Bob Radkey (K9RPX)

July 29, 2009

I found out Bob Radkey had passed away when I saw his call sign listed in Silent Keys in the November issue of QST. Bob was 52 when, in 1972 he gave this 15 year old kid a novice license test at Bob's dining room table in his home in Park Forest Illinois. Bob's testing m.o. was to trust the applicant to not cheat on the written part, by leaving the dining room so the test taker could concentrate, randomly poking his head through the doorway just to make sure (trust but verify hi hi). The kid (that would be me) wound up as WN9JTC and is now sadly, writing a brief recollection about Bob, who passed away last July in Mountain Home Arkansas, at the age of 89. Bob was a regular member of the Tri Town Amateur Radio Club. He was a RTTY man. He had one room in his house in Park Forest devoted to operating RTTY which in those days was not a small undertaking. The room was filled with Klindschmidt model 15 gear, rolls of paper, rolls of paper tape, and more paper and tape hanging from the walls in the form of RTTY art and pre-punched brag tapes and messages. Running Drake gear and wire antennas K9RPX got out quite well on RTTY and the station was exciting to see when in operation with the oscilloscope showing the mark and space ovals and everything clanking away, especially for a 15 year old in 1972. It was like there was this secret mission control style news room in this nondescript ranch house on a quiet street in Park Forest. My family moved away a year later and I lost touch with Bob but I always remembered him as the ham who gave me my first license exam.

Contributed by: Rob Atkinson (K5UJ)

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