Anyone who listened regularly to the shortwaves back in the 1970s knew about Gilfer Associates of Park Ridge, New Jersey. They were a source of books, gadgets, and radios supporting the SWL habit. The company was run by Oliver P. (Perry) Ferrell and his wife, Jeanne. Perry was at one time the Editor of Popular Electronics Magazine.
I came across this recent blog post by Susan Ito, a former employee. It paints a nice picture of what is was like to work for the Ferrells as an after school employee.
My first experience with oliver perry ferrel was in 1979 when after purchasing, oddly enough,a. Yaesu frg 7 reciever made for sears under sears worldband i think they called the 318…well sfter learning about how asleep the thingbwas and that there was this company called Gilfer radio that “woke “these recivers up by realigning them…then repaced the widenarrow filter with an even narrower one and putting that one in the wideslot…gettingbrid of the 6khz…then modifying it with an rca output jack from the last if for their digital readout unit..to whuch i bought…all this i had done when after work oneday at my job at jakes auto parts for the mininum wage phoned up Gilfer…after 5:00 p.m closing…who do you think answered the phone?…Oliver perry ferrell himself and we talked for hours about the hobby…he was soo kind…and real genuine gentleman and hobbyist…passionate about the hobby of swling….and reall inspired me to have all that work done to my radio….that i made myself afford it after having that talk with him….i was reallyshocked to find out what happened to him….i really miss him….