Leo Meyerson WØGFQ - Born in Omaha the year 1911, then in 1919 the Meyerson family moved
to Council Bluffs. Leo is founder of WRL, without a doubt one of the most influential people from
the Midwest in the history of ham radio! Dedicated to the same spirit, Leo and his WRL staff
showed the spirit of honesty, engineering and good salesmanship. In my early radio days WRL
manufactured its own products, notably under the Globe and Galaxy brand names.
Leo’s interest in wireless began in 1920,
a class room lecture in Council Bluffs
about the advent of radio broadcastingstations, Leo and a friend built a one
tube receiver on which they heard
KDKA’s first broadcast from Pittsburgh.
He knew early on to surround himself
with gifted people.
Mr. Meyerson was first licensed in 1928,
augmenting his hobby with funds earned
as an organist, playing in the silent
movie days. A lot has been written about
Leo and the strands have a common beginning “Contribution.” The younger generation is stilllearning about Leo because of his generosity of grants and scholarships for those in need anddeserving of a good education.
To those of us who drool over Leo’s old equipment designs, names such as Globe Trotter, Globe
Scout, Chief, Champion and Globe King - some lucky enough to still have some of those boat
anchors around to wax nostalgic and have the thrill of operating some well designed affordableequipment. In 1960, the Globe line was sold to Textron, and there was a merger in 62 Globe/Textron
and RME/Electronics with the result named GC
Electronics, a division of Textron.

GC Electronics is still in business today. OM Leo in hisown words; OOTC SGT 707 - The most successfulaccomplishment of my career is having been married toa wonderful gal for over 60 years. Helen Wolinsky wasfrom St. Joseph, Missouri and I met her by a fortunateaccident. (In Tune with Leo) Continued on page two.

I was on my way by train to visit my friend Father Fox W9ESL, Leo said, in Valley Falls, Kansas.
We were to attend an amateur convention the following day, but due to an accident my connection
to Valley Falls was delayed in St. Joe until early the following morning. Here I was, stranded in St.
Joe but fortunately I remembered a girl I had met during my college days in Lincoln, Nebraska.
I got in touch with her and found that a party was set for that evening and that’s where I luckily met
the girl of my dreams. I remember when Helen’s engagement picture appeared in the local paper, weheard from several amateurs who used to follow my daily one way transmissions to Helen on 80
Meters. This occurred around noon when she came home for lunch. On weekends she would go overto one of the local amateurs to communicate with me - he was George Pilgrim, W9HTS.
Our engagement of 18 months culminated in an elopement marriage to Kansas City, Mo., on March29, 1933. I recall we two young people were give the bridal suite for $6 per day. The day after ourmarriage, President Roosevelt closed all thebanks in the U.S.A. Don’t forget this wasduring the deep depression days. I had fifty
dollars for our short honeymoon of threedays and still ended up with $18 dollars.
Father Fox always claimed he wasresponsible for my meeting Helen but
amateur radio really was the catalyst.
We have a wonderful family of a son,daughter and six fine grandchildren, andhave truly been blessed through the years!
SOWP - SGP May 1993.
Probably the most successful businessventure was production of Leo’s WRL U.S.
Map of amateur radio districts. Over 750,000
printed. Have you seen what they fetch on
Ebay these days? Mine is proudly displayedon the shack wall with Leo’s autograph!
Partially scripted from QSL net
KP4MD/QCWA Chapter 154. QSL’s fromthe W8JYZ files, far too many to print.