W6PO

Rememberance

I decided to create a web log about my father to record the interests he had and the contributions he made in the Amatuer Radio world. When my father died on January 11, 2004, the amateur radio community responded very quickly in sending letters of condolence and personal rememberances of how my father helped others personally in their HAM endeavors and how they respected him as a person. The letters to our family helped lift a bit of the sorrow we felt. For me, the letters made me proud and made me smile with happiness that people cared so much about my father. Thank you very much everyone.!!

Janice

SK from ARRL Web Site

Moonbounce Pioneer Bob Sutherland, W6PO, SK

NEWINGTON, CT, Mar 11, 2004--Robert I. "Bob" Sutherland, W6PO (ex-W6UOV), of San Mateo, California, died January 11. He was 78. An active VHF-UHF operator in the 1960s through the 1980s, Sutherland was on the West Coast end of the first Amateur Radio moonbounce (EME) contact in 1960 when the Eimac Radio Club's W6HB and W1BU worked each other on 1296 MHz EME. An employee of tube manufacturer Eimac for nearly 50 years, Sutherland, who directed the Advanced Products Lab, developed some of the more famous Eimac tube-based amps. His Eimac 8877 VHF amplifier design still is referred to as "the W6PO amp."

"His contributions to the Amateur Radio field are legendary," said well-known VHF-UHF and EME operator Dave Olean, K1WHS, when told of Sutherland's passing. Olean says that while most amateurs know Sutherland for his EME work and his accomplishments at Eimac, "most of his great deeds went unnoticed by many except for the legion of moonbounce operators whom he helped along the way." Olean says he was one of them. "Bob had his connections and would bend over backward to help people in any way he could," he said, describing how Sutherland helped him set up an EME station for 432 MHz.

Between the 1960s and the 1980s, Sutherland, an ARRL member, authored eight articles for Ham Radio magazine describing various VHF and UHF projects, including "Design Data for a Two-Kilowatt VHF Linear" in 1969 and "High-Performance 144-MHz Power Amplifier" in 1971. He also wrote "A High-Power Cavity Amplifier For The New 900-MHz Band" for QST in 1982. Sutherland was the recipient of the John T. Chambers Award in 1977 for "his dedicated efforts in bringing EME technical information to amateurs worldwide through distribution of the famous Eimac EME Notes," which remain in circulation within the EME community along with his amplifier designs.

In a posting on the Stanford VHF Reflector, EME operator Peter Shilton, VE3AX, praised Sutherland as "truly one of the greats." He said he's still using Sutherland-designed 144-MHz and 222-MHz amplifiers. Noted VHF-UHF-EME op Al Ward, W5LUA, related a similar experience. Ward says he could not have gotten his 144 MHz and 222 MHz 8877 amplifiers going without Sutherland's help. "These two amplifiers have been working flawlessly at W5LUA for 25 years," he added. "That says something about Bob's designs and the tubes! He will be missed by all."

Former QST "The World Above 50 MHz" Editor Bill Smith, W5USM, said he was saddened to learn of Sutherland's death. "I was privileged to work with Bob through the 'World Above' column during the early EME days," he recalled. "Bob was a modest, kind man of considerable intelligence with passion for his professional and Amateur Radio work." Smith credited Sutherland with much of the success moonbounce enjoys today. "He was accessible and willing to help," Smith said, adding, "I suggest looking toward the moon and saying, 'Thank you, Bob. Well done.'"

HAM TV

My dad went to school at UC Berkeley with Bob Melvin. Bob Melvin built a black & white TV camera at the end of 1948 and put it on 420/450 MHz ham band in early 1949. My dad built a receiver and received TV pictures from Berkeley at his home in Oakland, CA. Dad later build a camera and had it on the air for a short time.
( See June 1950 QST)

Here are a couple pictures of the TV endeavor.

HAM TV 1949

Remnants of 1949 TV

My sister and I along with Mike Bach (WB6FFC), a very good friend of my fathers, went to clean some of the accumulation of radio equipment and parts out of the ham shack this past weekend. Up in the loft, pushed back under the eaves was part of the TV Camera equipment used in 1949. (See above picture) A lable down in the lower right corner was really all that was left to indicate what the piece of equipment was used for. I'll have to get a picture to post here in the future.

Garage Shack in San Mateo

My parents bought there first house circa 1953. This picture if of my dad and the first location of his ham shack. In the garage. The year 1954. He wouldn't be in the garage for long, since he built a two room shack in the back yard fairly soon after.

Click on the pictures to get a larger view.

Antenna Measuring Party

These are a couple pictures from 1960. The occasion is an antenna measuring party at Beresford Park in San Mateo. I dont really know the purpose of an antenna measuring party, but dad was at a few. My brother Bob is standing next to my dad in the first picture. I do have a picture of them both many years later at another measuring party.

The second photo is also at Beresford and shows most of the hams that were there that day. Standing, left to right W6VSV Bob Melvin, W6AJF Frank C. Jones, K6ONM Glen Hatley, K6AXN Mike Krivohlovek, W6HCP, W6UOV Bob Sutherland, Nick ?. Crouching left to right: W6BHR John Ludeman, W6PBC Everett Emerson, W6EDC John Cunningham, W6GQK Harold Barber, K6BAT Lloyd Summers, and W6FZJ Joe Reisert (W1JR). Bob Melvin brought the 16 foot (half) dish. W6UOV made the big aluminum foil-lined plywood horn. Bob Melvin made the 6 El Zig-Zag array. Thank you very much to Bob Melvin for identifying the people in the photo.

This is a picture of Robert Alan Sutherland (ex-WA6QCD) and Robert Ivor Sutherland (W6PO) at an antenna measuring party in 1975.

EIMAC and EME

I have been receiving many notes from friends of my dads, and people who worked with him at EIMAC or on radio projects. Recently, Mike Bach was able to track down an old video from the 1950s that was done by a local television station, channel 7. They did a series of 'Success Stories' about companies in the area. This one was about EIMAC. We showed it to my mom and even though she wasnt working at EIMAC anymore by 1955, she remembered some of the people and the processes that were shown. She was happy to see it. Then of course there were the spoofs of the 'Success Story' show created by Ed Sena, the company photographer. Here is a snipet of what Jack Quinn remembers about the GLIPTRON movies made in San Bruno and then another in San Carlos when the company moved there.

"Well, I don't remember it all, but here is what I do: It was a fun movie made by Ed Sena our company photographer. Gliptol was a trade name for a vacuum leak sealer. If you had a leaker you painted on Gliptron and it sucked into the crack. So the movie was a satire on our constant striving for excellent high quality vacuum tubes. "

Another recent addition to the collection of old trivia and memories is a copy of the video that was made during the November 1975 EME tests that were conducted at the Stanford Research Insitute in Palo Alto. Brian Westfall and Arne Gjerning(N7KA) were good enough to make a DVD and send a copy to me. I have photographs of the event that my brother Robert Sutherland ex- WA6QCD made, but I didn't know of the video. I will be posting the photos I have. The participants at this particular EME test were Loren Hodap (WA6BMR), Brian Westfall (K6OJM), Arne Gjerning (ex K7CAD), Bob Sutherland (ex WA6QCD), Bruce Clark (K6JYO), Ed Tescher (QA6LCZ), Victor Frank (WB6KAP), Bob Melvin (W6VSV), and Bob Sutherland (W6PO). The stats from the test were: 102 contacts, 80-82 stations, 11 countries including the US, 20 States all areas, Luxembourg, Japan, and other countries in Europe.

I remember my dad making trips to the Stanford dish, but I didn't really know or comprehend the excitement of the activities they were involved in. Ham Radio was ham radio...... Looking back from a 30 year perspective, it was a little more. My brother actually participated in this particular test. He was about 20 at the time. He looks pretty much the same as he did then.
Of course my father was there, but he did his best to stay out of the camera's view.

Bruce Clark, Brian Westfall, Bob Sutherland, Arne Gjerning

Arne Gjerning, Bob Sutherland, Brian Westfall, Bruce Clark

The First Amateur Two-way EME Contact

 

http://www.ok2kkw.com/eme1960/eme1960eng.htm

WHICH HAS ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ABOUT THE MOONBOUNCE ENDEAVORS.

 The following pictures are from the Varian Associates Magazine dated April 1977. On the cover is the cartoon of my father which was taken from the photograph of him sitting at the radio in the next picture.
On July 17, 1960, Eimac (San Carlos) radio station (W6AY) made the first-ever amateur two-way 'moon-bounce' contact with the Rhododendron Swamp Radio Club (W1BU) in Massachusetts. Dad directed the connection from San Carlos, California.

This is the crew involved in this EME endeavor.

Standing: Robert Sutherland W6UOV (now W6PO), Hank Brown W6HB, Bill Eitel W6UF, George M W Badger W6RXW (now W6TC), Al Clark  W6MUC and Bob Morwood K6GLF.

Sitting: Ray Rinaudo W6KEV (was W6ZO then back to KEV), Charlie Anderson W6IVZ (now W6VW),  Allan Beer K6GSO.

Tube Collector Magazine

The April 2004 Tube Collector Magazine, Vol. 6, No. 2 has a SK article about Dad. Page 11 and 13 have the Ham TV photos that I posted earlier in the blog. There's a nice description about my dad's radio and Eimac history. The information was provided by Mike Bach, WB6FFC.