Amateur Radio Newsline Report 2028, Sept. 9, 2016
Amateur Radio Newsline Report Number 2028, with a release date of Friday,
Sept. 9, 2016 to follow in 5-4-3-2-1.
The following is a QST. Licensing changes in Europe permit more hams to
work across borders. In Australia, a special Field Day marks a 60-year
milestone. Scouts prepare for Jamboree On The Air -- and we offer a
special tribute to a Silent Key, who nurtured a generation of young
amateurs. All this, and more, in Amateur Radio Newsline Report 2028,
coming your way right now.
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BILLBOARD CART HERE
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ELLIE VAN WINKLE, SILENT KEY
JIM/ANCHOR: We open this week's newscast with a special tribute to Ellie
Van Winkle, N Zero QCX, of Colorado. On September 1st, she became a
Silent Key at the age of 83, but not before giving her all and her heart
to the next generation of hams. Amateur Radio Newsline's Paul Braun,
WD9GCO, takes a look at her life doing what she loved most.
PAUL: It has been said that your best hope as a person, is to make a
difference in someone's life, and to leave behind a good legacy.
Ellie Van Winkle, N Zero QCX, took that mantra to an exceptional level.
A retired kindergarten teacher, and longtime member of the Boulder
Amateur Radio Club in Colorado, Ellie and her husband, Howard "Rip" Van
Winkle, NV Zero M, decided to start an offshoot called BARC Junior for
kids from nine to eighteen. They invited them into their home, and for
over 24 years, taught more than 250 children about technology,
electronics, and ham radio and best of all, got them licensed.
Ellie passed away on September first, and did in fact, leave behind a
stellar legacy. Under her and Rip's guidance, BARC Junior grew into one
of the largest radio-oriented youth organizations in the country, if not
the world. She felt it was important that a representative from the club
was able to speak every year at the Dayton Hamvention Youth forum, and
she and Rip always made it happen.
I spoke with three people who had been directly involved with Ellie and
Rip, and BARC Junior, about the impact she'd had on their lives. Matt
Sturtz, KB Zero K Zed R, was one of the kids who came up through the
program:
MATT: Ellie sort of created BARC Junior, and certainly embodied BARC
Junior, and everything BARC Junior stood for. And, that was that it was
OK to be a geeky kid at age 14 or less. Now, of course, we have the Maker
phenomenon, and kids are sort of encouraged to do those things, but when
I was a little kid, it wasn't all that exciting to be the one who was all
into radios and technology, and communicating around the world. BARC
Junior sort of made that OK, at least for me.
PAUL: Dave Casler, KE zero OG, was one of the original elmers involved
in training the kids.
DAVE: Without Ellie's constant hard work, it wouldn't have lasted. Very
few other people have been able to put together youth groups like this
interested in amateur radio. The kids went to Ellie's house. Rip, her
husband, was always more the silent type, who would show the kids some technical
things, but Ellie was very very much a people person.
PAUL: He said she loved the kids, and they all loved her, including his
own daughter:
DAVE: Every Saturday, her house would be flooded with about 30 kids of
all ages, from about 9 or 10, all the way up to 18. My daughter was part
of this. She got her license 2 weeks shy of her 10th birthday.
PAUL: Dave's proud of what the the BARC Junior graduates have gone on to become:
DAVE: I coordinated a reunion of some of these kids at the BARC Junior
Field Day, and interviewed them, and wrote an article. One of the kids
was, and still is, one of the key employees of an Internet company, and
one of them still works at a game company as a professional game maker.
Another was an aerospace engineer. All these kids went into technical
fields, and they all credited their BARC Junior experience for that.
PAUL: Jack Ciaccia, WM zero G, is Colorado Section Manager for the ARRL,
and has been president, and is currently a member of the parent club,
BARC. He remembered Ellie's drive and energy:
JACK: Ellie was an absolute dynamo behind BARC Junior, it was a 24/7
entity for her. That was her job as far as she was concerned.
PAUL: According to Ciaccia, BARC Junior's future is in good hands, and
Ellie's legacy lives on:
JACK: Yes it will, it obviously will take a change, because nobody will
be able to replace her in that regard. But, Mike Wilson is running it
now, and they still meet, and they still do most of their activities.
But, she was involved right up to the end.
PAUL: Ellie is survived by her husband, Rip, and her sister Maude.
From all of us here at Amateur Radio Newsline, we say Thank You, Ellie.
Your efforts, and others inspired by you, are helping to insure that the
hobby we all love, has a bright future indeed.
For Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Paul Braun, WD9GCO.
**
NAVAJO CODE TALKER DIES
JIM/ANCHOR: The world suffered another big loss this week. Joe Hosteen Kellwood,
a World War Two Navajo Code Talker, who received the
Congressional Silver Medal for his service with the Marine Corps, has
died at the age of 95.
His death was announced in Phoenix, Arizona, by Navajo Nation officials.
Responding to the news, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey remarked that more than
400 of the bilingual code talkers used the Navajo language to keep
communications secure from the Japanese, following the Pearl Harbor
attacks.
Kellwood, who served the 1st Marine Division, had trained at Navajo Code
Talker's School at Camp Elliott in San Diego, California.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS, ABC NEWS)
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* Origin: The Thunderbolt BBS (57:57/10)
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