HAL Communications Cofounder, President Bill Henry, K9GWT, SK
/One of the cofounders and later president of HAL Communications, George W. “Bill” Henry, Jr., of Monticello, Illinois, passed away on 17th July 2019. An ARRL Life Member, he was 78. HAL Communications formally got its start in 1972 among hams and graduate students at the University of Illinois at Urbana, but the company’s history goes back a few years before.
Henry once explained that the name HAL was chosen by partner George Perrine, who picked the name because it was “one letter ahead of IBM.”
“I thoroughly enjoyed the job. There are not too many occupations where you get to pay yourself to do exactly what you always wanted to do.”
HAL Communications grew into a successful supplier of RTTY and digital communications modems, terminal units, and software, including CLOVER. Henry sold his stock in the enterprise to Barrett Communications in Australia in 2012, which continues to operate HAL Communications as a standalone business unit.
