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