Topband: W4OWJ - Jack Matthews- SK

[k1zm at aol.com]

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W4ZV and K8MFO have already commented on Jack's passing - I will only note a bit more here.


I happened to be one of those guys on "JACK'S PHONE LIST"that K8MFO mentioned earlier - and I too benefited from a number of late night & early morning phone calls as did N4WW, N0XA and others over the years.



Jack was a really fine gentleman - the genuine real deal kind of guy - soft spoken and a fine 160m operator well into his 80's.



As Bernie's post noted, Jack lived to be 96 and I used to see him in the 160M suite at Dayton in the mid 1980's - I used to go with him to Dayton and one day Jack said - "Jeff, I have outlived most of the guys I used to come here to talk with - except for you and ZV and one or two others, I really do not know too many of the guys anymore".  I guess that happens when you outlive most of your peers....



Always, in good humor, Jack suffered a personal tragedy when his son predeceased him - something I know hit him very hard some years ago.



When he retired to a retirement community in FLA some years later, he still managed a good signal on xmit on 160m although his Rx situation suffered somewhat as a result.



I do recall calling him on the phone to work VK0IR in 1997 when Bob Allphin was there and Jack made the Q from his small lot.  He was thrilled to get that one into his log...



Like me Jack was an FT1000D guy and we often talked about what a neat radio it was when it first came out. 



Over the years, my phone would ring now and then - and his familiar voice would say "Jeff  (long pause....) - this is Jack Matthews".....and we would just chat about things for a half hour or so.... "Are u working anything new these days he would say...it has been really slow down here..."



I will miss those phone calls for sure and the distant friendship of a really nice guy - he always asked me to come down to visit but somehow I never managed to do that - now I sure wish that I had found the time to do so at least once.



RIP Jack - you will be missed - sorry we will not be hearing "OWJ" in the pileups on 160m anymore when a rare one shows up.



73 JEFF  K1ZM/VY2ZM



Email   K1ZM at aol.comGM