Ollie Ross *1901-1971* MW-SWL Expert With his early roots in Maine, Ollie’s step
father Joseph Dukas a Polish baker and MaryDukas, an older brother Louis S. The family
eventually making their way to the Bay Area
in California. The family business, baking.
We find Ollie in the 1930 Census in arooming house in Vallejo, Calif, occupation
baker, bread, pastry. Known as the “Count.”
The Baker of Vallejo Calif,Solano County. As of 1931
Ollie had a claimed list of 1,309
stations in his personal log. He
made public statements to haveheard every radio station in theworld.
Supposedly his
receiving station was using a
special ground system andseldom mentioned special
designed array.
A mid summer (Jun-Jul-Aug)Radex Magazine of 1929 aletter to the Columnist from
Ollie Ross of Sanger, Calif., wefind interesting statements by our subject. Aworld Dx-er, Ollie Ross one chap who is out
for the worlds record for the most veries,
reception of stations all over the world. “I donot believe there is anyone anywhere that canshow more verifications than I. At one point
in a three month period, logging sometimes asmuch as 22 hours per day, totaling 1452
hours.”He had been traveling andexperimented with antennas and groundsystems in 36 states of the U.S. RADEX(Sept 1931) P10 - Plus he had received
foreign acclaim.
Remember at that time, far fewer stations
were on the air and Ross had a good chance
to hear many things that we couldn’t today in
the Midwest and Eastern USA. For example,
the 1.6 broadcast band opened in the 2000's I
could hear KXBT Vallejo, California eachnight at eleven PM eastern time, it was astation in the Bay area and then thefrequencies filled up, It was impossible to hear
the Californian any longer.

The 1940 U.S. Census finds Ollie and theDukas family at 522 Virginia Ave., Vallejo,Calif., step sons Ollie and Louis S. Ross
residing with parents Joe and Mary Dukas,
both parents born in Poland and in the Bakery
business. The Ross brothers are listed as
helpers, both single.
There is little written about Ollie, but what we
find are some skeptics, but some ancestry
exists. Ollie Ross was eventuallymarried to Mary Elizabeth Riggs,
they had a daughter Alexis May
Ross born 8 May 1949 Solano,Ca. Alexis was always known toher family as Lolly. She inherited
the title of Countess from her
father but chose her US
Citizenship at age 21 therefore
gave up the title. Ancestry
information, Family Tree Maker
Online. 8-11-12 American Radio
History Dot Com.
A vacation record inboundpassenger list was found for thefamily in 1950, first class passage on the SS
President Wilson to Hawaii, residency Moana
Hotel Honolulu. Ollie was listed as age 46 andborn in Maine.
We are using State of California death records
because other material we found to show
Ollie’s date of birth from one to three years inerror, plus census sur-name misspelling. Was
our subject pre judged and misunderstood?
The Family tree Maker stated “He (Ollie) wasa Count. Having been given the honor ofdeveloping a radio antenna.” When a person
can seemingly accomplish something that noothers can, it is either a fake or truly a gift. No
reference exists on Polish internet inventions
for patents. Ollie, “The Distant Listener”
which were you? I’ll have a croissant andcoffee with cream please. Glazed donuts togo, one dozen please.
W8SU 2012