[PPRAANet] SK from 12 years ago

[Raleigh Holcomb]

Thank you for the information about Tom He died prior to Anne and myself coming here. Wish I had known him.

Raleigh n4hyf



Sent via the Samsung Galaxy S7, an AT&T 4G LTE smartphone


-------- Original message --------
From: Dennis Major <N0ABC at msn.com>
Date: 7/2/19 10:05 AM (GMT-07:00)
To: PPRAANet <ppraanet at mailman.qth.net>
Subject: [PPRAANet] SK from 12 years ago

I was quite surprised to find an email from Legacy.com, via my arrl .
net address, in my inbox early this morning. It was inviting me to share
another memory about Thomas (Tom) McDaniel, N0NTX, on the anniversary of
his passing (July 2, 2007). I had been unemployed at the time, so I had
ample opportunity to write my thoughts and share them on that web site.
Rather than post a follow-up there, where I doubt many people would see
it, I thought I would share my original memory to the club's reflector:


"I was shocked and saddened, and I had many other emotions, when I
learned of Tom's passing. Although I did not know much of Tom's personal
life, I had known him through his longtime and consistent involvement
with the Pikes Peak Radio Amateur Association and ham radio in general,
for the past 12 years that I have also been a "ham". His callsign,
NØNTX, is known to most every local ham.

I knew that he had been in the USAF, and I thought that he was retired
from the Air Force, however, I always thought that he had been an
officer. Now I find out that he was a retired Chief Master Sergeant.
Well, from the 12 years that I have known Tom, he was certainly a
gentleman - perhaps that was why I suspected he had been an officer.

Tom had been the vice president for the ham radio club (PPRAA) the year
prior to my serving in the same position, a few years ago. To underscore
Tom's active involvement in ham radio, and the PPRAA, I would like to
mention that Tom was always there - at meetings, at public service
events, at planning sessions and setup parties for the club's annual
swapfest, at Field Day, etc. I could go on. EVERY year, a couple of
months prior to Field Day, Tom enthusiastically solicited orders for
Field Day T-shirts and pins (never expecting payment until the
merchandise arrived).

Tom's attendance at the club meetings was so extremely consistent, and
he always sat in the same general vicinity each month (as so many of us
do), that when there was an occasion when he didn't make it to a
meeting, it was very obvious and someone would always remark about his
absence. We have a club meeting this Wednesday night (7/11/07), and it
will be a very sad and somber meeting.

I always presumed that Tom was just a little older than myself (turns
out to be 5 years), but I had wanted to find out. After I heard about
Tom's death, I looked up his callsign on one of the databases. Now, I
had always assumed, from Tom's heavy involvement in ham radio and the
club, that he was probably a General, Advanced or Amateur Extra (license
classes) ham radio operator. I was surprised to find out that he was a
Technician class ham, and he probably was originally licensed in the
early 90's. Please note that I did not say "only" or "just" when
referring to the Technician class of license. For Tom's avid interest in
satellites, that class of license afforded him practically everything he
needed, to do what he wanted.

Tom, you will certainly be missed! I don't know how to put a very large
"73" ("best regards") in here, but consider it done.

Dennis Major
NØABC"



The Legacy link:
https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/name/thomas-mcdaniel-obituary?pid=90335176


--

73

Dennis Major, N0ABC
Laurel ARC VEC, Region #10 Coordinator
PPRAA VE Team Leader

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