[50mhz] [Moon-Net] Steve K1FO SK

[Russ K2TXB]

Hi All. Yes Steve was a great ham and a good friend.  I first met Steve when
we were young men.  I lived out west in Jamestown, NY (now FN02) and he was
in CT.  We and a lot of other young guys got together around 1971 to operate
the WA1MUG contest station on Mt. Greylock, MA, for the June contest.  That
was the first year that group, mostly RPI graduates) scored a record high
score for the June contest.  (Eventually the WA1MUG call was abandoned and
they begam using the current W2SZ call.)

 I clearly remember riding in the car with Steve and about 4 other guys,
coming back up the mountain in the early morning and driving through
alternating patches of fog and sun.  We were all high from the successes of
the previous day and when one of the guys commented that we were driving
into a cloud, another said maybe we could work the cloud.  Steve, who at
that time held the call WA1FFO, yelled out "QRZ the Cloud".  That broke
everyone up and we were repeating it and laughing all the way to the top.
Steve had a set of unique phonetics for his call sign that I will not repeat
here, but I'm sure some of the OT's will recall with a chuckle.  It was a
precursor to his current call, "K1 Far Out".

Over the years since then I have visited Steve at his home to see his
enterprise, used his advice on antennas and amplifier construction, and of
course worked him probably hundreds of times on 6 meters and above.  One
memorable time was when Al, K2UYH and I were checking SWR on the 70 cm feed
for his 28 foot Kennedy dish.  We had my 10 watt rig out in the back yard on
a card table and connected to the feed.  The dish was pointed straight up.
It was the middle of the afternoon and we suddenly started hearing some CW.
At first we thought it was coming from the basement shack, but we quickly
discovered it was coming from the 726R.  It was Steve calling CQ.  We gave
him a call and worked him.  Of course with the dish pointed straight up, we
were working him with just the dipole feed!

I can remember hearing Steve no matter where I turned my long 432 Yagi
during a contest.  A lot of it was reflections from various water towers and
other objects within 20 miles of my QTH in FM29.  What a signal!

As so many have said, Steve will be missed.  He will also be remembered as
long as we live.

Very 73 Steve, and Rest In Peace.
Russ K2TXB