[CQ-Contest] W4AN SK

[K1to at aol.com]

Last saw Bill in August, on the home stretch of a long road trip.  Got to see his FB mountaintop QTH and still have traces of that stubborn red GA clay in my car.  I was disappointed to have not had my camera with me at the time.  Picked up the second of two AL-1500s that I bought from Bill over a one-year span and that now form the bookends of my SO2R setup.  We chatted about stuff at dinner afterward and his primary focus was on getting his stuff moved to W8JI's where they would combine forces into something even bigger and better.  I got a good vibe that he was upbeat and encouraged.

The only time we had met Dana was in the summer of 1995 when Mary Ann and I met them for lunch as we tried to sort out which southeast QTH would be best for us.  She aged a lot more than 9 years since then.  

Several CQ-Contest posts mentioned a late night gathering on the balcony at the Dayton Crowne Plaza in May 2000.  I was there and drove Bill to the airport for his 7 AM departure afterward.  I think that was his last visit to Dayton and it gave us a little one-on-one time.  Bill was still (appropriately) thrilled about his victory in CQWW CW the previous year.  Having finished 5th in 1998 behind Bill and 3 others with bigger stations, I was somewhat discouraged and had chosen to go to 8P in 1999.  Not Bill.  He pushed ahead knowing that his goal was reachable.  

Bill and I shared an interest in pretty much the same contests - almost purely CW.  Many years ago in IARU, there was a controversial entry from a young W2 that beat both Bill and me.  Bill went nuts trying to uncover the truth of that situation and interestingly, the young man in question has not seriously operated a contest since.

Bill had a special knack for pushing the envelope.  Not content to operate the same old way each time, he always looked for that little extra angle.  Clearly, the methods to achieve the recent 400-QSO barrier-busting Sprint scores are one example of that.  

What impressed me the most over this past week was how widespread Bill's influence was.  While he certainly stayed in touch with many of his peers in the upper echelon of contesting, he also expanded his sphere of influence far beyond that by establishing the eHam site, leading the charge to form CW Sprint teams in the Southeast and trading e-mails with many folks.  

Having just started working again in February, I was disappointed when Bill recently requested help taking his towers and antennas down, since I would’ve gladly helped.  Amazingly, Bill put everything up himself with the sole exception of the 3L 40.  There are some big yagis there and we're not talking Rohn 25 either.  

Bill intended to lend his K4AAA callsign to the K4BAI/KU8E mobile team for the upcoming FQP to honor OJ.  Nice gesture.
  
Since I had a later flight out on Saturday, I was invited to ride with Trey, N5KO, Tom, W8JI, plus Garth (KG7GA) and Mike (N6MZ) from eHam to the follow-up ceremony at Bill's mountaintop station.  Dana, Garth and Trey spread Bill's ashes around the tower at the peak of the mountain.  

Success is a double-edged sword.  It's all about expectations.  When one succeeds wildly in so many areas - contest wins and records, business growth, family expansion, one might begin to feel invincible.  Without knowing the full story, I'm suspecting that some things in Bill's life were interpreted by him as failure.  But very often, turns of events are largely the result of external influences and just cannot be controlled.  

As some of you know, I have a very small family and thus my ham radio buddies really constitute a surrogate family to me.  I don't like losing any part of that family.  

RIP, Fisher...

Dan, K1TO