[SFDXA] Former “How’s DX?” Conductor Rod Newkirk, W9BRD (SK)

[Bill]

    Former “How’s DX?” Conductor Rod Newkirk, W9BRD (SK)

Rod Newkirk, W9BRD/VA3ZBB, of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada -- who penned the 
/QST/ column “How’s DX?” from 1947-1978 -- *passed away* 
<http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/ottawacitizen/obituary.aspx?n=rodney-newkirk&pid=161162437#fbLoggedOut> 
on Monday, November 19 after a long illness. Newkirk was credited with 
coining the term “Elmer,” as well as for his humorous take on DX in his 
column, especially with limericks in his DX Hoggery and Poetry 
Depreciation Society and the accompanying cartoons of Jeeves by Phil 
“Gil” Gildersleeve, W1CJD (SK).

In March 1991, /QST/ Associate Editor Jim Cain, K1TN, profiled Newkirk 
in “*How’s Rod?* <http://p1k.arrl.org/pubs_archive/86661>” in the pages 
of /QST/. “Newkirk wrote ‘How’s DX?’ through the Korean War, through the 
Fabulous ’50s, the Vietnam war, incentive licensing and the W9WNV 
DXpedition controversy,” Cain wrote. “While six American presidents 
moved in and out of the White House, ‘How’s DX?’ documented the rise of 
SSB in Amateur Radio and DXing, saw the birth of DX lists and nets and 
the growing number of 2 meter spotting groups.”

The term “Elmer” -- meaning someone who provides personal guidance and 
assistance to would-be hams -- first appeared in /QST/ in Newkirk’s 
*March 1971 “How’s DX?” column* 
<http://p1k.arrl.org/pubs_archive/65513>, where he wrote that “[t]oo 
frequently one hears a sad story in this little nutshell: ‘Oh, I almost 
got a ticket, too, but Elmer, W9XYZ, moved away and I kind of lost 
interest.’ Sure, the guy could have burned through on his own, maybe, 
but he, like others, wound up an almost-ham. No more Elmer. We need 
those Elmers. All the Elmers, including the ham who took the most time 
and trouble to give /you/ a push toward your license, are the birds who 
keep this great game young and fresh.” Newkirk was probably not trying 
to coin a term at the time, but the name stuck, becoming a general term 
for the mentors Newkirk called “the unsung fathers of ham radio.”

Beginning in May 1951 (and appearing each May after that), Newkirk wrote 
about the annual meeting of the DX Hoggery and Poetry Depreciation 
Society. The DXHPDS featured such notables as Noyes E. Tester, Loda 
Watts, Harry Uppensign, Lotta Chassis and Hal R. Lauder -- as well as 
limericks that skewered deserving lids:

/Splashy-voiced Boomboom MacSwine
When told that his gain’s out of line,
Is prompt to reply,
If ‘8’ is too high
Then why is it numbered to ‘9’?/ (*May 1970* 
<http://p1k.arrl.org/pubs_archive/65138>)

First licensed in 1937 as W9BRD at 14, Newkirk was involved with radio 
all his life. After graduating from high school, he became a civilian 
radio operator in Washington, DC with station WAR; when World War II 
broke out, he joined the US Army as a member of the Army Signal Corps 
where he served in Florida, Papua-New Guinea and the Philippines. He 
remembered these times in his first /QST/ article, “Christmas, 1944,” 
which recounted a “heart-warming yarn involving the combination of the 
Amateur and the Christmas Spirit in far-off Hollandia.”

After a stint as a radio operator with the Illinois State Police, 
Newkirk moved to Connecticut in 1947 where he worked at ARRL 
Headquarters as a W1AW Station Operator with a new call sign, W1VMW. It 
was while Newkirk was in Newington that then-ARRL Communications Manager 
Ed Handy, W1BDI, asked Newkirk to take over the “How’s DX?” from Byron 
Goodman, W1JPE. A few years later, Newkirk returned to his home state of 
Illinois to go to college. While in Illinois, he regained his W9BRD call 
sign and resumed his job with the Illinois State Police. He continued to 
write “How’s DX?” from Illinois. Newkirk’s last “How’s DX?” column was 
published in February 1978. Newkirk retired from the State Police in 
1986. In 1984, he was inducted into the CQ DX Hall of Fame as its 23th 
member, and in 2002, he was the 87th inductee into the CQ Hall of Fame.

Newkirk was a former member of the ARRL and a member of the Radio 
Amateurs of Canada, the Ottawa Valley Mobile Radio Club, FISTS, the 
Morse Telegraph Club and the Quarter Century Wireless Association and 
QCWA Chapter 70. In May 2007, he was presented with the QCWA “70 Years 
Licensed” Golden Certificate and lapel pin, and in May 2010, with the 
QCWA Century Certificate.

In 1997, Newkirk married Betty, VE3ZBB, and moved to Canada, where he 
got the matching Canadian call sign VA3ZBB. A private family funeral 
will be held. Friends are invited to join the Newkirk Family at the 
*Garden Chapel of Tubman Funeral Homes* 
<http://www.tubmanfuneralhomes.com/en/locations/outdoor-chapel> on 
Thursday November 22 from 2-4 PM for a celebration of Newkirk’s life.

//