trying to find status on KA7IPJ, Melvin D. Herr

Hello all. as you can see, I'm a 7 call, I was originally licensed back in 1999 when I lived in Everett, WA. I was a somewhat regular user of the K7NWS repeater where I first met KA7IPJ. Melvin was a nice fellow. I occasionally wax nostalgic for the past and I thought again on the BEARS repeater. I looked up KA7IPJ on QRZ here and noticed his license expired September of last year and, from what i can tell, was not renewed. Can anyone tell me if this is just a clerical error or is he SK? I tried searching here for anything on his callsign but I got nothing, same for Google.

 

A Social Security Death Index search found the following:
(Name, Birth, Death, Last Residence)
MELVIN D HERR, 28 Sep 1911, 25 Sep 1995, 98366 (Port Orchard) Kitsap, WA

Note the death is before the timeframe you mention. His father?

 

But this is a Jr. and from the detailed info was born in 1935.
May just not be active. Write the address given in the lookup and see what you find out.

 

KA7IPJ SK...

Just got done reading the Obit in the Bremerton Sun, but heard about his passing within 24 hours of the occurrence, and thought I would Google it and this thread popped up on top of the list...

I have known Mel since before I was a ham... and was not really expecting him to pass quite so suddenly, without any warning or anything of the sort. According to KD6UAO whom with he was staying, Mel simply went to bed and didn't awaken the next morning.

I know there are probably countless others that remember his latenight antics on the BEARS machine and a certain "super secret simplex" that was hardly a secret... at least to those with 2 meter FM gear capable of hearing his signal at least...

As I did much portable work over the years, I knew his signal could cover a good chunk of the Puget Sound basin on 147.540, when he wasn't chatting it up on the 5.43 repeater.

He certainly will be missed by all who knew him, and particularly those who hung out on his favorite frequencies

Eric
KB7DQH

 

KA7IPJ

While I only worked him a few times on ssb, his picture in the Bremerton Sun reminded me of his dad, W7ANI. When I first got on six meters AM in the early 60s, his dad was active and I met him at the Evergreen 50 & Up Society (K7NNI) a time or two, which met at Sand Point NAS in Seattle. Same full head of white hair. I recall W7ANI as a fine gentleman.