Ray Gerrard, G3NOM and HS0ZDZ, 20 May 2015

Former Vice President of the Radio Amateur Society of Thailand (RAST) under the patronage of His Majesty the King (RAST) Ray Gerrard, G3NOM and HS0ZDZ passed away at his home in Bangkok peacefully on May 20, 2015 aged 75. His passing follows a heart attack that he had suffered more than a decade earlier.

At the end of January 2005, Ray was discharged from hospital after having partially recovered after being in a coma for six weeks following his heart attack. Since then he had been cared for at home by his wife, Lawan, E21UHL. However, Ray never recovered his ability to communicate verbally although he had responded and reacted to visits by friends, many of them RAST members, who would come to visit him regularly.

Shortly after his arrival in Thailand on a work assignment around 1990, Ray became actively involved in the activities of RAST. He became a vice president of  the Society and he served as secretary for international affairs and as station manager of the Society’s club station HS0AC when it was located at the Science Museum in Bangkok. Later he would oversee the club station’s formal establishment at the Asian Institute of Technology.

He had been very active on the air, initially using the callsign HS0/G3NOM in Thailand and later as HS0ZDZ, which had been issued under the Thailand-UK bilateral reciprocal operating agreement that he had helped to bring about, having acted as a liaison officer between RAST and the RSGB. At the time of Ray’s heart attack in November 2004 he had been busy as the chairman of the organising committee for the 32nd SEANET convention that was to be held in Bangkok.

Ray had also participated in several DXpeditions in and around Thailand, including E29AL on Tarutao Island and XZ0A in  Myanmar. He also manned the special event station HS2000 to mark the Y2K event on December 31, 1999 as well as serving as a SEANET Net Control Station operator on many occasions. In addition, during the period 2001 – 2004 he wrote and circulated over 120 email newsletters to RAST members on behalf of the society.

May Ray Gerrard rest in peace.

Tribute by Tony Waltham, HS0ZDX and G4UAV

Category: Silent Keys