K6QU 1946 - 2020
K6QU - Gerald J. 'Jerry' Lewine Gerald J. 'Jerry' Lewine
Los Angeles, CA

QCWA # 36731
Chapter 7
First Call: KN3OLG in 1959       Other Call(s): K3OLG, W9IGM & KH6IGA

 

Obituary

September 11, 1946 - December 22, 2020 Jerry Lewine, (K6QU) passed away December 22, 2020. He was born in Atlantic City, NJ. Shortly after, the family moved to Indiana, PA where Jerry was raised (he insisted that he never grew up) He developed an interest in radios at a young age and that defined much of his life. He earned his amateur radio license at age 12 and spent most of his life around radio- as a broadcast engineer, Air Force radio repair technician and an avid "ham." Jerry was a voracious reader and music lover. He enjoyed travel, food, wine and good scotch. At home he enjoyed cooking and gardening. The most important thing of all for him was family. Jerry was diagnosed with T-cell Lymphoma in January 2020 and received excellent care at City of Hope until the very end. He maintained his optimism and sense of humor throughout. Jerry is survived by his beloved wife Sheryl Rudie, his sons Eric (Sarah) and Zackary, his step daughters Samara Meckel (Eric) and Margalit Lutes (Vlad Zoubine), and his grandchildren Arden and Ray Meckel. He also leaves behind his brothers Michael (Karen Hunt) and Stuart (Joan) Lewine. For information about arrangements, email: samarameckel@gmail.com.

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Published in Los Angeles Times on Dec. 27, 2020.

 From qrz.com
Hi!
Thanks for stopping by. Before getting into history, here is the equipment I'm using now:
    ICOM IC-7600
    ICOM PW-1 Amplifier at 1000 Watts
    SteppIR DB-36 with M Squared RC2800PX Rotor on a US Tower TX 455 54 foot tower
    Logikey K-5 Programmable keyer with Begali Sculpture paddle
    Digikeyer II
    CLRdsp receive audio processor
    DX Labs Logging software suite

K6QU - Gerald J. 'Jerry' Lewine

K6QU - Gerald J. 'Jerry' Lewine
I was first licensed at age 13 in January, 1959 with the callsign KN3OLG in Indiana, Pennsylvania. The Novice license allowed only CW operation and I found that I very easily graduated from the minimum 5 WPM up to the 13 required for my General class license, K3OLG. As K3OLG and later KH6IGA (and others) I spent the great bulk of my efforts on 20 meter CW chasing DX and managed to pick up a few awards. Here's a picture from 1962. Notice the bug hidden behind my arm.

K6QU - Gerald J. 'Jerry' Lewine
Here is another picture, this one from about 1964.

K6QU - Gerald J. 'Jerry' Lewine
In 1968 I was the only person in the world to hear an SOS on 20 meter CW from a ship that was on fire off Baja California and was sinking. As a result of the ham on-board madly sending out SOS with the location of the ship and other information, everyone on-board was rescued before the ship sank. If you can read the small print in the story, rest assured none of those "quotes" were actually said, although the basic story is true.
I've always enjoyed the challange of high-speed CW and at my peak could copy 68 WPM but am nowhere near that now. I am CWops #715.

In 1982 the FCC opened up a window to Amateur Extra class licensees who'd had their extra class licenses for over 20 years and were willing to give up their collection ofother callsigns. I turned them all in to receive the (non-vanity)1X2 callsign K6QU.

In the mid 80's I had the QTH I always wanted: On a hill, tower, yagi and a kilowatt. Unfortunately at the time I was the chief engineer of 9 radio stations simultaneously and just couldn't come home from working on radios all day and sometimes night and turning on another radio and so I went QRT.

I've retired from broadcasting and my QRT ended in March, 2010 when I bought a used ICOM IC-756PROII on eBay and installed a 14AQV vertical antenna on the roof of our house. Since then we have moved to a new QTH and the equipment and antennas have improved. Here's the new DB-36 towering over the house:
K6QU - Gerald J. 'Jerry' Lewine

K6QU - Gerald J. 'Jerry' Lewine
Here's what I looked like about 1970. Hippie Ham.
K6QU - Gerald J. 'Jerry' Lewine
K6QU - Gerald J. 'Jerry' Lewine
In November 2011 my wife Sheryl and I visited Eddy, XV1X in Hanoi. Here are pictures of me, Sheryl, Eddy's wife Hang and Eddy at a Hanoi restaurant and me at Eddy's station. The picture at the top of the page is current. I've lost a lot of weight since that picture was taken in Viet Nam in November, 2011.