Jim Weaver “WD8MRC” became a SK on August 24th, 2002. He will be missed by many. I am just one of them.
Jim turned 90 on May 23rd, 2002. Played 9 holes of golf less than two months before his death and Jesus was in his heart. We would all agree that is how we want it to be when our time comes.
Jim was my fathers best friend. They were into CB radio back in the early 60’s. My Dad would plow snow all night long in Gladwin, Michigan and Jim would ride with him to keep him company. Jim was retired from General Motors and had time to be with Dad. Jim built SWR meters, antenna switches and other neat things for his station and my Dad’s. I still have the three position coax switch Jim built for Dad.
Jim became my close friend when I returned back from Viet Nam in 1967 and was playing around with CB radios. A few years later I become tired of CB and looked for a better hobby. I found it in Ham Radio and acquired my ticket as WB8YWA. Soon I was giving classes to many and Jim received his ticket (WD8MRC).
Over the years we stayed in touch, but I worked two & six meter SSB, traffic nets and ragged chewed on the HF bands while Jim chased rare DX mostly on 15 meters. He had QSL cards from 290 plus countries on SSB and over 100 CW. He held both SSB with 290 sticker and CW with 100 sticker DXCC awards. He also achieved worked all Japan and Germany.
With the passing of my Father in 1979 I considered Jim to be my new adopted Step Father and referred to him as Dad at times. We would try to get together on 14.275 MHz once a week, today there is a whole group of the gang that meet there at 8:00 AM EST.
WD8MRC will be missed by many. And now I have lost my second Dad.