Friends: KI6DS (SK)
I regret to inform you that Doug Hendricks, KI6DS, passed away early this morning. He was a giant in the QRP community and will be sorely missed in many amateur radio circles.
I've been in touch with his daughter over the past few days. He had gone into the hospital for a minor operation related to his heart and complications began mounting. A pacemaker was put in, but the complications continued. His weakened cardiac condition ultimately took its toll.
Doug was a strong-willed, strong-minded purist for the QRP community and had a knack for organizing many disparate efforts for the betterment of all.
Doug will be remembered for his contributions to QRP through efforts like NorCal, QRPGuys (and spinoffs), the Hendricks PFR-3, and the countless other kits he helped design, organize, and send out to the community.
Personally, I learned so much from Doug throughout the years. I'm going to miss the OM and was proud to have earned the title of friend in his book.
One of my proudest achievements is when he finally bestowed upon me thetitle of being "a good op" when he was describing me in a public forum.
73
Tommy, N5DUX
This other item is older news, but approximately two months ago, QRP Guys went QRT. For those of you unfamiliar, QRP Guys was a source of QRP kits, components and accessories formed by Doug with a few other NorCal QRP members.
No official reason was given, but the company was suffering from counterfeit kits being sold on eBay. I know this because I know someone who purchased one of these kits. The counterfeiters didn't even bother to remove the QRP Guys logo off the cloned circuit boards.
Stealing designs and selling knock offs is one thing. Stealing and using the designers logo is another grevious offense altogether. In any case, it's a sad state of affairs.
72 ðe Larry W2LJ
QRP - When you care to send the very least!
QRP -
Hi Larry!
ReplyDeleteIt's great to see you posting on your blog again. I've been checking every so often to see what's going on.
I bought a lot of QRPGuys kits, but I don't get out to the great outdoors to play radio very often these days. What used to be an adventure has turned into aches and pains. I try to walk around the block 3 or 4 times a week and do my QRPing sitting in a chair in the living room!
QRPGuys was really just Doug kitting the other guy's designs. They had very little input to the actual running of the company. That's the reason for the temporary shutdowns that happened when Doug was sick.
The old guard of QRP is fading away, but I'll always remember putting little 2 transistor transmitters on the air with crystal control and 200 milliwatts. I had so much fun! The new whiz bang computers with a radio attached don't appeal to me as much, but they're not trying to sell to me. They're for the new guys that expect that sort of thing.
I put a 35" wire around my ceiling and a 17 ' wire around the baseboards and use an old MFJ 971 tuner. I got the HW-9 going so I have all but 80 and 10 meters at hand. Too much noise on 80 and 10 doesn't work on my radio. I even got a 6 foot run of RG-174 running from there to one of those (tr)usdx radios so I can lay in bed and play radio!
I'm just doing all I can to stay active and I'm still having fun.