Ed. note: This is a guest post by a good friend of mine, Tony Long, KC6QHP. Hopefully Tony will be contributing more to the blog in the future and we’ll get to see some of the interesting things he’s working on in his lab in SoCal. Let’s all welcome Tony to the blog! – Jeff
By 1995 I had been a licensed ‘ham’ for 4 years. I was in the 11th grade and interested in a putting together a far-out science fair project. Over the next two years I worked with two hams, mentors, and friends to get the project done. One of them was Chuck Houghton, WB6IGP. He and Kerry Banke N6IZW started the San Diego Microwave Group back in the 1980’s. What they started was an informal group that still meets in the garage at Kerry’s house in La Mesa once a month to talk about and work on microwave ham radio projects. This group has been highly influential in the interests and careers of myself and Jeff. We both went to college in San Diego and attended these meetings and just as importantly, had a great source of parts and articles from Chuck.
Chuck, who was 68, passed away peacefully in his home on April 29th.
Chuck and Kerry started out on the microwave bands by using surplus microwave burglar alarm systems and modifying them for amateur radio use. Chuck was in some ways an early version of many DIY electronics bloggers of today. He not only did experiments, and built interesting projects, he wrote about them, told others how to do it, and supplied printed circuit boards, kits of parts, and so on. He wrote a monthly column in 73 magazine and later in CQ-VHF detailing his experiments. His reach was worldwide, and no doubt has enabled the microwave amaetur radio hobby to flourish.
So, to Chuck I bid a farewell and 73. You will be missed but you will be remembered well!
-Tony KC6QHP
Lisa – Chuck was a wonderful mentor. I bought some electronic test equipment from him around 2000. He knew I was a starving student and his prices reflected that. He was very generous to everyone in the San Diego microwave community. I will miss him.
Thank you for the very nice post about my husband’s uncle. He was such a nice guy and did not toot his own horn. We did not realize he had such an impact on so many people. He will be truly missed by his family and friends. Thank you again for giving us a look into his world of microwaves and helping people. I am happy to hear you are taking things you have learned from him into the future. That will never leave us.