Need Carl & Jerry assistance...

Another author has secured full rights to the original Carl & Jerry
series from the PE IP holder and tentatively may be reissueing all of it
in real book and/or eBook form.

Jerry, of course, is now on his third trophy wife and is a Silicon
Valley gazillionare whom everybody universally despises.

Carl, of course, is relearning to tie his shoes after a drug deal went awry.

SERIOUSLY - (I am assisting here in a secondary and very minor role)
Finding an accurate bio of John T. Frye is proving enormously difficult.

We quickly found the easy stuff (three books plus numerous ham radio
activities and awards), but there is a persistent (and frustratingly
single sourced heresay) rumor of the original author being long term
wheelchair bound and overcoming extreme advesarary. And being totally
unable to do anything that Carl and Jerry did.

Which would make for a much more interesting backstory. IF we can find
ANY independent second source verification.

Some info at http://www.tinaja.com/glib/waywere.pdf

Subject for geneaology would be one John. T Frye who quite likely lived
in Logansport IN in the 1950-1970 time frame, and likely may have had a
local radio repair shop somewhere nearby. Beleived deceased.

Can any of you add anything verifiable?

--
Many thanks,

Don Lancaster voice phone: (928)428-4073
Synergetics 3860 West First Street Box 809 Thatcher, AZ 85552
rss: http://www.tinaja.com/whtnu.xml email: (E-Mail Removed)

Please visit my GURU's LAIR web site at http://www.tinaja.com

Don Lancaster ((E-Mail Removed)) writes:
> Another author has secured full rights to the original Carl & Jerry
> series from the PE IP holder and tentatively may be reissueing all of it
> in real book and/or eBook form.
>
> Jerry, of course, is now on his third trophy wife and is a Silicon
> Valley gazillionare whom everybody universally despises.
>
> Carl, of course, is relearning to tie his shoes after a drug deal went awry.
>
> SERIOUSLY - (I am assisting here in a secondary and very minor role)
> Finding an accurate bio of John T. Frye is proving enormously difficult.
>
> We quickly found the easy stuff (three books plus numerous ham radio
> activities and awards), but there is a persistent (and frustratingly
> single sourced heresay) rumor of the original author being long term
> wheelchair bound and overcoming extreme advesarary. And being totally
> unable to do anything that Carl and Jerry did.
>
You mentioned the disabled thing before, and I assumed you'd had
some insider knowledge.

Herbert S. Brier, who wrote the amateur radio column in Popular Electronics
for some time, and I think he wrote the novice column in CQ for a time,
he was disabled. Don't ask me for details, but it was somewhere in one
of his columns, at the least.

When you mentioned John T. Frye's disability previously, except that I
thought you'd be the authority, I kind of thought you'd mixed up the
two.

Now, perhaps they were one and the same. That would explain some
things. I do note that they both had W9 callsigns.

Ask in one of the amateur radio newsgroups, since both were hams, and
maybe there are still people about who knew either or both of them. Or
try to contact an amateur radio club where he used to live, see if
any old timers there remember.

Michael

> Which would make for a much more interesting backstory. IF we can find
> ANY independent second source verification.
>
> Some info at http://www.tinaja.com/glib/waywere.pdf
>
> Subject for geneaology would be one John. T Frye who quite likely lived
> in Logansport IN in the 1950-1970 time frame, and likely may have had a
> local radio repair shop somewhere nearby. Beleived deceased.
>
> Can any of you add anything verifiable?
>
> --
> Many thanks,
>
> Don Lancaster voice phone: (928)428-4073
> Synergetics 3860 West First Street Box 809 Thatcher, AZ 85552
> rss: http://www.tinaja.com/whtnu.xml email: (E-Mail Removed)
>
> Please visit my GURU's LAIR web site at http://www.tinaja.com

Michael Black wrote:
> Don Lancaster ((E-Mail Removed)) writes:
>
>>Another author has secured full rights to the original Carl & Jerry
>>series from the PE IP holder and tentatively may be reissueing all of it
>>in real book and/or eBook form.
>>
>>Jerry, of course, is now on his third trophy wife and is a Silicon
>>Valley gazillionare whom everybody universally despises.
>>
>>Carl, of course, is relearning to tie his shoes after a drug deal went awry.
>>
>>SERIOUSLY - (I am assisting here in a secondary and very minor role)
>>Finding an accurate bio of John T. Frye is proving enormously difficult.
>>
>>We quickly found the easy stuff (three books plus numerous ham radio
>>activities and awards), but there is a persistent (and frustratingly
>>single sourced heresay) rumor of the original author being long term
>>wheelchair bound and overcoming extreme advesarary. And being totally
>>unable to do anything that Carl and Jerry did.
>>
>
> You mentioned the disabled thing before, and I assumed you'd had
> some insider knowledge.
>
> Herbert S. Brier, who wrote the amateur radio column in Popular Electronics
> for some time, and I think he wrote the novice column in CQ for a time,
> he was disabled. Don't ask me for details, but it was somewhere in one
> of his columns, at the least.
>
> When you mentioned John T. Frye's disability previously, except that I
> thought you'd be the authority, I kind of thought you'd mixed up the
> two.
>
> Now, perhaps they were one and the same. That would explain some
> things. I do note that they both had W9 callsigns.
>
> Ask in one of the amateur radio newsgroups, since both were hams, and
> maybe there are still people about who knew either or both of them. Or
> try to contact an amateur radio club where he used to live, see if
> any old timers there remember.
>
> Michael
>
>
>>Which would make for a much more interesting backstory. IF we can find
>>ANY independent second source verification.
>>
>>Some info at http://www.tinaja.com/glib/waywere.pdf
>>
>>Subject for geneaology would be one John. T Frye who quite likely lived
>>in Logansport IN in the 1950-1970 time frame, and likely may have had a
>>local radio repair shop somewhere nearby. Beleived deceased.
>>
>>Can any of you add anything verifiable?
>>
>>--
>>Many thanks,
>>
>>Don Lancaster voice phone: (928)428-4073
>>Synergetics 3860 West First Street Box 809 Thatcher, AZ 85552
>>rss: http://www.tinaja.com/whtnu.xml email: (E-Mail Removed)
>>
>>Please visit my GURU's LAIR web site at http://www.tinaja.com
>
>

I got my info straight from Les Solomon who I am absolutely convinced
(three decades ago) told me he and Perry and John would sit around and
vet the C&J stories for feasibility. I got the impression that the
disability most certainly existed but was studiously downplayed by all
concerned.

Turns out at least some of the more outrageous Les Solomon stories were
absolutely true. Such as him being an Isreali Operative.

http://www.ohav.org/columns/survival/solomon2.html is a jaw dropper for
sure.

--
Many thanks,

Don Lancaster voice phone: (928)428-4073
Synergetics 3860 West First Street Box 809 Thatcher, AZ 85552
rss: http://www.tinaja.com/whtnu.xml email: (E-Mail Removed)

Please visit my GURU's LAIR web site at http://www.tinaja.com

I always enjoyed John T. Frye's writing, though I wasn't old enough to read
it at the same time it was published. I'm in my late 30s and always look
for his name in the table of contents of back issues of electronics
magazines.

The only advice I can offer is to ask the editors of those old electronics
magazines, people who actually corresponded with Frye. (You'd know which
ones better than I would, Don.) I do recall asking someone at
_Radio-Electronics_ or _Electronics Now_ about John T. Frye and I may still
have his letter around here somewhere, just not handy at the moment. He
didn't say much more than that Frye was a complete professional when it came
to writing, and that he never missed deadlines.

The late Don Stoner sort of "resurrected" the Carl & Jerry stories about 10
or 15 years ago for a short-lived ham radio magazine. He essentially
reprinted the stories except changed the characters to be their sons. (I
think he did this so he could get away with using the same illustrations.)
This magazine (the name of which escapes me) was published by the National
Amateur Radio Association, which was based here in Arlington, Texas. I did
some writing for this magazine but Don Stoner handled those stories and he
lived out of state... I forget exactly where. I only talked to him once, on
the phone. [I asked him if he had a copy of the internal schematic for the
first OSCAR satellite and he said no, not offhand.]

Ah! Here we are... I've got an issue of _The Amateur Radio Communicator_
right here. This one was published in July/August 1993 and the characters
have been named "Dan & Burke." Here's what Don Stoner wrote about this
series: "Dan and Burke is based on a storyline created in 1954 by John
Frye, W9EGV. The boys are the sons of John's original characters, Carl and
Jerry. John Frye is no longer with us. But while he was alive, John was an
avid Amateur Radio operator who wrote about young people -- for young
people. It's doubtful that anyone could make John's stories more
interesting or improve on his words. We'll settle for giving them a 1990s
twist."

I don't have all of Frye's stories or articles, but perhaps we can infer a
bit about the man himself from them. In particular I enjoyed his "technical
fiction" stories (as I call them), in which he used a fictional setting and
fictional characters to teach a genuine technical principle. It made things
fun to learn. _The Mad Scientists' Club_ by Bertrand Brinley is a perfect
example of this. Art Margolis (any information on him?) also write tech/fic
articles that were a joy to read.

Frye was a ham and sometimes his call sign appeared in his byline, and I
remember once looking that up in an old Callbook. (I'm guessing that you've
done the same thing to conclude that he lived in Indiana.)

Hope this helps you for a change, Don. Your books and articles have helped
me immensely in my career. Thanks!!!

Matt J. McCullar, KJ5BA
Arlington, TX

Matt J. McCullar wrote:
> I always enjoyed John T. Frye's writing, though I wasn't old enough to read
> it at the same time it was published. I'm in my late 30s and always look
> for his name in the table of contents of back issues of electronics
> magazines.
>
> The only advice I can offer is to ask the editors of those old electronics
> magazines, people who actually corresponded with Frye. (You'd know which
> ones better than I would, Don.) I do recall asking someone at
> _Radio-Electronics_ or _Electronics Now_ about John T. Frye and I may still
> have his letter around here somewhere, just not handy at the moment. He
> didn't say much more than that Frye was a complete professional when it came
> to writing, and that he never missed deadlines.
>
> The late Don Stoner sort of "resurrected" the Carl & Jerry stories about 10
> or 15 years ago for a short-lived ham radio magazine. He essentially
> reprinted the stories except changed the characters to be their sons. (I
> think he did this so he could get away with using the same illustrations.)
> This magazine (the name of which escapes me) was published by the National
> Amateur Radio Association, which was based here in Arlington, Texas. I did
> some writing for this magazine but Don Stoner handled those stories and he
> lived out of state... I forget exactly where. I only talked to him once, on
> the phone. [I asked him if he had a copy of the internal schematic for the
> first OSCAR satellite and he said no, not offhand.]
>
> Ah! Here we are... I've got an issue of _The Amateur Radio Communicator_
> right here. This one was published in July/August 1993 and the characters
> have been named "Dan & Burke." Here's what Don Stoner wrote about this
> series: "Dan and Burke is based on a storyline created in 1954 by John
> Frye, W9EGV. The boys are the sons of John's original characters, Carl and
> Jerry. John Frye is no longer with us. But while he was alive, John was an
> avid Amateur Radio operator who wrote about young people -- for young
> people. It's doubtful that anyone could make John's stories more
> interesting or improve on his words. We'll settle for giving them a 1990s
> twist."
>
> I don't have all of Frye's stories or articles, but perhaps we can infer a
> bit about the man himself from them. In particular I enjoyed his "technical
> fiction" stories (as I call them), in which he used a fictional setting and
> fictional characters to teach a genuine technical principle. It made things
> fun to learn. _The Mad Scientists' Club_ by Bertrand Brinley is a perfect
> example of this. Art Margolis (any information on him?) also write tech/fic
> articles that were a joy to read.
>
> Frye was a ham and sometimes his call sign appeared in his byline, and I
> remember once looking that up in an old Callbook. (I'm guessing that you've
> done the same thing to conclude that he lived in Indiana.)
>
> Hope this helps you for a change, Don. Your books and articles have helped
> me immensely in my career. Thanks!!!
>
> Matt J. McCullar, KJ5BA
> Arlington, TX
>
>
>
There was another series of columns in Radio and TV news called "Mac's
Radio Service" that was more "grownup" and dealt with the more technical
and economic issues of radio and tv servicing. Also by John.

--
Many thanks,

Don Lancaster voice phone: (928)428-4073
Synergetics 3860 West First Street Box 809 Thatcher, AZ 85552
rss: http://www.tinaja.com/whtnu.xml email: (E-Mail Removed)

Please visit my GURU's LAIR web site at http://www.tinaja.com

Don Lancaster ((E-Mail Removed)) writes:

> I got my info straight from Les Solomon who I am absolutely convinced
> (three decades ago) told me he and Perry and John would sit around and
> vet the C&J stories for feasibility. I got the impression that the
> disability most certainly existed but was studiously downplayed by all
> concerned.
>
I can't see Leslie Solomon making up that sort of story, and I would
consider that more reliable than the vague "someone said". I never had
a complete set of old hobby electronic magazines, but I sure don't
recall reading of any disability. But then, except a note at the end
of one Carl and Jerry story, http://home.gwi.net/~jdebell/pe/cj/v18-6.htm
where he thanks the readers for well wishers over a recent illness, I
never saw anything so personal from him. He used the characters in his
stories to speak. That story was apparently in the June 1963 issue, so
presumably there was mention two or three issues earlier of an illness
that might give some more information to someone with a full set of
back issues.

When you mentioned John T. Frye's disability here in 1999, I pointed
out the disability of Herb S. Brier, but I also pointed out that John T.
Frye's callsign was W9EGV and Brier's was W9EGQ, which sure seems like
they were issued really close together. Two hams with very close callsigns
that also write for the same magazine? They must have known each other,
and that would certainly be a possible indicator of a disability. If
they were both disabled, they might have been given the test by the same
ham, which suggests other things in common.

As I said at that time, there were so many prolific writers for the hobby
magazines back then, yet they mostly came and went without much comment
or any details of themselves beyond the articles.

Jim Kyle has a webpage, www.jimkyle.com

I can't remember if he wrote for the hobby electronic magazines or just
the ham magazines, but John Schultz W2EEY wrote an awful lot. There's
sort of a mention here, www.w4amc.com/hc/pdf/hc0205.pdf of him, but it
doesn't reveal much.

Craig Anderton was less prolific in the hobby magazines (but wrote a lot
for the music magazines about electronics) and he has a website at
www.craiganderton.com

That might be something for me to do. Go through the old hobby electronic
magazines I still have, and pick out some of the common names, and do
searches on them.

Wayne Green, editor of CQ and then 73 is still alive, emulating his long
editorials in a blog at http://www.waynegreen.com

> Turns out at least some of the more outrageous Les Solomon stories were
> absolutely true. Such as him being an Isreali Operative.
>
> http://www.ohav.org/columns/survival/solomon2.html is a jaw dropper for
> sure.
>
I am pretty sure that story was mentioned in the obituaries when he died.
I thought it did reveal a whole other side of him that we never saw while
he was doing the magazine.

So much of that is long in the past. Oliver Ferrell is long gone, Popular
Electronics is gone, even Gernsback. John Simonton is gone, and I seem
to recall reading that Daniel Meyer had died at some point.

Michael