IN MEMORY OF THREE SILENT KEYS
STEPHEN/ANCHOR: The amateur community has suffered three more losses.
They are National Medal of Science winner, an expert in acoustics, and
ARRL president emeritus, Jim Haynie, W5JBP.
Jim had been in failing health when he died on November 1. He was the
ARRL's 13th president, and began his term in January of 2000. He served
in that post for six years. His tenure was marked by strong advocacy for
ham radio education, and his promotion of radio science in the classroom
led to the ARRL's Education & Technology Program. He was outspoken on
Capitol Hill on such issues as spectrum protection and deed restrictions.
Haynie, who was named Amateur of the Year at the 2007 Dayton Hamvention,
was a force in mustering hams to assist after the 9/11 attacks, and
testified before Congress about radio response during Hurricane Katrina.
Jim Haynie was 73.
We hear now from Amateur Radio Newsline's Paul Braun, WD9GCO, about
contester and DXer, Paul Obert, K8PO.
PAUL: Contesting is an activity that some hams just approach casually,
and others very seriously. And for some, like Paul Obert, K8PO, it was
an obsession. His antenna farm resembles an antenna research facility.
Sadly, Obert became a Silent Key on October 21st.
I spoke with two hams who had known Paul, and asked for their memories
of the man. Larry Emery, K1UO, remembers the first time he heard him on
the air:
LARRY: When I first heard Paul on the air, he was what I would call my
"new competition" that I didn't know about when he came to Maine. I kept
wondering who he was, who this K8PO guy was who kept beating me out on
the low bands, because we enjoy 160 meters, DXing, and so forth.
And so, one day my wife and I took a drive up to Paul's, and his wife,
Jackie's place up in Union, and I saw all of these towers and stacks
from 40 to 10 meters, and a full-sized 160 meter vertical, and I said, "Ah-Ha!",
and that sort of answered that question!
And that was the first day I met him, and we kinda hit it off, and of
course, Paul would do anything for you. The last few years, we'd meet
sort of halfway in a little hole-in-the-wall diner, and run over the
past contest activities, or just anything in general we were trying.
One of the last things we were talking about was remoting, because I was
in an HOA.
PAUL: Scott Redd, K0DQ, fondly remembers his friend as a man of many
talents:
SCOTT: Paul was, in my view, what I would call a triathlete in ham radio.
He was an accomplished DXer on all bands, especially the low bands; he
was a contester, which was my particular interest, and he did some great
things there; and he was an incredible engineer.
He was a station designer - he had a good station, but it was engineered
perfectly. He was of German descent, and it showed. Paul did all of
those things in terms of his ham radio skills, and he was also a
wonderful human being.
PAUL: If you'd like to see a few photos of Paul's towers, go to his QRZ
page. There, you will also see some of his awards, including the W1AW
Worked All States for the ARRL Centennial. Some of his other achievements
included 359 confirmed countries, including 20 that are no longer on the
list. He was one zone away from achieving Nine-Band-Worked-All-Zones.
Paul Obert will be missed by many around the world. But where he is now,
the reception is static-free, and the bands have no limits.
All of us at Amateur Radio Newsline offer our condolences to his family
and friends.
For Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Paul Braun, WD9GCO.
STEPHEN/ANCHOR: Neil Rapp, WB9VPG, tells us more about Internet pioneer
and acoustics expert, Leo Beranek.
NEIL: National Medal of Science winner Leo Beranek, a former amateur
radio operator and the creator of ARPANET, the precursor to today's
Internet - has become a Silent Key at the age of 102. A renowned
acoustical scientist, he ran the electro-acoustics laboratory at Harvard
University in the 1940s, and the Navy Systems Research Laboratory at
Beavertail Point, Rhode Island, for which he was given the Presidential
Certificate of Merit from President Harry Truman for his work during
World War II.
The Iowa native, who ultimately got a PhD from Harvard University, had
worked with the young startup Collins Radio Company years earlier, when
he'd had to drop out of college. Many years later, in 1972, he helped
found WCVB, the TV station in Boston. Leo had become a licensed radio
amateur during his college years, although records now of his call sign
are not available. He was given the National Medal of Science for
Engineering in 2003 by President George W. Bush.
The Leo Beranek Student Medal for Excellence in the Study of Noise
Control, was created in 2010 by the Institute of Noise Control
Engineering of the United States, to honor him.
For Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Neil Rapp, WB9VPG.
(ARRL, BOSTON BUSINESS JOURNAL, BOSTON GLOBE, INSTITUTE OF NOISE
CONTROL ENGINEERING)
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BREAK HERE:
Time for you to identify your station. We are the Amateur Radio Newsline,
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