Electrical Father of the Trailer
It’s with both joy and sadness that we remember John Bartlett, KF7ZWX, who passed on November 25th. From the first time he pulled up to a meeting with his antenna porcupine search and rescue truck, John made a huge impact on Multnomah County ARES over the 7 plus years of his membership. An electrician by trade, John was a man of many, many talents. He was an electronics engineer, a machinist, a programmer, and an educator. A carpenter, patent holder, father, a counselor, and a friend.
Warm and generous of spirit, John was one of our best Elmers and was able to illuminate the complexities of radio and electronics with a quiet passion that was welcoming and infectious. His soldering classes were stuff of legend – who has eight soldering irons and all the accessories handy to set up at a moment’s notice? Two hours with John and you were soldering like you’d been at it for a decade. He could de-solder a feedline connector in seconds; it was like watching a magic trick.
In one of his most incredible efforts for ARES, John put in hundreds of hours over months designing and installing – and personally donating much of – the entire electrical system for the ARES Communications Trailer. It’s an amazing, professional quality system that is simultaneously complex and simple, a truly inspired design that has been replicated in similar units up and down the west coast. It took an incredible amount of time and effort – John was one of the most generous men. Ever.
On the Mike Team, he was an ocean of Zen in the middle of the chaos of a drill. The man was unflappable and always smiling, first to volunteer and last to leave, every time.
We will miss him, and his dog, Puggles, deeply, and send our condolences and warmest thoughts to Katherine KQ7TBR and his family.