Chelmsford Amateur Radio Society

Peter Naish G3EIX & VK2BPN - Silent Key 9-Jan-2005
 


Recollections of Peter Naish by Geoff Mills G3EDM/VK3EDM

As my callsign (G3EDM) indicates I was licensed about the same time as Peter, although possibly slightly before because my licence was issued ahead of the then current issues.

My first contact was with Peter, in his home in Danbury, from my car when I was driving between Langdon Hills and Billericay in Essex and it was on 160m AM on 2 August 1964. I moved to within a kilometre of his qth in 1972 but by that time Peter had left the Marconi company and Danbury to work in Sydney, NSW Australia from his home in a suburb called Epping and about 30 minutes drive from downtown Sydney.

He leaves Monica, his wife, and two daughters, Elizabeth and Louise. I always rang him when I was in the Sydney area and visited his home where he had an excellent station for HF. Louise followed him into communication engineering; a career in which it was difficult to be for a young lady even ten years ago in Australia.

The last time I spoke to him on air was on 20m sideband when he was operating the SSB Wireless Institute station VK2IMD on International Marconi Day. Only a few days ago I found a photograph of his shack in Epping on my computer taken on 13th February 1983! It must have been about the date he died in the Sydney hospital (9th January 2005) when I found the photo. Of course he knew Louis Varney, G5RV, well and a photograph on the CARS website shows a much younger Peter and Louis operating GB2CRA. Louis was a founder member of CARS. Around 1980 Elizabeth stayed with my wife and me at our home. We were able to show her St. Peters hospital in Maldon where she was born. Peter's parents lived in the West Country at that time so we took her to see the London tourist spots.

When working for his Australian communication company he frequently flew to Europe for meetings and I asked him how he managed to go straight to a meeting after a 21 hours flight from Sydney. His answer was to get a sleeping drug prescription from his GP and then hang a notice around his neck asking the cabin crew not to disturb him! That was before we knew about DVT (Deep Vein Thrombosis)

Peter was an excellent CW operator and when he was the regional representative for this area he visited the Basildon club's field day site (Only low power CW 10 Watts). He operated, however, on NFD for the Chelmsford Amateur Radio Society on a number of occasions some of which were held in Danbury Park and the others at Howletts farm, Writtle.

Peter, like a number of other CARS members, rose to a senior level. He became President of the RSGB's Australian counterpart, the WIA - and Chair of IARU Region-3. He attended a number of international ham radio meetings to try and ensure the hobby survives. A year or two ago he fortuitously came across the CARS website and I recall John, G8DET, seeking information for Peter.

Above all he was the true amateur as well as a professional engineer and always a gentleman. I will recollect no more.





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