Often when we think of an Elmer, we think of someone sitting next to a new or prospective ham teaching them CW or how to make a dipole or something else related to Amateur Radio. In addition to being a source of information an Elmer can also be a resource for parts and components.

This is the best description of ARRL Life Member Dave Heller, K3TX, of Morrisville, Pennsylvania. His basement, attic and garage are a virtual graveyard of electronic chassis with all sorts of parts waiting to be cannibalized by any ham that is in need of something. From knobs and resistors to tube sockets and capacitors, it can be found at Dave's place. His philosophy of recycling often has been called extreme, but he believes it's wasteful to throw away anything that is still useful.

"You'll need a tetanus shot before you go there," is the advice usually given to anyone about to enter the strange world of K3TX. "Eccentric" might be a good way to describe him. The first thing that you notice when you pull up to his driveway is that he has a small collection of 1964 Oldsmobile F-85s. Most are sedans, but there is one station wagon and--except for the white sedan--they are all the same color: blue. I say collection but the automobiles are not what you would call collector quality. Some may say they are junk but according to this retired professor of mathematics this makes perfect sense.

"Cars are too expensive. So get a cheap car and for reliability get a back up. Having all the same type car allows you to swap parts." quips Dave as he chews his pipe. Because of all cars in the driveway there was no room for one more Oldsmobile, so he disassembled it and stored it in the attic piece by piece.

K3TX (R) & K3IPK making contacts at the Penn Wireless Association’s ARRL Field Day event.

Beside the collection of cars Dave is a collector of automobile license plates. He has plates from all over the world--most likely has enough for DXCC in license plates. But like all of the other things in his house they are stacked up everywhere. Piles and boxes of license plates from every state in the union and from countries all around the world are in every corner of his office and garage. Dave worked closely with the people in the state capital of Harrisburg and was very instrumental in getting Pennsylvania's Amateur Radio license plate law approved. No ordinary vanity plate, Pennsylvania's have the words "Amateur Radio Operator" on them.

Someone once pointed out to Dave that most of his equipment had the cabinets removed. The antenna tuner, homebrew amp, even the IBM Selectric typewriter that he did all of his logging with did not have a cover. Dave's response was simply that they did not need them. Of course the Ten-Tec Omni D still had a cabinet because, according to Dave, it needed one.

His Omni and homebrew amp have served him well over the years. He can be found on 3.610 MHz every night at 10 PM Eastern taking check-ins and handling traffic on the EPA CW traffic net. Although he doesn't get involved in DX contests as often as he used to, Dave is a very active participant in the Pennsylvania QSO Party, often taking first place in Bucks County in the CW division. Using his homebrew keyer and a set of very heavy paddles that he fashioned from a solid block of steel, he will steadily work stations and record each on paper log sheets--using the IBM typewriter, of course.

Dave is a guy who believes there's no room for a computer in a ham shack. In the case of his shack that may be true, because there really is no room, since it's piled high with the abovementioned license plates as well as back issues of QST, CQ and magazines no longer in print.

Then there's the infamous wall of sagging shelves that holds many cannibalized chassis that still have some meat on the bones for anyone wanting to pick at them.

Dave warms his ham shack in the winter with heat reclaimed from the chimney of the gas furnace that heats the house. It is quite a contraption that he has built from old automobile heater cores and a pump, but he keeps the shack "shirt sleeve comfortable" even in the dead of winter. In case of a system failure in the basement he has devised an alarm system to alert him to any problem.

Not to be redundant and install additional bells in the house when the phone company has already done this with each phone, the alarm system uses a neon bulb and a photo cell to apply a voltage from a transformer to the phone lines and cause all of his phones to ring constantly when there is a problem in the basement. Simplicity is the heart of all of Dave's inventions. Although he does not have a patent on the alarm system, he does hold patents for other inventions, including a remote electronic water meter. This device was the first to allow water meters to be read from outside the building using electronics rather than using the traditional mechanical meter that has to read at the source.

In addition to all of the parts that he has around the house he has a shop with drill presses, a lathe and welding equipment that gives him the ability to manufacture some antenna parts as well as parts for any project that comes along. When a ham was building an 80 meter vertical Dave used his lathe to turn some collars for the project. He also used this same lathe to true up a yoke for the driveshaft on a ham's van. Broken down on the side of the rode a club member made a call on 2 meters, and Dave went to help. Before he went to pick up the fellow on the road he made a few phone calls and arranged to get a used drive shaft at a local junkyard. They picked up the part and using the lathe they made sure it was balanced before installing it and getting the van back on the road.

Over the years Dave has helped many hams by having an endless supply of parts and other assorted goodies in his basement, garage and attic. Perish the thought of throwing something away. Just take it to Dave's and someone will eventually put it to use. Ask any members of Penn Wireless Association and they will tell you that if you need something the first place to check is with K3TX. Dave has been a longtime member of PWA and served as the newsletter editor for many years before recently stepping down.

ARRL is committed to support Affiliated Clubs in their efforts to mentor new hams. [Full Story]

In addition to being a Life Member of ARRL, he's served the ARRL Atlantic Division for nearly 30 years. He has held various positions in the ARRL Field Organization and has run over 200 VE sessions since the introduction of the Volunteer Examiner program in 1984. As a volunteer instructor he has helped many hams get their first license.

He encourages new hams to build things and often suggest that they take a look through the parts he has lying around. True, they will have to climb over piles of stuff and sort though mounds of seeming junk but they will find what it is that they are looking for. And just to be on the safe side, get the tetanus shot.

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