[amsat-bb] Vin Thompson, GM4ULS - Silent Key

["Dave Johnson" <webmaster@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I received a call from Arthur Davies G4JY this morning letting me know that
Vin Thomsom GM4ULS had passed away and he asked if I woululd I publish
the news to the AMSAT community.

I called Vin's son to pass on condolences on behalf of AMSAT-UK. I asked
him if he would like to prepare an obituary for his father. He said he would 
be
glad to and the follwing text arrived a hour later.

73

Dave, G4DPZ
Editor AMSAT-UK Oscar News

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Vin Thompson, GM4ULS, died very suddenly of a heart attack, on 22/11/2004.

Vin was born in 1921, and before he so much as touched a radio transmitter
we was better known as a fine cricketer. He was educated at Darlington
Grammar School, and from there might have gone on to play county cricket
for Durham, had he not decided to pursue a career in the Civil Service
instead. By the time he retired twenty-three years ago, he was Midland
Region Controller for the Department of Social Security.

Vin learned his radio, like many young men of his generation, in the armed
forces. During WW2 he was in the RAF, and although his educational
background was in the liberal arts he soon found himself teaching the
technical side of the then-new radar to men with PhD degrees! After some
time as the "sparks" on an air-sea rescue launch in the Mediterranean, Vin
was sent to Yugoslavia by the RAF, to act as radio operator for a unit of
Marshal Tito's partisans. His unit was multi-ethnic, consisting of Serbs,
Croats, and Slovenes. Vin did not talk much about this part of his life,
haVing no doubt seen many things he would rather have forgotten; but on the
other hand, in many ways it was the time of his life. He regarded the later
conflicts in the Balkans with great sadness.

One thing he would talk about was his acquired skill of reading incoming
morse code messages by detecting minor fluctuations in the enemy's jamming
signal. He referred to this mode as "amplitude-modulated QRM"!

After WW2, Vin married his childhood sweetheart, Joan. She is now, of
course, his widow.

When I got my own amateur license, Vin himself took the RAE. I have always
taken this spontaneous willingness to share a hobby with me as a loving,
comradely gesture on his part. I have never forgotten it and never will.
He soon surpassed me in skill and knowledge, however. He took the morse
test, and was soon known for his distinctive, clear CW signal. Even though
my own sending and receiving is shaky, I could always recognise his "fist"
even in the midst of on-air company - I can even imitate it at a pinch!

Vin became fascinated by satellites, and spaceflight in general, and was
responsible for making me interested too. During my five-year career break
he even paid for my AMSAT-UK membership. He was quite an authority on polar
orbiters, and published a book for amateurs about the MIR space station.
One of the greatest thrills of his retirement was meeting Helen Sharman. He
was well known for some time as an AMSAT "Elmer".

Of late he was not very active, having not run an HF station for two years
or more. However, he still maintained a monitoring interest in data
satellites, and kept up a long-standing landline sked with his good friend
Art G4JY.

If there was one thing which he was still passionate about, it was the
education of his grand-daughter [my daughter Ruth]. He had a wonderful
ambition for her to become the first artist on Mars. Ruth misses her
grand-dad greatly.

Vin asked for no fuss to be made after his death. He did not even wish to
have a funeral. I hope to maintain a station at Vin's former home, where
my mother still lives. Unfortunately it won't be a satellite station. If
anyone would like to stay in touch, I can be reached at gm6men@qsl.net

73

Paul Thompson
GM6MEN
Scone, Scotland 
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