[CQ-Contest] W4AN Bill Fisher SK

[Tonno Vahk]

4-5 years ago when I was just beginning to build my station and did not no much about antennas I was with great interest reading everything I could find from big guns' homepages in the web. Bill had a great website with descriptions about his antennas. One sentence I always have in my mind is his description of his two short phased 40m beverages. "That was a key addition to my station, I can hear EU guys chatting in midday while it takes another 3 hours before they start to answer me..." With all this hardware in the air, I was amazed. That was very inspiring.

I sent him an email with about 5-6 questions about his station and saved a bunch for next to be sure he would bother answering. Well, he answered saying that if I want to have answers to my questions I have to keep it to 1-2 short questions per e-mail because long emails with lots of questions tend to get sent to the back of the pile. That was a bit unexpected and I first thought it somewhat arrogant but his recommendation has been very useful in getting replies from busy people over the pond. By now I have become to understand how much Bill has done for ham radio and what we will be missing...

My deepest condolences to his family and friends, W4AN is a callsign I will never forget.

Tonno ES5TV