W1PE - July 26, 2011

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Robert W. 'Bob' Peters Mesquite, TX QCWA #28197 Chapter 207

Robert Peters, W1PE, became a silent key Tuesday, July 26 after a long illness. He was 68 years old. He was born at Bangor, Maine in 1943 and grew up in that city. Bob lived in Mesquite, Texas for the past 20 years.

Bob held various amateur call signs for more than 50 years. He was first licensed in 1958 as WN1JNN. Among the calls Bob held were K1JNN, N4TRU and KK5FJ. He also held a Netherlands call in the 1960s while serving at NATO headquarters with the U.S. Army Signal Corps.

Bob joined the Army in 1966. Because of his amateur radio qualifications, he was sent to the Signal Corps Schools at Fort Monmouth, NJ. He served in various capacities with the Signal Corps in Vietnam. During his military service Bob was in charge of several Army MARS stations in country and ran thousands of phone patches for GIs. He was later transferred to SHAPE headquarters in Belgium and honorably discharged in 1978.

Later he received his First Class FCC ticket and worked at several AM and FM stations in Maine before entering the background music business in North Carolina. Bob moved to Los Angeles and then Corpus Christi, Texas, broadening his knowledge and expertise in the business.

Bob was a consummate salesman; he could easily sell ice to Eskimos! He moved to the Dallas area in 1991 and soon started his own company, branching out into sales and installation of satellite television and music systems to commercial customers. He expanded the business and worked with many different vendors and companies making hundreds of friends and associates along the way. He always said that he owed any success he had in his life-both business and personal- to amateur radio. Bob was a long-time member of the ARRL, Quarter Century Wireless Association, and the ARRL Diamond Club. He served as an officer and always-ready volunteer to the Dallas Amateur Radio Club, the Mesquite Amateur Radio Club, Army MARS and Hamcom.

He was passionate about AM radio and continually collected (and horse-traded) vintage amateur gear. Bob's baritone voice, instantly recognizable, was a staple of the Texoma Traders Saturday morning AM nets for many years.

Legions of young hams sat at his knees learning good operating techniques and he was never without story telling material. A tribute to Bob's perpetual good-nature and helping hand were the overwhelming number of hams who visited him and his wife Jane during the past several months as his health began to fail.

Besides countless members of the amateur radio and professional music communities, he is survived by Jane, his wife of 19 years; his brother Brad and sister-in-law Jan; son Douwe; stepsons Michael, William and David and three cats.

A memorial service will take place at 1:00 p.m. Saturday, July 30 at the Sparkman Funeral Home, 1029 South Greenville Avenue, Richardson TX 75081.

The family requests any donations be made in Bob's memory to the ARRL Diamond Club or the Boy Scouts of America.

Val Erwin - W5PUT