[CQ-Contest] K4OJ

[Joe]

Jim's passing comes as a real shock ... such things are not supposed to happen ... not to guys like Jim.

I first met Jim at the ARRL National Convention in Houston, Texas in 1983. The Texas DX Society had just recently held the first of the Great Armadillo Runs, and had put on every county in Texas on the air in a single weekend.  Jim was the winner, he worked every county in Texas, all 254 of 'em ... we were amazed. We arranged for him to fly to Houston, picked him up, and brought him to the convention site by helicopter.  And we found we had stuck pure gold ... what a super guy.  

In the years since then I've worked Jim regularly in the contests, seen him at Dayton, followed the growth of the contest club he founded in Florida, and operated in the FL QSO Party he so successfully put on the map.  His contributions to serious amateur radio operating activites seemed boundless.  

I sure all of the members of the Texas DX Society and all of the guys on the ARRL Contest Advisory Committee join with me in sending our profund condolences to Ellen, W1YL and to those other members of his family he leaves behind.

We are diminished ...

Joe, W5ASP