Jim W7ZQ passed away

Through N6XI, John N2NEP let me know of Jim W7ZQ having passed away on Nov 26th. Here is his orbituary.

I used to know Jim as W0HTH in Colorado back in '60s. He was always loud from his 2 element quad on 40m. Later he has changed his call to W0HJ. When he got a position as a professor at Wyoming University, his call has become W7ZQ. I have had numerous enjoyable chats with him in his W0HJ and then W7ZQ days.

His orbituaru told he had made much effort to get Ph D in electrical engineering after having served in the army for a few years. I have never heard of his this service in QSOs with him. It also told he wanted to join Navy in WWII interrupting his study at high school. He was a WWII veteran.

When he was in Colorado, he used to operate mobile in his morning hours commuting from his home in a high land area down to the city of Denver. While driving that way, he often described some people dipping in hot bath tub in freezing morning he could see from his car. The road was slippery as he often told. In the end of such a QSO, I used to tell him not to slip out of the road on the way to the office. Later, when I started working at own practice in '90s, he was already retired and operated from his home in Wyo or in Idaho. In the QSOs with him before I go for work in our morning hours, he used to tell me not to slip into the watered rice paddy on the way. Of course, it was a paraphrase of my joke back in '80s. He has had a good sense of humor.

He has put up a couple of 160ft high towers in Idaho. On one of them, he got another 2 el quad and sent out a big signal into Japan. His signal from Collins linear amplifier was clean and beautiful. I was always admiring it. His CW itself sounded beautiful as well. Rather slow but accurate with ample spacing between words. It sure expressed his sense of beauty on CW, which I rarely hear of nowadays.

His orbituary told me he had lost his 1st wife and 5 chldren. However, I am sure he has spent a happy retirement with his 2nd wife in Idaho. I sure wanted to see him in person before I got this sad news. He will be missed so much. He has been not only one of my good friends but also a hero in ham radio for me.