[RTTY] VE6YR Bob SK

[Bud VA7ST]

Hello fellow RTTY ops. I know many of us share a sense of sadness -- but 
also very fond memories -- as we extend condolences to Margaret VE6MPM 
and family on the passing of Bob VE6YR on Dec. 22.

The radiosport world has lost an avid contester, particularly active in
RTTY contests. One of Bob's most recent achievements was finishing third
worldwide in the 2009 TARA RTTY Grid Dip contest low-power category --
quite an achievement in the most active category. The Grid Dip 2009 
results page has a photo of Bob proudly holding the LP 3rd-place 
certificate:

http://www.n2ty.org/seasons/tara_grid_results09.html

I always looked forward to hearing Bob on the air, and although we never
got to meet in person, he was a wonderful radio friend and competitor.
We "met" many many times in contests over the years, most recently in
mid-October.

Bob was one of my first contacts on teletype back in June 2002 (when I
held the call VE7ASK) and we shared nearly 100 logged contacts in the
years since then. As a very new RTTY contester back in 2002, I noted
after my first-ever Worked All Europe RTTY contest:

"The sudden, hollow silence at the end of a marathon contest always
seems rather sad to me. No matter how I fared, the experience instantly
becomes part of my personal golden days of radio. Time to pause and
reflect, thinking about the stations I heard, the ones that got away,
the quick notes of encouragement from guys like Bob (VE6YR)..."

What an inspiration Bob was to me in those early days, and he continued
that encouragement every time we made contact or in his emails over the
years.

Bob was an original and frequent member of our Aurora Busters team,
which was a bunch of Canadians from NL to BC competing together in the
North American QSO Party RTTY contest. I noticed Bob was less active on
the air in the past couple of years, but when I asked he always got on,
even if he hadn't been planning to, and was an invaluable teammate in
several NAQPs over the past few years.

I particularly remember how we often shared greetings as two lonely
operators on the air from Western Canada in the SARTG New Year RTTY
contest early on New Year's Day. This goes back to 2003 for me, but Bob
was doing the New Year thing a couple years before that... in fact, I
believe he got me going with this annual tradition. At the end of this
year's test I sent a solemn final "TU BOB". The radiosport and RTTY
communities will miss him very much.

-- Bud VA7ST
http://www3.telus.net/va7st/index.htm