Sad to hear of Paul's passing at a young 62 years. Though not active in
recent years since he moved to the states, he was a legend on Top Band
during his years in Hong Kong.
I first heard his signal in December 1980 when my QTH was in Shelton,
Connecticut. His CQs came through regularly for a couple of weeks, often
as early as an hour before sunrise and staying in for a half hour after.
But while his signal was good, his receiving noise was high and East
Coast USA QSOs were few.
Paul was in a high-rise with an antenna on the roof and a 4-1000 amp. I
had a 70-foot shunt-fed tower, 120 radials and a single 6146 running 100
watts. For receiving I had a short Beverage to the west and another to
the south as I recall, and his signal generally was best from the south.
His signal peaked S9 one morning and I thought a QSO was possible -- but
a snowstorm had other ideas and knocked out our power at the critical
moment and it stayed off till well after sunrise.
Then on Jan. 11 we had another good day -- Paul's signal peaked 579 at
1130z and he got my call OK, gave me a 229 and then quickly faded into
the noise as he was acknowledging my report. His QSL card noted it as
the first VS6-W1 QSO.
I was fortunate to work Paul twice again from Delaware a few years
later, including once in the ARRL 160-meter contest. But the first time
-- country no. 72 and the first from easttern Asia for me -- remains one
of my most treasured contacts on Top Band.
Rest in peace Paul.
73/Jon AA1K
News story on his accident:
http://www.mercedsunstar.com/167/story/318382.html
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