[CQ-Contest] K5GA SK

[Tom Frenaye]

Forwarded by K1KI


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One of the contesting pioneers became a silent key last week and I don't see any mention of it here. I have been working K5GA Mr Bill since I started contesting in '86. I only met him face to face one time, but we had countless quick chats in the middle of various contests over the last 35 years.... Along with several phone calls hundreds of text messages and email exchanges. RIP Mr Bill..... And SJ......MOG

 

Paul K9PG 

Paul at k9pg.com

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Well I have seen nothing about the passing of Billy, so I will say a few things..

 

Bill Bradford (K5GA) " Mr. Bill" passed June 18th, after a long fight he fought to the very end!

 

One of the true Radio-Sport pioneers, being a contester since I believe the age of 10 in the late 50's! Just a few of his accomplishments can be seen on his QRZ page.

 

He was a great friend and mentor, taking the time to help me when I got back into the hobby in the 90's.

 

He helped me decide on things to build my mini-contest station on an extreme budget. We had some great times doing multi-ops, Billy eating fritos and bean dip, joking, ringing the mult bell and sometimes we would do well against the big boys .. his favorite saying was "the little station that could" when we would score well against the Pros!

 

Amazing to me was how much he loved it, you could see how excited he was to find that VU2 LP on 40m, just like I'm sure he was at 10 working his first JA!

 

I know he really enjoyed his last multi-ops out with George at NR5M..

 

Billy will really be missed..my weekly phone chats about stocks, radio, life....

 

Rest well Mr. Bill, hope LP is open wherever you are!

 

Mike K5NZ

 

 

 

 

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Tom Frenaye, P O Box J, West Suffield CT 06093. c: 860-597-4539  h: 860-668-5444