[Elecraft] Doug Hendricks, KI6DS, SK

[Wayne Burdick]

I'm passing along the news about Doug Hendricks, KI6DS, who many of you may
have met over the years. He was a true gentleman, a born entrepreneur
disguised as a math teacher and girl's basketball coach in Los Banyos,
California. He put his folksy Kansas spin on everything he did, always with
a smile and usually with a better idea.

Doug and I were great friends and early collaborators in the QRP world (#2
and #3, respectively, in the NorCal QRP Club). In fact we both had the idea
to start a QRP club at the same time but he called QRP-ARCI to get their
list of Bay-Area members a few days before I did. We hatched the idea for
the NC40 transceiver at a McDonald's in Pleasanton, along with Jim Cates
(NorCal #1, also an SK). I was the young upstart with an idea burning
through my lab bench and Doug was a marketing genius. The question at the
time was, should we build 25...maybe 50? This and other NorCal projects
like the Sierra would never have happened without Doug's organizational
skills.

Another favorite memory of mine is doing field day with Doug and others at
the Zuni Loop campsite in the mountains east of L.A. Doug brought along an
NC40 he had painted bright orange for reasons admired but never explained.

But I'll always remember Doug's passion for teaching. He was dedicated to
his students, some from disadvantaged backgrounds.

For more info on Doug see Tom Witherspoon's blog post:

https://qrper.com/2026/09/doug-hendricks-ki6ds-is-silent-key/

73,
Wayne
N6KR

-- 
Elecraft, Inc.