Earl. my fathers name was Ralph Earl Kepler and he was born April 9, 1899 in Dayton , Ohio. he got his start in radio with crystal sets and became a telegraph operator in 1914 for the now defunct Postal Telegraph company. His father and grandfather worked on the weekends for the wright brothers of Dayton in their bicycle shop helping to craft their rudimentary first airplanes. My dad published a newspaper called the junior news when he was 12 years old in 1911. W80T was my dads second ham radio call letters though I don't know what his first set of call letters were. He operated a hallicrafters bc 348 transmitter and had a 40 foot pole in the backyard that we helped set up with guy wires. HE LOVED TO TALK TO OTHER HAMS ACROSS the globe throughout my childhood. He had many friends he met from this activity and traded calling cards with quite a few from all over the world. When he died in 1970 his call letters went to you and I'm happy to hear that you have maintained it since!
Sunday, February 27, 2005 10:15 PM The message below was received from Eugene Kepler, the son of the origial holder of my Call, Ralph Earl Kepler.Since Eugene isn't a Ham, he was unaware that the BC 348 was a very good receiver and that his dad probably had a good AM/CW transmitter to use along with it.
In 1977, I obatained my Call sign of W8OT. My original call sign was WA5FHR which I got in 1962 when I passed my Conditional test in Monticello, Arkansas.
When I came to Michigan in 1967, it was traded for WA8YAS which I kept till 1977 when Extra ckass operators were authorized to request 1x2 calls. I submitted the allowed three preferences, and got none of them. For some reason and to my delight, I was issued W8OT .
Found this old QSL card issued by R.E. Kepler back in 1954.
