Friday, July 6, 2018

Milestones: JA1AN, K6KU, W6SZN, Silent Keys


Three prominent amateurs became Silent Keys in June... 

Shozo Hara, JA1AN, who served as president of the Japan Amateur Radio League (JARL) for 41 years, passed away on June 9. He was also a member of the CQ Amateur Radio Hall of Fame. According to Alinco's Nakata "Naky" Katsumi, Hara had been licensed since 1952 and had also chaired the Japan Equestrian Foundation and was a member of the Japanese Olympic Committee.
Jack Curtis, K6KU, became a Silent Key on June 4. Curtis developed the first keyer-on-a-chip in 1968 and his invention revolutionized Morse code sending. According to the ARRL Letter, Curtis's keyer chips were built into many amateur transceivers of the late 20th century and were the basis of a wide variety of commercial memory keyers.
Finally, Kip Edwards, W6SZN, passed away on June 6. Edwards was a director and secretary of the YASME Foundation at the time of his death at age 71. An attorney, DXer and DXpeditioner, Edwards had also served previously as president of both the Northern California Contest Club and the Northern California DX Club. The ARRL Letter reports he had retired from his legal practice five years ago and moved to Washington State.