernon for the first years that I published The DX Bulletin, in
1979 to early 1984. I then moved to Andover; Hull's VHF site in Bolton was
just down the road from me, about two miles or so, at the corner of Shoddy
Mill and Hebron Roads. There was/is a modern house there now. I think the
elevation is maybe 700 feet or so with probably a real nice view downhill
to the west. I drove by it many times. If you turn left at the corner,
Bolton Pizza is on your left! Wikipedia says that Bolton was part of what
people in the 18th Century referred to as "The Hartford Mountains."

The old timer I heard the Hull story from was George Hart, W1NJM (SK), who
crossed paths with Ross Hull in the late 1930s. I met several others in the
1970s who remembered Hull and he was, I think, a revered and historic
figure. He was only 36 years old when he gave his life for wireless.

I always thought that Ross Hull would be a great subject for a book, but
it's too late now, since there is no one left to interview. Old QSTs have a
wealth of stories by and about Ross Hull but exploring the old QST archives
on line is a nightmare (no indexes, no way to flip through an issue from
page to page, etc.).

Feel free to share this information and quote me if you wish.

Cheers,

Jim Cain, K1TN
Bradenton, Florida