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Good points Nick.
John's wide-eyed excitement over unwrapping and firing up a new piece of
equipment was as close to that of a kid on Christmas morning as I've ever come
across in the adult world.
But then the James Bond level sophistication kicked in. Comparisons might be
made to the visual and visceral appeal of classic Corvettes, art deco
buildings, or Raymond Loewy industrial designs. A generous sized tuning knob
with smooth "ballistics" would be spoken of in an almost sensual way.
After the initial physical attributes of a product were evaluated and the
allusions to wines / women / songs / sports cars were dispensed, then it was
time to get down in the trenches and DX with the thing. Over the years John had
probably touched most of the best offerings of Collins, Hammarlund, Drake,
Icom, JRC, and AOR. He knew his location and antennas and could quickly come up
with "tough DX" scenarios to shake out the latest piece of equipment on the
bench.
Some of the usual signal-to-noise / signal-to-interference spreadsheet tables
had to go in, for the facts-and-figures crowd, but there was also the actual
reportage of real DX heard. If enjoyable music or informative news formed
program content, that would get a mention. This made the reports more
interesting than some of the dry stuff that shows up in QST and elsewhere.
You didn't doze off reading John's articles.
When tropical band DX from places such as Indonesia and Peru was more a "thing"
than it is now, John got in the swim and described the alluring and exotic
programming in terms that made anyone else want to jump in too. You read the
old Proceedings books and wish that today's SDR gear and 1980s band occupancy
were two trains that passed each other somewhere on the grand timeline of life
.. but of course they didn't.
As shortwave was starting to fizzle down to its present pathetic state, John
took the cue and jumped into medium wave whole hog.
For many of us, his Easter Island DXpedition piece stands out as one of his
greatest achievements.
http://www.dxing.info/dxpeditions/easter_island_2007.dx
DXpedition reportage that has come along since has been affected by John's
reports. That means, beyond the loggings, inclusion of photos and human
interest stories about the group getting together over coffee or food and
chatting about families, jobs, and other things beyond DX. It doesn't matter
whether the DXpedition was in Finland or Oregon or Hawaii or Newfoundland or
PEI or NJ or the Utah desert. Modern DXpedition reports are almost always
interesting reading giving a real sense of the participants as
multi-dimensional people. To a good degree we can thank John for that.
Mark Connelly, WA1ION
South Yarmouth, MA
<<
If John had an idea, or had tried something new from the commercial
world, he would always let everyone know in what seemed to be easily
flowing prose (something that I wish I could have learned from him,
but perhaps it was harder to produce than it looked). The effects
of his writing still resonate today.
John wasn't just a spark plug either. In a world of increasingly
older hobbyists, ideas will often elicit a polite "that's nice"
shortly before another nap. John's reaction was not just
enthusiastic, but encouraging, coming up with more ideas to make the
original one better yet.
And then, as Mark Connelly just mentioned, his knowledge of other
realms...there are still good memories of waiting for the dawn DX to
roll in (or sometimes not) on DXpeditions, and the wide ranging
discussions we had. No time for naps there!
best wishes,
Nick>>
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