Bob Heil, K9EID, was first licensed in 1956.  Amateur radio has been the foundation of Bob’s many careers in the sound-reinforcement industry as well as in bringing high-quality, articulate audio to Amateur Radio. Entering this great hobby during the best sun spot cycle helped Bob to focus on designing and building one of the first VHF SSB KW stations. Throughout the years. Bob has enjoyed designing many antennas, from the 128 element two meter ''J' Beam array in 1960 to the latest - phased arrays on 40 and 75 meters. Bob enjoy all of the bands from 160 meters through 2 meters working his many friends and welcoming newcomers to this great hobby.

 During Bob’s formative days of amateur radio, he began a career playing the Wurlitzer theatre organ at the Fox Theatre in St. Louis as the protégé of Stan Kann, who not only taught Bob how to play but taught him how to listen – to mentally dissect what one hears – by tuning and voicing the thousands of pipes in that magnificent Fox organ. At the age of 15, Bob became the substitute organist for Stan and continues to play these magnificent theatre organs. Little did Bob realize that learning to listen would be so very important in his later years as he began designing and building large concert sound systems for some of the world's leading group,  starting with Joe Walsh (WB6ACU) and the James Gang. Those two ham radio friends changed the world of rock 'n roll sound stages. The Grateful Dead, the Who, ZZ Top, Humble Pie, J. Geils, and Peter Frampton, were just a few of the scores of groups with whom Bob blazed the concert trail with his large mega-kilowatt sound systems. In 2006, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland opened a display room with many pieces from those early touring days that paved the way for entertainment concert systems used today. Heil Sound is the only manufacturer in the Rock Hall of Fame.  All of Bob’s ability to design and build these ground breaking systems was learned from his Amateur Radio background.