Tommy Rockford

 Most hams would know Tommy Rockford as the hero of a series of Ham Radio based stories for young adults written by Walker Tompkins.  They are fun stories, full of action and Ham Radio plays an important part in each one.  Author Tomkins (K6ATX) wrote the first 3 books featuring Tommy Rockford during the amazing solar cycle 19 of the 1950s/60s.  You can find two of them on Archive.org:

SOS at Midnight (1957)           https://archive.org/details/sosatmidnight00tomp

CQ Ghost Ship (1960)             https://archive.org/details/cqghostship00tomp

DX Brings Danger (1962)          I couldn't find a 1962 version

Later Tomkins revised the first 3 books for the ARRL in the 1980s and added 3 new titles:

https://archive.org/details/sosat-midnight-walker-atomkins-ed-3-1985

https://archive.org/details/cqghost-ship-walker-atompkins-ed-3-1985

https://archive.org/details/dxbrings-danger-walker-atompkins-ed-3-1983

https://archive.org/details/death-valley-qthwalker-atompkins-ed-1-1985

https://archive.org/details/grand-canyon-qsowalker-atompkins-ed-1-1987

https://archive.org/details/murder-by-qrmwalker-atompkins-ed-1-1988


The updated books have Tommy using more modern gear but they are basically the same stories.  Tommy's DX-100 from 1957 turned into an HW-5400 in 1985 but both were Heathkits :).

However while searching for the term:  "owl-hoot"  (which was pulp fiction cowboy lingo for outlaw) I came upon this magazine on archive and noticed a familiar name:

https://archive.org/details/WildWestWeeklyV113n00114Aug1937EXciter

Yes, Tommy Rockford existed as a railroad detective in pulp fiction magazines before he was a teenage ham !  Detective Tommy had gold plated 6 shooters and matching gold plated handcuffs.  I read the story and sure enough the term: owl-hooter does appear on page 21 :)   It's a western story, lots of guns, blood, horses and action !  A fun read and while seasoned readers would know all the terms like owl-hoot, it is nice to have the internet search engines at my finger tips when I come across the terms.  

Best Regards,
Chuck, WB9KZY
http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm