W9EVT SK

 I got an email reporting that W9EVT, George was now a Silent Key.  I haven't confirmed it yet (evening of 2022-12-22) but it is always sad to lose another ham radio operator.

saw this confirming tweet the evening of 2022-12-23:

https://twitter.com/LASELKI/status/1606428202452537345
 
I only met George in person once in 2017 along with K9MMS, Gary and an islander: Merrill Lundberg.  I used to call W9EVT once in a while to report when his mic was stuck or to ask a question.  Always meant to go over but after Covid-19 struck I didn't want to either transmit or receive the virus.

Here are a couple of pictures of George taken by K9MMS:

George's friend, Dave is in the back

George in his Collins room

I tried searching on W9EVT and found a couple of interesting items, first a QSL card from the previous holder of W9EVT:

from ebay: https://www.ebay.com/itm/265527809647

Second, a blurb from March 1966 Popular Electronics:

That mentions this airplane crash:

from the wiki

I know that a lot of people marvel at George's huge collection of radios - but I think that George himself was a lot more amazing.  Before I went over with K9MMS and Merrill in 2017 I did call George and he said he could give us 15 minutes or so.  Several HOURS later George's wife, Susan finally ended the visit by having George come in for supper.  Although George spent a lot of time showing us his radio collection he also mentioned the people he had known (like Jackie Bouvier, Batista, the King of Swaziland), and many of the places he had been - it was amazing.

BTW I just started listening to the Dickens Christmas story: The Chimes.  The first chapter mentions the term "growing down":

George won't be growing down anymore.

Best Regards,
Chuck, WB9KZY
http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm