Dick was a long-time employee
of Bliley's with more than 41 years at the time of his retirement
in 1980. He spent many years serving as the supervisor of various
production activities. Among them was the production of the CCO-1 service bench test oscillator
marketed to the burgeoning TV service sector just after WWII.
The product was pulled from regular production by political pressure
by one of Bliley's major customers, Hickock Incorporated, a producer
of a full line of test equipment. Hickock threatened to pull
their business from Bliley's unless the company dropped out of
the test equipment market.
He was in charge of the
production of the CCO-1. When it was stopped, he asked if he
could build the balance of the inventory off-site and sell them.
This was agreed to and the last few hundred were built in the
basement of Dick's home by Dick, his wife Maxine, Herman Roth,
W3NFR, and a few other friends from the plant.
Dick still holds on to
one of the units he built at home. It is on his service bench,
where he uses it to service various pieces of entertainment and
shortwave ham radio equipment.
He is active in ham radio
by keeping in touch with old friends on shortwave through nets
he hosts twice-a-day. He is also active in DX and other contests.
Above all else, Dick has
been a good friend since the early 1960s. He followed me by ham
radio no matter where I went and was a regular supporter of my
ham radio activities while I was in the U.S. Coast Guard when
I operated as VP5CB
on South Caicos Island, in the Turks and Caicos Islands.
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