To my DXplorer friends--

It is my sad duty to inform you that yesterday John Bryant fell from a
ladder and received injuries that resulted in his death this morning. As
you are, I am shocked--John was not only one of my best friends but also
a writing partner and travel buddy. As I find out details on
arrangements I will keep you posted. Please raise a glass to John--we
have all lost a valued friend and colleague.

Harold Cones
(via Horacio A. Nigro, DXLD)

After 8 hours of trying to work through this loss of my friend and colleague
of over 25 years, I still find it difficult to write this, but I must, for
John's sake and the wonderful memories.

John and I met and instantly hit it off in the mid 80's through involvement in
Fine Tuning. He's the only guy that could ever convince me that I had
something worthwhile to contribute to the hobby, even on the technical side of
it, and a techie I'm not! That was evidenced by his volunteering me to
participate in a jointly edited article (with John Clark) for one of Fine
Tuning's Proceeding ventures...we wrote about the JRC NRD-515.

First time we met was at my house way out in the boondocks in north-central
Oklahoma (9 miles NE of Newkirk, Oklahoma) in about 1985 I think (maybe 1986).
He, Mitch Sams, and Glenn Hauser all came up and we spent the next 6 or 7
hours cussing and discussing the radio hobby. That was back when there were SO
many great SW target stations to try for. Glenn brought his new (at that time)
slides from his recent vacation to Hong Kong, and I recall he and John
discussing some of the finer points of Chinese architecture...that was John's
profession-architecture...John studied the Chinese forms of the profession by
going to China on more than one occasion I believe. He was very intrigued with
the Eastern styles. Mitch and I just said "uh-huh" and "yea", that sort of
thing. We didn't want to sound stoopid or anything.

John and I always had a non-declared competition going on it seemed. Although
neither of us ever declared war on the other, it was, at times, a state of
war. Back in the 80's and first half of the 90's we were competing for the
most Indonesians heard and verified on SW. More recently we had a competition
for the XE stations on MW. A typical conversation between us sometimes
included expletives that could lead some to believe we hated each other. That
was certainly not the case! How he and I ever got that going is beyond me. I
think that we just enjoyed challenging each other to extend oneself to the
limit! That's the best way I can put it. John just had a natural ability to
bring out the best in other people. God bless his heart for that! I will never
ever forget what he helped me discover about myself. Challenged I was by
John's influence. Thank you, John, for helping me find out for myself that I
can do much more than I thought possible.

Most recently, John introduced me to ultralight DX'ing. I wasn't at first
really keen on the idea, but after he personally brought me a Sony SRF-59
which I still am using today, I began to get the DX'ing bug again after a 13
year (more or less) hiatus in the hobby. Once again it was John that got to me
to get off my butt and do a little writing about the hobby. Like him, I
haven't had this much fun in radio in many years. As John would put it,
"...having a barrel of fun..." Once again I have to say, "Thank you, John!"

I could write much more than I already have. I will leave it at what's been
typed here. Tomorrow a letter will be sent to Linda, who courageously
tolerated more than one DX'er at their place through the years. She's a gem
just as John was!

Thanks, John, for always being such a wonderful friend. I will miss you Buddy.
Until we meet again I will remain,
Your Friend,
Kirk Allen
Pasadena, TX
(via DXLD)

Such sad news to wake up to. RIP John.

dxAce
Michigan
USA