Hi Gang FYI
I know Jerry had quite a number of friends who frequent the Topband reflector - thus this post. He did operate Topband both in and outside of contests - some of the current crowd will remember him I am sure. 73 JEFF GM All It is with sadness that I report today the passing of Gerard (Jerry) Scarano - W1ZM formerly of Gales Ferry, CT. Jerry was one of the original members of YCCC having joined at our 1977 formation meeting and contributed MILLIONS of points to the club kitty in the late 1970's and early 1980's. He had a great station near Groton, CT with 5 towers at its high point - with stacks on 20/15/10 and two 40M yagis - a 3el wire beam for 80 and a vee for 160m. Inside were 5 complete monoband stations for 80 - 15 and the 10m station doubled on 160m during the night time hours. We ran a number of multi-multis from there in the early days with quite good success. I recall the first one I was at - it was CQWW SSB in 1973 and we came in 5th after W7RM/W3AU/W2PV and W4BVV - in that order I think it was. I operated 80M and some 10M, we had W1FV on 20M, WA1LNQ and W1ARR on 15 and Paul Budries on 40m as I recall. We only worked a handful on 160M that first time out. Many other multi's followed and about 7 years of single op/all band efforts which resulted in 2 CQWW SSB single-op all-band USA championships and 3 ARRL DX SSB single-op all band USA championships - the last in 1984. In those days, SO2R was not yet in its heyday - but changing bands at W1ZM just meant you had to change your operating chair to a new position - neat! Of course there were no computers - all logging and dupe checking was paper-based and you sent ALL your own CW - as memory keyers did not come into vogue until about 1977. You had to be REALLY EFFICIENT to hand write a qso in both the log and dupe sheet and somehow manage to send the exchange and your next CQ - almost at the same time for every QSO. (I think this part of contesting was one of the things that separated the men from the boys in those days.......as it was not easy to do this for 48 hours straignt.) Many YCCC members got to experience the joy of operating from Jerry's station including these - (I apologize if I am leaving anyone out - as I am getting a bit long in the tooth myself these days): K1ZZ K1AR W1ARR W1VD (WA1LNQ) W1FV (WA1CQW) K1THQ K1TO KC1F (K1UA) K2DM K3ZM K9ES K1VR AE1C K0EJ Paul Budries K1OME K1RX K1XX (W1GQO) N3OC (Vice Admiral -retired) I first met Jerry at a Murphy's Marauders club meeting held at Roger Kaul's (W1FLM) house in Glastonbury CT. I recall driving down Roger's street and as I neared his home - the cars lining the driveway were most of the TOP 10 single op finishers in the 1972 ARRL DX CW Test - eg: K1VTM, K1THQ, W1FBY, W1BGD/2, K1ZZ, WB2OEU (K2TR), WA1PID, WA1KID etc - what a talented group of contesters - all in the same club and in the same room! While there Charlie Carroll (K1XX) was shepherding Jerry W1ZM around and he came over to introduce me to Jerry - and after a short chat they asked me to come up for CQWW SSB the next month - which is how it all started for me. I went, had a great time and never looked back... A life long friendship on many levels ensued with Jerry from that moment - and we spent many hours together over the years playing golf, going to the local TUCKERBUNG club to eat lobster at the annual clambake (the last was in 2006) - as well as sharing visits with family, when time permitted. Last August, K0EJ brought Jerry to VY2ZM and it was a great joy for Jerry to see how things had developed here in the Maritimes. He was especially pleased to learn that some of the old W1ZM tower sections from 1978 had found their way into the 80M vertical array here next to the ocean - as well as into the 40M tower with 3/3 on it for 40M. We spent a delightful week here on the island - and Jerry remarked "Jeff - I finally made it up here....." - and it was great that he did. We were talking about a return visit this coming summer - and since now that will never happen, it makes last year's time all the more poignant.....I was grateful to Mark and Judy for bringing him up here - that's for sure. Jerry's background included degrees in multiple engineering disciplines - electrical, mechanical and structural as I recall and he was also a phenomenal machinist. He could make ANYTHING in his shop behind the shack - including stainless steel U BOLTS and many other parts for our 2el full sized 40M yagi. I remember him making parts for a Ham M rotor one time when we needed emergency repairs just before a contest. Also, I was simply amazed at whom Jerry knew well - including Rush Drake W7RM (SK) and Admiral Elmo Zumwalt (SK) - the Chief of Naval Operations in the late 1970's. One day when we were doing station work, the phone rang and it was Elmo Zumwalt calling to confirm lunch with Jerry in Washington - the following week. Jerry was working on fire control designs for weaponry for the Naval fleet at the time and needed to finalize some things with Admiral Zumwalt - amazing! We used to make our beverages from torpedo guidance wire - surplus stuff we picked up at a Naval surveying operation in RI one weekend....and so it was. I'll close by noting that Jerry was a very fine contester himself - holding down top 5 slots in both CQWW CW and ARRL DX CW as a SOAB contester from a very modest station atop a town house in Washington DC in the mid 50's - finishing right up there with the very best of the era including K1NOL, K1DIR and W1BPW - all of whom were SOAB champions for several years. As I recall, Jerry also hosted a few other well known calls from his Washington DC station both in DX contests and the ARRL SS including K3EST, W3ZZ (K1ANV), K3ZO, and I think K8MFO and W8CQN. Not totally sure about the last two.....most of these guys also cut their teeth in contesting at Jerry's place and surely learned from the experience. I'll miss Jerry and his friendship - and he will always be remembered almost as a second father to both me and to Mark Speck, K0EJ. Much that I learned about big time contesting came from my time spent with Jerry at W1ZM in the early days. Again, the end of an era.... 73 JEFF K1ZM/VY2ZM <A HREF="mailto:[email protected]";>[email protected]</A> </HTML> _______________________________________________ UR RST IS ... ... ..9 QSB QSB - hw? BK
