[TowerTalk] Al Kahn, K4FW, Silent Key

[Jim Brown]

Reprinted from the North Shore Radio Club EMail List.

Jim Brown

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K4FW, Albert R. Kahn, passed away on June 15th. Al started Ten-Tec
after being bored with retired life. He was also a member of FOC.

He had previously started the speaker/ mic company Electro Voice.

The company was founded by Al Kahn and Lou Burroughs in the basement of the 
Century Tire and Rubber Company in South Bend, Indiana as Radio Engineers. 
1930 Kahn and Burroughs develop a public address system for Knute Rockne, the 
football coach at Notre Dame University. Rockne uses the system to address his team 
during drills on 4 adjacent fields. He calls the system his "Electric Voice.....


He was active on the bands till a few years ago,  always attending the annual
"oldtimers picnic" at W9EFL 's (Noel ex of Deerfield & NORA)  antenna farm in 
Michigan.

we lost another great ham....

Bill Steffey  NY9H

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Al Kahn was a great ham and a great human being. Under his management, both 
Electro-Voice and TenTec, the two great companies he founded, were leaders in their 
field, were professionally managed, and focussed on both quality and customer 
service. A recent piece in QST pointed out the major support that Al Kahn gave to 
ARRL at critical times of their existence. Al was also a major supporter of the 
Heath company. Ham radio would be very different if Al Kahn had not walked our way.

Jim Brown  K9YC