W2LJ's Blog - QRP - Do More With Less.

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Dave Bell W6AQ - SK

Posted: 17 May 2016 07:25 AM PDT
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From the ARRL Website:

Award-winning Hollywood producer and ARRL benefactor Dave Bell, W6AQ, of
Encinitas, California, died on May 13. He was 84 and had been a radio
amateur for 65 years. Bell had been suffering from cancer and was in
hospice care. An ARRL Life Member and a former chair of the ARRL Public
Relations Committee, Bell directed Amateur Radio Today and produced several
other ham radio-related promotional videos and films, starting with The
Ham’s Wide World, a TV documentary filmed in black and white.

“If I have a claim to fame in Amateur Radio, it’s probably that I produced
the first television documentary about ham radio that got worldwide
distribution, and then I made several others before I ‘retired’ from the
ham radio film/video hobby-within-a-hobby and got busy making a living
producing TV movies, specials, and documentaries for all of the networks
including HBO and Showtime, and made a couple of theatrical feature films —
Nadia and The Long Walk Home,� Bell recounted on his QRZ.com profile. He
started TV’s Unsolved Mysteries, and he received an Emmy Award in 1985 for
Outstanding Drama/Comedy Special, Do You Remember Love. Bell chronicled his
filmmaking and his Amateur Radio and professional lives in a memoir,
World’s Best Hobby.

Last year, Bell and his wife Sam, W6QLT (she’s a quilter), donated a signed
Andy Warhol print to the ARRL. The artwork — “Myths: Superman 1981� —sold
at auction last fall for $150,000. The proceeds are being used to create
“The Dave Bell, W6AQ, Endowment Fund� to benefit the League.

Bell also produced The World of Amateur Radio, This is Ham Radio, and
Moving Up to Amateur Radio. He directed the Amateur Radio Today video in
2002. The short presentation about emergency preparedness was narrated by
former CBS Evening News anchor Walter Cronkite, KB2GSD (SK), written by
Alan Kaul, W6RCL, and produced by Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF (SK) and Bill
Baker, W1BKR. Bell and Pasternak also created The DIY Magic of Amateur
Radio in 2011, and he co-produced The ARRL Goes to Washington, also voiced
by Cronkite. Working on his own, Bell filmed videos for the World
Radiosport Team Championship (WRTC) events in 2000 in Slovenia (The Ham
Radio Olympics) and in 2002 in Finland.

A DXer, casual contester, and a past president of the Southern California
DX Club, Bell was a frequent speaker at Amateur Radio gatherings. He was
named the 1984 Ham of the Year at Dayton Hamvention®, and, in 2003, the
ARRL presented Bell with its first Lifetime Achievement Award for his work
on films and videos about Amateur Radio. In 2011 he was named to the CQ
Amateur Radio Hall of Fame.

Heil Sound Ltd’s Bob Heil, K9EID, called Bell “one of the great ones.� Heil
said Bell’s “great smile and laughter� and his “generosity to the hobby�
would be missed, “but most of all, we will miss his spirit.� — Thanks to
The Daily DX for some information

I've mentioned Dave's e-book "World's Best Hobby" several times before on
this blog. It used to be free, but i think now it can be downloaded from
Amazon for a couple of bucks. It's worth substantially more than that, it's
a good and entertaining read.

I hope W6AQ is up there with K2ORS, kicking back, quaffing a few and
sharing some good stories.

Farewell, W6AQ, thanks for all you did for Amateur Radio.

72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP - When you care to send the very least!