One hundred years ago, the August 1926 issue of Radio World explained to young men the secret for meeting girls: Become a ham!

The magazine contained an article by Armstrong Perry entitled, “Be A Ham!” It contained stories of the exciting things that a ham could do once they got their ticket. And within the article is this photo of Albert Bombe, who started out as a ham, and then got his commercial ticket at age 17. He went to sea, and learned enough Spanish to have a tete-a-tete with this young woman he met on shore leave at Teneriffe.

Bombe was mentioned in this 1922 New York Times article, discussing how the Boy Scouts of America had taken up radio with a passion. He was 18 years old at the time, lived at 15 Pearl Street, Far Rockaway, N. Y., and tuned in to the bulletin sent to Scouts by NAH.

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