Sm7bae Sk

SM7BAE Kjell SK

In memoriam
It is always a heavy burden when one of our mentors has passed away. Their eagerness to improve technology and our knowledge about what can be achieved has paved the way for us. Kjell was one of these outstanding forerunners. When the first attempts were made to use the Moon as a passive reflector, almost all the active hams could be found in North America. Kjell was the one, who accepted the challenge to try EME from Europe. Kjell and Yngve/SM7BCX decided to build a 160 element array at Kjell´s farm and their first step was to attend a training course – in welding!
Shortly after the first successful QSO:s, a tremendous storm destroyed the antenna. This would probably make most hams give up any further attempts, but Kjell and Yngve just started rebuilding the antenna and Kjell´s EME activity continued. In 1981 Kjell became the second one – after VE7BQH - outside the USA to have worked all states and in 1983 he became the third one in the World to get DXCC for 144 MHz. His QSO with ZL1AZR became the World record, which remained unchallenged for many years. Kjell was also definitely one of the very few, who after calling CQ on 144 MHz had been answered by ZS8IR and ZF8OC.
For someone with Kjell´s energy, 160 elements were not enough. The lawn offered space for an enormous 360 elements array, but large could be larger and after a while the 24 x 15 elements were replaced by 24 x 20 elements.
Now, if you can work DX via EME on 2 Meters, why not on 6 Meters? Some of the 2 Meter Yagis were replaced by 6 Meter antennas and Kjell could continue to work DX on 6 even when the number of sunspots was low.
DXCC on 2 and 6 was not enough. Kjell is probably the only one in the World to have DXCC on all 11 bands from 2 to 160 Meters. (If there is another one, it must be W5UN.)
It is easy to envisage Kjell as someone, who spent his life, working DX and building antennas, but first of all, he worked on his farm. Even after one of his sons took over, Kjell helped out on the fields, whenever needed. It is tragic that someone, who has lived a healthy life and who less than a year ago still had his enormous energy, shall slowly be defeated by cancer just a month prior to his 80´th birthday!
Kjell´s own words were: “It´s unfair!”
We will always remember Kjell not just for his achievements and his outstanding energy, but also for his modest approach and his helping hand!
Carin, Irene, Anders, and Arne, we are many who share your sorry!
Stan SF7WT
PS. Kjell suddenly started losing weight in June, 2007 and he died on March 22, 2008.