Lowell Black
My condolences to Barb, Linda, and Chris. I feel the loss too.
I first met Bob when he was helping build the house on Greenfield. It wasn’t long before my little interest in Walkie talkies was supercharged with shortwave radio, marine radio and police and fire radio. Bob was behind all of that.
We both joined the Muskegon County Civil Defense as weather watchers and communicators. Bob made helmets for us in case we got into hail. Our severe weather post was the new Hoffmaster State Park. Later I manned communications for Civil Defense after flooding and ice storms. Yeah, Bob got me into that too!
Because of that involvement I got interested in amateur radio. The Muskegon Amateur Radio Club taught classes at MCC and I was licensed as a Novice in 1972. Today I am an extra class licensee.
Bob always wanted to know what radio or radio project I was into. When I got my first shortwave radio, it was Bob that climbed the trees in our back yard to get a long wire antenna up 65 feet. When my walkie talkie base station was not getting out like I wanted he made a homemade antenna out of “stuff” he had accumulated and mounted it on the peak of our house. Oh, and when he built me a Heathkit GR-88 VHF radio while my family was on vacation he later got on our roof, put an extension on the tv antenna mast and mounted a VHF ground plane antenna. Then ran cable from it through the attic to my room.
He and Barb were always welcoming and on a couple of occasions put me up in their home while my parents went on trips.
My last visit with them this year was like many others, sitting in the kitchen catching up, and going to the basement to see what Bob had acquired since my last visit.
I’m going to miss our visits and the mentor that got me into my radio hobby. He also turned my hobby into Public Service which I continue to this day.
Grace and peace,
Lowell Black
Formerly of 1221 Yorkshire Dr.
Norton Shores