Hi Kermit, Sad news indeed. Like you, I knew Dick back in the 70's and to this day still have his yagis and kW PA on 432 MHz. He was a great guy whose technical prowess is right up there with the best. My favorite story (briefly) about Dick was when he first brought a couple of his 432 yagi to Central States VHF conference in Rochester, MN for the antenna gain measurements. I think it was 1976. Several of us kept him up until 2 AM visiting. He sold me one of his antennas and I went home and promptly put it on the tower. The very next day there was a tropo opening from Iowa to NY on 432 and I hear Dick calling CQ. We worked and it was a new state for both of us - thanks to his yagi sold to me 2 days earlier! Rod, K0DAS On Mon, Apr 27, 2020 at 11:19 AM Kermit Carlson via arrl-odv < arrl-odv@reflector.arrl.org> wrote:
Hello ALL --
IT is unusual that I would post to the ODV upon the passing of a fellow ham. It is with deepest regrets that I must inform my colleagues on ODV that I have just learned of the passing of Richard "Dick" Knadle, K2RIW of Dix Hills, New York. Unless you are a long-time VHF/UHF enthusiast you might not recognize the call, but going back into the late 70's and early 80's Dick's designs for antennas and amplifiers were well recognized and the foundation of a rapid growth in VHF/UHF weak signal activity. As a young ham I was fortunate enough to have built the 432 MHz stripline amplifier following the details in his QST article which were published in the early 70's. For many of us, his design was behind much of the weak-signal and EME activity in the 70's and 80's. Owing the the high efficiency of his strip-line plate resonator design, I remember getting 750 watts from a pair of 4cx250's on 432. The use of those tubes were affordable at the time which made UHF QRO a reality for those of us on a budget... His antenna design that used elements insulated from the boom were at the time considered revolutionary with a gain figure and clean pattern that was easily duplicated by many home-brewers. For decades the RIW-16's were to be found in widespread use on 432 weak-signal. Dick was widely recognized as and engineer's engineer and a friendly, approachable sort who ran a weekly technical net on the LIMARS repeater, back in the day. From what I have been able to learn so far, there are no published arrangements.
73, Kermit W9XA
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