[SCCC] Dave Bell, W6AQ Silent Key

[Dennis Younker NE6I]

Dave was an SCCC member and opened his home to the SCCC for a club meeting
in the early to mid-1980s (the exact month and year escapes me but is
undoubtedly captured in one of the bulletins archived on the club web site).
Dave had a nicely kept station consisting of Drake C-line radios which were
highly regarded and quite common at contest and DX stations at the time. 

Dave produced several amateur radio films as noted below. The ARRL provided
me a copy of Amateur Radio Today in the 80's. I was able to have it
broadcast numerous times on my local cable operator's local origination
channel. We advertised the broadcast schedule in advance through numerous
outlets to drive viewership. Dave's productions were very professional,
which is no surprise since that was the business that he was in.

If ARRL had a walk of fame in Newington, Dave W6AQ is one of those that
should be there. Hats off to Dave for giving back to the amateur radio
community. 73 old boy...

--Dennis NE6I  

-----Original Message-----
From: SCCC [mailto:sccc-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of Don.k6zo
Sent: Monday, May 16, 2016 2:04 PM
To: Pat Benson; STU; partbrad; sccc at contesting.com
Subject: [SCCC] Dave Bell, W6AQ Silent Key

ARRL Web site <memberlist at www.arrl.org>
5:01 PM (0 minutes ago)
to me
SB SPCL @ ARL $ARLX003
ARLX003 Hollywood Producer, ARRL Patron Dave Bell, W6AQ (SK)

ZCZC AX03
QST de W1AW
Special Bulletin 3  ARLX003
>From ARRL Headquarters
Newington CT  May 16, 2016
To all radio amateurs

SB SPCL ARL ARLX003
ARLX003 Hollywood Producer, ARRL Patron Dave Bell, W6AQ (SK)

Award-winning Hollywood producer and ARRL benefactor Dave Bell, W6AQ, of
Encinitas, California, died on May 13. He was 84 and had been a radio
amateur for 65 years. Bell had been suffering from cancer and was in hospice
care. An ARRL Life Member and a former chair of the ARRL Public Relations
Committee, Bell directed Amateur Radio Today and produced several other ham
radio-related promotional videos and films, starting with The Ham's Wide
World, a TV documentary filmed in black and white.

"If I have a claim to fame in Amateur Radio, it's probably that I produced
the first television documentary about ham radio that got worldwide
distribution, and then I made several others before I 'retired' from the ham
radio film/video hobby-within-a-hobby and got busy making a living producing
TV movies, specials, and documentaries for all of the networks including HBO
and Showtime, and made a couple of theatrical feature films - Nadia and The
Long Walk Home," Bell recounted on his QRZ.com profile. He started TV's
Unsolved Mysteries, and he received an Emmy Award in 1985 for Outstanding
Drama/Comedy Special, Do You Remember Love. Bell chronicled his filmmaking
and his Amateur Radio and professional lives in a memoir, World's Best
Hobby.

Last year, Bell and his wife Sam, W6QLT (she's a quilter), donated a signed
Andy Warhol print to the ARRL. The artwork - "Myths: Superman 1981" - sold
at auction last fall for $150,000. The proceeds are being used to create
"The Dave Bell, W6AQ, Endowment Fund" to benefit the League.

Bell also produced The World of Amateur Radio, This is Ham Radio, and Moving
Up to Amateur Radio. He directed the Amateur Radio Today video in 2002. The
short presentation about emergency preparedness was narrated by former CBS
Evening News anchor Walter Cronkite, KB2GSD (SK), written by Alan Kaul,
W6RCL, and produced by Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF (SK) and Bill Baker, W1BKR.
Bell and Pasternak also created The DIY Magic of Amateur Radio in 2011, and
he co-produced The ARRL Goes to Washington, also voiced by Cronkite.
Working on his own, Bell filmed videos for the World Radiosport Team
Championship (WRTC) events in 2000 in Slovenia (The Ham Radio
Olympics) and in 2002 in Finland.

A DXer, casual contester, and a past president of the Southern California DX
Club, Bell was a frequent speaker at Amateur Radio gatherings. He was named
the 1984 Ham of the Year at Dayton Hamvention, and, in 2003, the ARRL
presented Bell with its first Lifetime Achievement Award for his work on
films and videos about Amateur Radio. In 2011 he was named to the CQ Amateur
Radio Hall of Fame.

Heil Sound Ltd's Bob Heil, K9IED, called Bell "one of the great ones." Heil
said Bell's "great smile and laughter" and his "generosity to the hobby"
would be missed, "but most of all, we will miss his spirit."
NNNN
/EX
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