I first met Rich Strand, KL7RA, at Dayton in the late '90s,
when I asked him where was the best place to see the aurora,
and he invited us to come to Fairbanks, claiming it to
be the very best viewing, but reminding me that beautiful
auroras destroy propagation.
Judy and I travelled to Fairbanks, and enjoyed Rich and Jyl's
company (albeit we are polar opposites politically, with they
being Palin fans, and we are friends with Hillary).
Not a single car horn was heard around town.
Rich noted that the likely hood of needing road help
at some time in the future on snowy roads motivated
Alaskans to an absence of anger and eliminated road
rage attitudes.
We stayed at Chena Hot Springs outside Fairbanks,
where we discovered their hilltop "solarium" pointed
north and was named an "aurorium", and found that many
Japanese honeymooners travel there as they believe a
child conceived under the aurora to be a special child.
We saw this around 1 am when a husband with six cameras
and a wife with a different intent arrived, giving him
only a few minutes to photo before taking his cameras
away and leading him back to their room.
That weekend I joined Rich and his team for the 2000 CQ WW SSB.
In 24 hours we had over 9,000 Qs. Then the red aurora came
and in the second 24 hours we made 900 Qs.
And Rich pointed out this was more normal than not!
But during the Sunday lulls, I heard one AK ham sound out
how a hot cup of coffee sounds when thrown into the air at -10,
and a different sound at -30, and a reminder that heating oil
becomes jelly at -40, and that polar bears have adapted at
Point Barrow: they gather at 2am closing time outside the bars
because they apparently like marinated Alaskans, and once or
twice a year, an Alaskan on a Snow Machine (no snowmobiles
are in Alaska) was careless and made their gathering worthwhile.
And at the 3pm contest end on Sunday, we had his standard
fish sticks awards dinner.
And Rich ceremoniously added my QSL to his wall of honor - operators
that had made at least 300 QSOs in a contest. What a neat idea!
Rich had "complained" that I have a loud voice, suggesting
that when he was on 40 and I was on 15 and 40, I could call
on both bands if he held his mike in my direction, so when
I returned for the 2001 WW, I brought an audio VU meter I
had been using at home to try some visual feedback to remind
me of the correct volume. Chip, K7JA was there with the new
Yaesu to use, and from time to time, he mildly glared when
my volume rose, in excitement, and sometimes he pointed to
the VU meter. I moved from the 10 station to the 20 station
but forgot to move the VU meter. About 30 seconds later,
Chip got up from 15, walked to the 10 station, grabbed the
VU meter, and slammed it down in front of me, and with such
effect that I really did pay attention to my meter the rest
of the contest (and, I think - he stopped glaring!!).
On SSB (my second favorite mode) I always try to occasionally
throw in a positive comments (nice audio, etc.) or for humor
(like being from the REPUBLIC OF TEXAS when the exchange is
the state), and apparently this style was to Rich's liking:
he had had the other operators QRT for a couple of minutes
to listen to my banter, suggesting that the cost of slowing
down with occasional comments would lead to a small reduction
in QSOs, maybe, but it was well worth it, because with that
goodwill sent, they would go out of their way to work KL7RA
in the next contest.
>From 2001 thru last May, Rich was my Hamvention "Buddy",
providing local transport to/from the airport and to
and from Hara, saving seats for the sessions, and sharing
the joy of hams of the same age who recognize all of the
old equipment as we walked thru the flea market.
And I got to observe the 10-15 hams per hour who came up
to Rich to thank him for being their first (or ONLY) AK.
He was ALWAYS on the lookout for specific parts as he
continually added towers and antennas and rotators to
build the Fairbanks station, which he then tore down
and rebuilt south of Anchorage to get out from under
that aurora.
And then in the evenings at the Crowne Plaza, those
greetings/shakes/smiles of the hundreds of the truly close
friends Rich had garnered in those many Dayton trips.
That's where one of his NASA friends reported that Rich
was personally responsible for a several week delay
in one of the early (maybe STS-4) space missions.
And I recall one midnight in the SMC suite, it was
down to Rich and I and KA9FOX and a couple others,
who had all been too lazy to go downstairs and get
the great pizza, when N5RZ and another Texan came
in with a pizza, walked to the far end of the room,
set it down for us, and left. It really smelled good,
but all of us were kinda waiting politely to not be
the first to get up, when I finally ambled over to find
a great smelling empty box.
Gator later said they took the stairs rather than
the elevator in fear of possible retaliation!
While I had brought the CQ WW CW 160 record to North America
in 1971 as KG4CS at Gitmo, I had not attended a 160 dinner
until last year, at Rich's suggestion, where it happened
that we joined a table with Bob W3GH and Bob W4DR, only
to discover the three of us had all been to Navassa.
Sad to see you go, my good buddy, Rich.
Thanks for these and many other memories.
Merrilly yours,
Barry Merrill, W5GN
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