[SECC] Athens Story

[Jay Pryor]

Here's a cut-and-paste story that appeared in the Athens newspaper, 
FYI.  Some of you may have crossed paths with W4EEE, George Norton.

73,  Jay/K4OGG


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A part of ham radio's history moving to Oconee


A Five Points landmark that for decades connected an amateur radio 
operator with the world will find new purpose in Oconee County.

Workers disassembled the old, metal windmill tower that rose about 65 
feet above the back lot of a house on Milledge Terrace and moved it 
to Watkinsville, where the new owner may use it as a transmission 
tower for a low-power radio station.

The tower was put up in 1951 by the late George Norton, a ham radio 
operator who attached his radio antennas to the top, said Myra 
Martin, Norton's niece and the executor of his estate.

In 1940, Norton selected the Milledge Terrace site for his home 
because it sat on some of the highest ground in Athens, about 785 
feet in elevation, which he wanted for his ham radio work, Martin said.

Norton died in 1996, and his wife, Helen, passed away last year, and 
Martin begin liquidating the couple's estate.

Martin reluctantly decided the tower had to go to help expedite the 
sale of the Nortons' home.

She agreed to give the tower to Phillips on the condition he pay to remove it.

"I hated to see it come down just because it's kind of like an old 
well-worn shoe," Martin said.

The tower came from a Griffin farmer who had used it to support a 
windmill that pumped water to his cattle and crops. Norton bought the 
tower, disassembled it and moved it to his Five Points property to 
enhance his radio antenna.

Norton, born in Athens in 1905, became fascinated with radio 
communication as a boy when he wound a copper coil around an oatmeal 
box and sent Morse code signals, said his nephew, Dan Norton Jr., who 
is Martin's brother.

"He was a ham radio operator almost all his life, until the day he 
could no longer climb stairs to the radio shack - his radio office - 
in his house," said Dan Norton, who is an amateur radio operator, too.

Selling her uncle's house also means Martin will have to address 
Norton's "shack," which is filled with memorabilia and awards for his 
amateur radio work.

"His amateur radio call letters were W4EEE, and he was known around 
the world," said Martin. "His shack is lined solid with awards he received."

Norton used his ham radio equipment to contact radio operators at 
more than 300 sites around the world, an accomplishment that gained 
him noted standing in the DXCC club, or the Distance Century Club. 
The club included any radio operators who made contact with other 
amateurs in more than 100 different countries.

To prove that contact was made, Norton had to obtain a written and 
signed letter from each of the amateurs he spoke with across the 
globe, Dan Norton said.

"For a time he was the leading member of the DXCC in the world," Norton said.

During World War II, when the FCC banned transmissions by ham 
operators, George Norton reportedly used his equipment to listen for 
news of the war overseas and convey information to his neighbors.

"We heard second- and thirdhand that neighbors were getting 
information (from Norton) that wasn't available through traditional 
channels during World War II," said Dan Norton.

George Norton's work with amateur radio reached beyond communicating 
with other operators.

He was a director of the American Radio Relay League and helped 
improve radio signals by using satellites to boost transmission. 
During the 1940s and '50s he installed a mobile radio in his car and 
used it to help build a network of amateur radio enthusiasts around Georgia.

Martin isn't sure how Norton learned about the windmill, but she did 
have a letter the Griffin farmer wrote to him about how to take the 
structure down and avoid damaging the farmer's well.

Watkinsville electrician Quinton Phillips first noticed the old tower 
when he was doing some electrical work at a nearby condominium off 
South Lumpkin Street. Inquiries about the tower led him to Martin.

Phillips spent Thursday morning clambering up the tower, taking it 
apart in sections while a crane lowered each to the ground.

Later, he and several helpers further dismantled the tower and hauled 
it to Watkinsville, where Phillips plans to refurbish it for use with 
a possible low-power community radio station.

"I want to clean it up and repair it and get it ready for the next 50 
years of being a landmark," Phillips said.

The federal government opened up a licensing window for low-power 
stations in October, but the frequency Phillips wanted wasn't available.

He said he'll wait for Congress to make more low-power frequencies 
available before starting his own station.

Published in the Athens Banner-Herald on 112007

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