WA9FDP

WA9FDP Lookups: 859 JAMES H HEYEN 417 W WALNUT ST GILLESPIE IL 62033 USA

Just a quick note if you haven’t heard. WA9FDP has become a silent key during the night of January 11, 2008. Visitation will be Saturday starting at 5PM at the funeral home in Gillespie location on route 16. You can’t miss it. Funeral will be at 1PM on Sunday afternoon at The Lutheran Church at the 3 way stop in Gillespie on route 16.


Jimmy, WA9FDP was a good friend to me. He’d been there for many Hams in this central Illinois area, when no one else would or could. I’ve known him for some 30 plus years. Back then I built the 146.82 repeater for him, from a 250 watt GE base station. We shared good times together at his ham shack, quite often in years past. BTW Jim was the type to make you laugh and Jim loved life. It takes effort to do the things Jim had done in his life. He had always been a person that finished things he started. One thing he did was to keep the 146.82 wide area system on the air for us all, for almost 40 years now. Yes I had a small part in that, but Jim was the reason any of us even had anything to do with the repeater. He was the driving force behind this wide area machine. In the darkest of winter nights, if you were out on a snow-drifted road, Jim’s repeater was there to talk on. By working with many local groups, clubs, Emergency Managers, WA9FDP made Ham Radio a big part of life here in central Illinois. Jim’s health has been poor, and we had been worried that he might not recover from this. For a while now he’s been on a list for liver transplant. We have lost a close friend. God Bless you Jim where ever you are. May you keep sending CQ, so that someday I might hear your signal, and be able to talk with you again.

Jimmy Cary, WX9DX