[Elecraft] Off topic...W6QYT SK

[Douglas Westover]

Not really Elecraft related but I'm sure many on the reflector
either knew or knew of Oswald Garrison "Mike" Villard, W6QYT.

Mike passed away sometime in the past week though I have
no further details at this time. You will remember him as one of
the early developers of SSB, the first amateur SSB to SSB
QSO between W6YX on the Stanford campus and a W0
whose call eludes me at the moment. He also invented the
"Q-multiplier" and wrote many QST articles in the 50s and 60s.

Professionally Mike was an EE professor at Stanford and
director of the Radioscience Laboratory. In 1970 Villard
moved his research and research staff to Stanford Research
Institute (now SRI International). He conceived the idea of
using LARGE ( ~2.5 km ) hf arrays for backscatter clutter
mitigation which with the development of highly linear and
stable sweep frequency generators led to the development
of the highly successful US OTH-B radar program. Today it
lives on as the Navy ROTHR and the SRI WARF facility
in central California. In later years Mike was actively involved
in  the development of Low Observable (LO) technology.

Mike was my mentor and friend during my undergraduate
years at Stanford. I worked for him part time all during
school and though that might have lowered my GPA I
learned far more from him then most classes.

He will be missed.

Doug
W6JD