WA1BXI

I read in the obituaries today that John Karezna, WA1BXI, died.

John was the first person to answer a voice CQ from me.

After I passed my Technician Class license, I bought a used Heathkit Twoer and put it on the air on 2-meters AM in April 1971. John came back to my first ever voice CQ and we became fast friends, chatting away for hours on the old Connecticut Mobileers channel (145.35 MHz).

John worked with my grandfather, Andrzej Gogolewski, at Chase Metal Works in Waterbury and being into metal, he built a tilt-over tower from scratch. The tower was about 75-feet tall and I drove over to John's house in Wolcott to see it was duly impressed.

I eventually moved to 2-meter FM leaving John on 2-meter AM, thus ending our long chats. I occasionally ran into John on the air during VHF contests, but during contests, there was no time for long chats and our friendship waned.

Anyway, 73, my old friend and thank you for answering my "CQ."