4/14/2015

Matt N7EG SK

Lat night, Dave W7AQK let me know our mutual friend, Matt, N7EG, passed away last week.

I have known Matt for several years since he had his former call signs of KA7PKG and then K7PEG. He often called me on 40m with his swinging bug early in the evening in our time. He used old Atlas transceivers with a bit of chirp and drift, which have improved later. Like his keying with the old bug, he always made witty jokes and quit soon. I loved his way of operation so much.

Once, when I saw him sitting at his shack on the photo in QRZ.com, I told him he looked like an old prophet in the bible days. He liked that saying very much. I was surprised to find an Astatic mic standing on the table. I was sure he would had been a CW only operator. He told me he had been involved in the emergency communication net on SSB. Later, I knew he had been on some other net on 40m, where he talked to friends of mine as well.

I was surprised to hear that he had been working as a volunteer counsellor at a hospital there. Since he was a veteran from WWII and suffered from alcoholism, he has worked for those with alcoholism mostly due to their service in Iraq etc. It seemed his life work. I have not expected such an activity in his career which looked quite different from his way of operation on CW. Dave told me he had been kind and generous to the others all the time. At this time I heard of his volunteer work, I have respected him not only for a proficient CW operator but also as a human being.

He seemed to be 90 years old. It was a great loss for us that he passed away and his key went silent. However, he might have lived a great life for himself as well as for the people around him.

Rest in peace, my friend.

8 comments:

  1. This is truly sad news. I have worked Matt several times. His bug always had that distinctive sound of rhythm. One by one, CW operators pass into history. A sobering thought.

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  2. Nice comments. OM Time waits for no one.

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  3. Wow. It was amazingly hard to get my comments published. I got sort of nerdy and tried five times. Finally got it to work with my URL. Nothing else would work.

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  4. Don,

    Considering of his age, I thought this would happen sometime. But it was really all of sudden. It is a relief to us that he has not suffered too long. Let's swing our bug and paddle while we could.

    Jim,

    Sorry for your trouble with uploading comment. A bit tricky. Google seems to induce us to get account of Google. Thanks for trying anyhow.

    Shin

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  6. I did not have the pleasure of knowing Matt, so your kind words about him were enlightening. It is nice to hear about those who work to improve the lives of others. I am sure he will be missed.

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    1. Dan,

      Sure we are missing him. Great operators are going SK one after another. In my case, hopefully, in a few weeks, some people may rumor that they have not heard me for a while. Then I would be forgotten completely. Life is like a blast of wind for me.

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  7. I did not have the pleasure ok knowing Matt. Your kind words about him were enlightening to me. It is nice to hear about those who work to improve the lives of others. I sure he will be missed.

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