[NCC] K8RR

[tleek8az]

On Fri, Sep 16, 2011 at 11:57 AM, <Jimk8mr at aol.com> wrote:

>
> SHELLER Dr. John Richard Sheller, DDS, age  68, of Wetmore, Inwood
> Township, Michigan, formerly of Canal Winchester, Ohio,  went to be with
> the Lord on
> Monday, September 12, 2011 at the Munising Memorial  Hospital, Munising,
> Michigan.



Doc was a true larger-than-life ham radio legend, and did much to show that
contest success from west of the Allegheny mountains COULD be achieved -- it
was just a matter of building it bigger and better.  He was on DXAC and at
one time was at or near the top of the Honor Roll.  Although I don't think
he ever won, he did have a number of top-5 DX contest multi-op finishes.

Those of us who knew him have many stories about Doc.  Two come to mind
today.

Story 1:  In the mid-1970s, Doc assembled a crew of notable midwest
contesters (e.g. N9RV, NA8V, N8AA, K8NZ, K8HLR, WB8AKW) to operate his large
station located near Columbus.  Doc cobbled together C-lines and tranceivers
from his own collection and from local DXers.  But the amplifiers were
another story.

Doc was an enormously gifted dentist.  Over the years, he developed a
friendship with a Florida DXer who was terrified of dentists -- and who
wound up flying to Columbus to see Doc for all of his dental work.  As a
return favor, the DXer loaned Doc several prototype amplifiers from his new
company, telling him, "Here, Doc.  See if you can blow this one up."  Doc
never did blow up the amplifiers, and W4ETO went on to a very successful
business manufacturing the big amps originally battle-tested at the WA8ZDF
multi.

Story 2:  Doc was nothing if not "colorful".....  As most of you know, every
winter since the 1970s, K8MR has hosted an annual MRRC "Christmas" party at
his house.  In 1986, the year after I moved to Chesterland, Doc announced
that he would arrive at my QTH around 4 pm for a pre-K8MR cocktail party.
And, of course, as soon as it became known that Doc was going to be there,
others followed.  As the afternoon wound into evening, about 20 MRRc
guys wound up sitting on the floor of my basement, listening to Doc spin his
yarns.

One of the stories I recall was Doc telling about his taunting of cross-town
rival, Jim Garland, W8ZR.  Doc and Garland both had 130' towers with
full-size 5 element 20m beams and were forever competing with each other to
be the first to work "new" DX when it popped up.

In the 1970s, speech processing was in its relative infancy.  A local
Columbus company -- Raytrack (famous for its L4B-clone amplifier) -- began
manufacturing a speech processor known as the "Comdel" processor, which
purportedly greatly increased an SSB rig's output efficiency.  Doc told
Garland that he had a prototype processor and wanted to try it out.

So the story went (and as I write this I realize written words cannot do
justice to Doc's ability to spin a spellbinding yarn).  Doc and Jim got on
20m on a quiet night, with the band open only to South America.  They wound
up working a PY, and after initial pleasantries, the PY agreed to judge the
effectiveness of the processor, noting that Doc and Garland both had the
same signal strength.  Doc dutifully switched the Comdel in and out for
testing.

Unknown to Garland, Doc was "testing out" a 10 KW amp, purportedly for a guy
in West Virginia.  The amplifier had huge open-frame relays to switch itself
in and out of the circuit.  And so Doc told the tale:  "OK here goes."
(Kerchunk.)  "Comdel on....Comdel on.... Comdel on."  (Kerclick.)  "Comdel
off....Comdel off..... Comdel off".  (Kerchunk.)  "Comdel on."  (Kerclick.)
"Comdel off.  Over."

The PY was stunned -- the "Comdel" had added 5 s-units to Doc's signal, and
made him MUCH louder than Garland.  And, as Doc would tell it, Garland
immediately wanted to purchase one of those magical boxes....and Doc kept
him wondering about the suspicious nature of the test for weeks until he
finally confessed.

Of course, the story is apocryphal, but Doc's ability to tell the tale --
and to keep two dozen contesters both spell-bound and laughing -- is
emblematic of the strength of his personality and his charisma.

Doc was a larger-than-life figure.  He had vision, enormous enthusiasm,
technical expertise, good humor and, of course, his own set of flaws.  But
ham radio needs icons like Doc, and although his legend will live on, he
will be sorely missed.

RIP, ZDF

de K8AZ