RE: SK - Paul Hayden VK4ZBV
VK4ADC > 06-08-2018, 07:01 PM
Paul was one of the good guys.
Thinking back, I first met Paul back in the mid-1960's and he was truly enthusiastic about AR. a real home-brewer and a mentor to the young guys like me. I lived not far from him in the early 1970's, saw him only occasionally, but spoke to him on-air often. I suspect his was one of the early QSL cards I collected too - and I certainly still have it.
Paul was a home-brewer extraordinaire. He built all of his early AM, SSB and FM radio gear from scratch, and I shouldn't forget to include his homebrew analogue ATV gear either. He built a synthesised 2M FM "handheld" back before we could readily buy them. When I say handheld, it was probably more "brickheld" because it was closer to being the size of a house brick. But it worked, and I could always tell which radio he was using on 2M FM because this one had a characteristic 'sproing' noise as it was moved / touched - simply due to VCO microphonics - but he didn't ever worry about solving that effect.
He even gave out numbers in a VHF/UHF Field Day only a few years ago, helping us get contacts in the logbook, and not because he needed to..
I mostly lost contact with Paul over the years except for an occasional Hamfest meet when we would do a quick catch-up and move on. I became aware of his illness only mid last week during a phone call from Kevin VK4WA. Even so his rapid passing was a surprise to me.
He will be missed by the AR community in South East Queensland.
Vale Paul Hayden, VK4ZBV.
Doug VK4ADC