My Uncle Charlie gave me my first 300-in-one electronics kit. Now, years later, I certify ILS, VOR, DME, and Communications equipment for the FAA.
I'm only sorry that I didn't get the chance to say goodbye...
My brother (September 26,1946-May 13, 2007)
was first and foremost, a ham! When he was first on the air, he was the youngest licensed amateur radio operator in the nation. His hamshack was always "home" and his ham friends always "family." He is dearly missed.
I was a neighbor of Jim and didn't realize it until our paths crossed on 40 meters. I knew him only 6 months, but immediately we became great friends. We would sit at his QTH and talk about amateur radio and the early days of AM commercial radio. He had a brief career in AM in his younger days. He would call me if he needed a hand with a project and being retired I would run over.
I will really miss him, his wonderful personality and the interesting eyeball QSO's that we had. A great loss to Amateur Radio!
Roger Shaltry K5JAX
Seems I talked with W4VOL just a couple of months ago on 40. The friends remembered article is a little confusing in that it indicates both Meininger and Davis having had he same call are SK's. One can only assume that W4VOL originally belonged to Meininger and Davis picked up the call at a later date. A clarification would be in order if my assumption is wrong.
Sorry for the confusion, but W4VOL, my brother, was born Charles Meininger and changed his name to James E. Davis as an adult. He was known on the air as Chuck AND Jim. He also was W4VOL under both names. He found Meininger to be a difficult name in the business world, so chose the name of an honored relative. (And his date of death was the 14th, I typed it wrong in my initial memorium.)
I came to know Jim in December 2006 when I purchased his MonstIR antenna. I was able to meet Jim this past March when I was in the Denver area for work. We had a great eyeball QSO and I was looking forward to more meetings in the future. I am really glad we were able to get together. He talked of his time in the Twin Cities area in radio and many other radio related topics. Quite an interesting guy.
I will never forget his mobile installation. That was a nice setup he had there too.
I was looking forward to the day when I have the antenna up and I could call Jim and we could get on the air. 40 meters during the day was the plan.
Is there an obituary notice available in the newspapers? I looked but could not find one online.
John, if you will eMail me at zeelinda@pa.net, I will forward Jim's obituary. Thanks for asking. Linda Dissinger