[OKDXA] SM0AGD, Erik Sjolund, SK

[Jeff Martin]

I'm sure many of you old timers will remember Erik, SM0AGD, A great
DXpeditioner from the early days...
Jeff - K5WE
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>From W3UR - Daily DX:

It is with sad heart that I received the bad news of the passing of one 
of my DXpedition heroes.

Earlier today I received word from SM0OTG, Eva, via SM3EVR, Tord that 
Globetrotter and DXpeditioner SM0AGD (SM3AGD, SM5AGD), Erik Arild 
Sjolund, became a Silent Key yesterday. He was born in 1934. Over the 
past few years Erik had been living in a nursing home, suffering from 
dementia.

My story with Erik began in 1981, shortly after I got my General 
license, when I worked his team at J5AG, a somewhat rare one for the 
time period. The following year I worked SM0AGD at a number of locations 
throughout the Pacific including the rare C21NI, T31AE and SM0AJD/KH1. 
Those last two were very unique QSOs as he was operating from the same 
location but every other day he would switch callsigns, giving this (at 
the time) young DXer two new ones.

These were also memorable QSOs as Erik would show up on 10 Meters SSB 
and had pre-programed his radio to operate split on channels up every 5 
KHz. So he would start the first Q at 5 KHz up, followed by 10, 15, etc. 
This was back in the day when we used a 2 meter spotting net and one of 
the locals figured out his pattern and informed all the locals. Once you 
knew the modus operandi it was like fishing in a barrel.

Several months later I received a phone call from N3US, Ed Berkowitz, 
asking if I wanted to join him and SM0AGD for dinner at a local 
restaurant. That was the beginning of our friendship that I will never 
forget. Over the years we meet several more times at DX conventions and 
when Erik was visiting a relative in Maryland he would stop in at W3LPL.

So my condolences to Eva and the Sjolund family. Today's issue is 
dedicated to my friend Erik in memory of all the great times both on the 
air and in person. You can see a listing of many of the places Erik 
operated from:

https://www.qrz.com/db/sm0agd