Tom Was An Inspiration to Many of Us
I first became aware of Tom Kneitel in the early-mid 1960's. I was a high school student at the time and enjoyed reading Tom's numerous articles on DXing etc., in the various communication magazines of the day. In 1965, Tom was editor of a magazine called S9. This magazine was primarily aimed at CBers, but often included articles of interest to DXers, etc. Early in 1965, while living in Southern California, I wrote Tom a letter and included an article I had written on AM Broadcast Band DXing. About three months later, I received a short note from Tom with a check for $15 for payment for the article which appeared in the March, 1965 issue of S9. I still have that issue and when I read it today, I get embarrassed because it was really badly written! A couple years later our family was transferred to Northeast Ohio where I discovered TV DX as we had a tremendous outdoor TV antenna on a high tower. So, I decided to send Tom another article and for the May 1967 issue of S9. This time, Tom paid me the princely sum of $20 for another amateurish article entitled "DXing on the Idiot Box".
I am sure that all those early magazines (like Radio-TV Experimenter, Electronics Illustrated, S9, Popular Electronics, etc.) and Tom's many articles cultivated my life-long interest in Communications, Scanning, Ham Radio, etc.
Thank you Tom for everything! We will miss you.
