K2UYH Al Katz
K2UYH Al Katz
Ian GM3SEK wrote a tribute for Al which was published as a full-page article in RadCom, the journal of the RSGB. With Ian’s permission we have extracted from it below.
Allen Katz, K2UYH was an exceptional character in the modern history of amateur radio. Self-taught and licensed in New Jersey at the age of 13, Al soon gravitated towards the VHF and UHF bands, and from there into EME. At the same time, Al was making a university career in electronic engineering. At age 81 he was still an active faculty member at The College of New Jersey.
Wherever he looked, Al could always see new opportunities – and he threw himself into all of them without reservation. He helped to launch an ambitious new engineering program at the College, and became noted for his kindness and devotion to his students. Al also co-founded the Trenton Personal Computer Festival, now billed as the first and longest-running tech fair in the world. Seeing the need for engineering students to have industrial experience, Al helped to create several profitable spinoff companies, including one that was purchased for $49M.
Inspiring Al’s entire academic career was his devotion to amateur radio. As a pioneer of EME, he knew there was no activity from South America, needed for a WAC award, so he helped to organise a DXpedition by the Pack Rats to Colombia in 1976. The first WAC award on EME went to Al himself, using the 28ft Kennedy dish in his backyard. Al spent the next 48 years using that big dish on all bands from 144MHz to 10GHz.
Then if that weren’t enough, he undertook EME DXpeditioning using smaller transportable dishes made from wood and wire mesh, operating as 4U1UN from the roof of the United Nations building in New York City and finally to Aruba as P43L in 2007.
All of the EME pioneers saw the need to share technical information, so they circulated newsletters, often handwritten, that also made schedules for the next monthly activity weekend. In 1974, Al took over this task and formed a team to launch the monthly 432MHz and Above EME Newsletter. Fifty years later it is still going – now online, But something else, totally unplanned, happened with that Newsletter, Along with technical contributions from around the world came photographs and snippets of personal and family-related information.
As editor Al included this information along with everything else, so EME operators around the world were beginning to form pictures of one another. Then in 1988 Geert PA3CSG and friends revived the idea of an international moonbounce conference, and 80 people turned up from around the world. Most were meeting in person for the first time, but thanks to the Newsletter, they were all meeting like old friends. Sixteen more biennial conferences have followed, with attendances peaking well over 200. Al attended all of them, and at the very last he was busy organizing EME24 at Trenton, New Jersey, which, sadly, took place without him.
Al’s enthusiasm, focus and persistence created teams of people who wanted to join in and help. But most of all, Al could always rely on the support of his soul-mate Sally, who kept watch over all the other things in life that focused individuals might sometimes miss.
Deepest condolences to Sally and the family. The true measure of a person is often the size of the gap that they behind in other people’s lives; and that most certainly applies to Allen Katz, K2UYH.
K2UYH PI9CAM SSTV party