[WriteLog] Remembering Ron Stailey

[Bob Foster]

Hello Everyone,

 

I remember visiting with Ron Stailey (AB5KD at the time) in his home in
Texas.  This was a long time ago, probably in the 1990s or maybe the 1980s.
When I visited with Ron my brother Dick Foster, W5TA, went with me.  Ron
lived in town, in a small lot, but he had very big antennas!  Towers and
beams!  If the antennas had fallen, they would have gone into the neighbors'
yards.  Ron was very big into RTTY Contesting, and he demonstrated how he
worked two bands at the same time (using WriteLog, of course).  

 

I had worked Ron in a number of RTTY Contests before visiting with him, and
I was fascinated by his ability to call almost every operator by name.  At
the end of a contest QSO, he would send "TU" and the name of the operator.
I asked how he did that, and he happily showed how he kept a detailed file
of RTTY Contesters calls and names, and had the software configured to
access the file during contests.  This was new at the time.

 

On the walls of his shack, he had lots of certificates and plaques showing
he had won numerous RTTY Contests.  He said there were some RTTY operators
that were so jealous of his accomplishments, that his coax had been pinned
by them.  I had no idea what he meant, so I asked him.  He said at night the
jealous ops would sneak into his yard and put a pin in his coax, shorting it
out.  Difficult to find, indeed!  To this day, I don't know if that was true
or Ron was just having fun with us.

 

Ron was a very personable guy, and a fantastic contest operator.  He will be
missed.

 

73, Bob Foster, K3QIA

Berwick, PA