[Lowfer] Fwd: Bill Ashlock SK

[John Andrews]

All,

That's very sad news. As others have mentioned, Bill kept himself in 
good shape, and was a very active guy.

Jay's comments are similar to mine. Bill was one of the few active 
Lowfer guys in this neck of the woods when I got interested in the late 
'90s. His WA CW beacon was not being widely copied before he got into 
the loop business. I can recall talking with him about whether the LF 
transmit loop concept would even work, as it appeared that nobody had 
tried it and stuck with it. But he put a lot of energy into the project, 
and wound up with a signal that was at least as good as most could do 
with a conventional antenna in an open area.

For Bill, and then me, it was all about trees. We both had house lots 
that didn't have much available open space, and the losses with an L or 
T antenna would be pretty high. Bill's secret was, of course, archery. 
He practiced and practiced until he could get both the height and range 
he needed to get wires over the tops of trees (and down again where he 
wanted them). I goofed around with slingshots and wires over branches 
for years until the WD2XES license came along, and Bill came out in 
December, 2004, and we put up the big loop with the #4 wire. He wasn't 
happy about the wind, but after many tries, he finally got a decent shot 
with the bow.

Bill's big thing was always to ask "why?". Anytime a new idea came up, 
he had to get all of the information, think it out, pester you with 
questions, and maybe even try it, before he would pronounce the issue 
settled. That was an educational (and occasionally annoying) experience 
for all involved.

As Jay notes, "Wm" is still presently running. For those who were around 
in the earlier days, here's some sound from 11 years ago:

http://www.w1tag.com/files/WA-clip.wav

73, Bill...I hope they have trees up there.

John, W1TAG