Eeerie QSO yesterday...

[W3MIV]

While working some DX on twenty, I got a reply from W3FT.

For some strange reason, the call made me sit bolt upright, and I suddenly realized that it was the "3FT" that caused the jolt.

Made me suddenly remember Chuck Reville, K3FT, who was a regular on QRZ (in the good ol' days when W3SY -- a very good friend of Chuck's) was also a regular there.

Chuck, of course, is now an SK having had a massive heart attack after returning home from helping another ham. Chuck was a great resource to me in my early "HF" career; he lived only a few miles down the highway from my QTH and he was the kind of guy who was always there. That charity got him in the end, I guess.

A great contester, he always bent his call into new phonetics -- "flying tigers," "fried tomatoes," "foolish talk," "fine trouble," etc ad infinitum.

One of the good guys. His call is now held by some guy in PA.

The call, incidentally, which covered a massive distance of about twelve miles as the electrons zoom, was from a ham showing another ham how to work PSK31 and he saw my call and pounced. Nice QSO with W3RAR, as it turned out. W3FT is the Baltimore Amateur Radio Club -- BARC -- located in Reisterstown, MD.

[KG4CGC]

Was this the TBTM guy?
(take back ten meters)

[W3MIV]

Was this the TBTM guy?
(take back ten meters)

That doesn't ring any bells with me, but neither does that mean anything.

As I recall, Chuck was once an agent of some sort with the FCC -- back when enforcement was a real effort.

[KG4CGC]

Sounds like it may have been the same guy who was leading an effort to take back 10m from unlicensed operators. I'm thinking around 2000-2002 he died suddenly of a heart attack after helping a friend and his name was Chuck. TBTM was added to his signature during the last year he was on QRZ.
If it's the same guy.

[W3MIV]

Sounds like it may have been the same guy who was leading an effort to take back 10m from unlicensed operators. I'm thinking around 2000-2002 he died suddenly of a heart attack after helping a friend and his name was Chuck. TBTM was added to his signature during the last year he was on QRZ.
If it's the same guy.

2002 is too early. I was not licensed for HF until 2004, and he was instrumental in helping me pass the code test. I believe it was later in 2004 that he passed. October rings a distant bell (with me, damn near all the bells are now distant).

I remember that he was very strong on the issue of illegal ops of all sorts, and that the shenanigans on 75 were a real burr under his saddle. You may well be correct in your memory (I'm jealous) but wrong on the time frame.

[KG4CGC]

Yeah, I'm now thinking it may have been later.

[WX7P]

2002 is too early. I was not licensed for HF until 2004, and he was instrumental in helping me pass the code test. I believe it was later in 2004 that he passed. October rings a distant bell (with me, damn near all the bells are now distant).

You're right, Albert, Chuck passed in October 2004. I remember, because it was right before the election. Chuck and Steve spent a lot of time doing the good nature joust with W8EFA and me. Those guys were the typical right wing binary engineer types, they weren't the teabagging dolts we see today. I told Chuck the day before he died I was going to send him a copy of Fahrenheit 911, if he promised to actually watch it. I never got the answer, obviously.

[KJ3N]

Yeah, I'm now thinking it may have been later.

2004, as someone has already pointed out.

[W3MIV]

You're right, Albert, Chuck passed in October 2004. I remember, because it was right before the election. Chuck and Steve spent a lot of time doing the good nature joust with W8EFA and me. Those guys were the typical right wing binary engineer types, they weren't the teabagging dolts we see today. I told Chuck the day before he died I was going to send him a copy of Fahrenheit 911, if he promised to actually watch it. I never got the answer, obviously.

I remember those jousts. Back in those days, I was still captivated by the "conservative" views and still believed in capitalism and all the bullshit that I had been spoon fed over all those years of working my ass off. The scales fell off totally with Bush and Cheney. I had been a Democrat for years; switched during Reagan; reverted to reality just before that election, but not in time -- neither party in Maryland lets you change affiliation easily, or within any reasonable time of an impending election.

EFA was an even more ardent guy than you, Dave. And that's saying something!

Chuck was, indeed, conservative in his outlook -- not surprising, since most hams of the old school always have been. That's why we had such a hell of a fight over code/no code. He was also a great elmer, even at a distance, and he had a great sense of humor.

[W3WN]

I knew Chuck K3FT from the Pa QSO Party, and he was one of (if not THE) prime movers and shakers in the short-lived Mid-Atlantic QSO Party. After Chuck passed, no one really picked up the lead, and that event stumbled around for a few years before fading into dust.

I still have many of his old emails. One of his last serious ones to me was about Chambersburg PA proposing to spend $17K to study BPL. But his last two were jokes.

He is sorely missed.

On the same lines, I had a start one day when I heard a YL using the call N3BM. N3BM(SK) was a good friend, a good DX'er, and a decent photographer (if you ever see that 9N1MM picture on eHam, Ben took it), and he was one of the best teachers of CW the Pittsburgh area had. I'd simply forgotten that over 2 years had passed and that the call was available again.