Margaret Koerner, K0IQ (previously WBOBEM), lived in Boulder (Colorado), in a white frame house on 9th Street, for many years.
Among other accomplishments Margaret raised three daughters (two became hams and the third married a ham), had at least one dog, and the most elegant ham shack that I ever saw. (More on this later.)
Margaret and I first met on-the-air in the early 1970s before she had her ham license. She was at a friend's house in Boulder (his name was Jim but I don't remember his call) while he and I were in QSO; Jim suddenly put the mic in front of Margaret and told her to say hello. About a year, to a year-and-a-half later, Margaret had gotten her license (her original call being WB0BEM) and she heard me on-the-air one day. Margaret remembered who I was and she gave me a call. From that time on we would chat over a span of many years.
After a tour of mine in the Air Force, during some of which I was off the air while overseas, I was back home in Texas and Margaret and I got back in-touch over the air.
In the late 1970s Margaret wrote some articles published in 'QST' for beginning hams. I'm a bit 'fuzzy' on this but I believe that she was active for many years in the Boulder Amateur Radio Club (it seems that I remember her being Secretary but I could be wrong).
I visited Margaret three times over the years, once in 1973 just before I went overseas in the Air Force, 3 years later right after I got out of the Air Force and then in the early 1980s when I was a Microwave Field Engineer for Rockwell-Collins and working on a system for Mountain Bell that ran across southern Wyoming. My mother was with me the first two times and I was glad that she got to see that it was possible to have a ham shack that didn't have wires running all over the place. Margaret's shack had pictures on the walls and flowers in vases; decorated with a refined sense of taste.
When I saw Margaret in the early 1980s I took her out to lunch and then she gave me a sightseeing tour of Boulder, including the house where exterior shots for 'Mork and Mindy' were filmed.
Margaret was an elegant lady ham (her handwriting was meticulous; I always enjoyed getting cards from her) and she is missed.
- Paul, WB5AGF
(07 May 2010)