G3IOR and K2ZZ SK

Norfolk, UK amateur/ham radio operator, and satellite pioneer Pat Gowen, G3IOR has passed after a lengthy illness at the age of 85.

Pat Gowen G3OIR was a co-founder of AMSAT

Gowen was a co-founder of AMSAT-UK and a member of its Board of Directors in 1974. He wrote the satellite column for Practical Wireless for many years and was a frequent contributor to The AMSAT Journal and OSCAR News.

Gowen was the first radio amateur to work DXCC via low-Earth-orbit (LEO) satellites, although his award is #4, since he had to wait for QSLs to arrive. Fluent in Russian, he enjoyed conversing with the cosmonauts aboard the now-defunct Russian Mir space station and the ISS. Gowen was the first to discover the resurrection of the long-dormant AO-7.

He also was a prominent HF operator and DXer and a member of the First-Class CW Operators Club.

Radio Oasis proprietor George Politzi, K2ZZ, of Loudonville, New York, died unexpectedly on September 19. He was 65 and had been a radio amateur for nearly 50 years. Politzi’s was a familiar face among the vendors at various hamfests around the eastern US, marketing his company’s antenna products.

The ICQ Amateur/Ham Radio Podcast Team would like to pass on our condolences and thoughts to both families