I worked a lot of the guys and gals that have been mentioned here, but never
met them personally. The guy that really cranked me up several notches in
contesting was Dean Lewis, WA0TKJ. He is now K9ZV in Salina, Kansas and is
no longer active in ham radio. Dean is a consumate CW operator that could
send left or right handed while loggin with the other hand. A beer and his
pipe were close at hand too. I lived a mile from him for several years and
the only way I could beat him is to get him to multi-op at his place or
mine. Dean could pick stations out that no one else could hear.
Unfortunately, because of an industrial accident, Dean lost some use of his
hand and never made the switch to computers. He gave up contesting when the
computers arrived on the scene. He had the best paper logs and dupe sheets
I have ever seen. Neat and clean.
Dean liked the DX contests and did a lot of damage from Kansas in those
contests. As a operator he was one of the best for the time. 5BDXCC,
5BWAZ, Honor Roll, and loved to contest....
Dean did switch to VHF/UHF contesting with Pete, WB0DRL for several years.
Dean and Pete kinda invented the Rover catagory that now exists. Dean's
abilities on HF translated well to VHF and UHF digging signals out of the
noise floor. It was a pure delight to see Dean handle six meters like it
was 20 meters.
Alas and alack...Dean has given up Ham Radio and has taken up collecting
pottery and shoot pictures. Oh yea, he was into drag racing and road racing
for awhile too.
My two cents
Lee Buller
k0wa@southwind.net
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