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Passing of VK5BR

Started by VK5RJ, May 03, 2024, 12:27 PM

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VK5RJ

Sad to say that we have been informed of the passing of Lloyd Butler by his family.

Lloyd passed away on the 23rd March at St Vincents Hospital at the age of 99 years and 6 months.

Lloyd funeral will be held at Centennial Park on Thursday 16th May.

Time has not been advised as yet.

73,

John  (VK5RJ)
AHARS President
John  (VK5RJ)
AHARS President

VK5TM

Sad to hear that Lloyd has passed away, he was a real Gentleman.

My condolences to his family and friends, he will be missed.

Terry VK5TM

YO3FHM

Quote from: VK5RJ on May 03, 2024, 12:27 PMSad to say that we have been informed of the passing of Lloyd Butler by his family.
Lloyd passed away on the 23rd March at St Vincents Hospital at the age of 99 years and 6 months.

That's a very sad info :(
I had the honor of corresponding with Mr. Butler for a while (2018-2019), on the subject of a VLF receiver he built: "Simple Regenerative VLF-LF Receiver" .
And also, many other things about VLF.

I was impressed by his kindness and sharp thinking at the venerable age of 95!
Below is an excerpt from the last messages from 2019 that I exchanged with Mr. Lloyd Butler VK5BR - a wonderful man and hamradio operator:


"My experimentation and subsequent documentation on LF/VLF receiving was carried out in the late 1980 and early 1990 eras (some 30 years ago).
Now nearly 95 years of age, my mind is still generally clear on the experiments. But I did have to go back and read some of
the articles for some of the specific details of design and what I had put on paper.
These days I now live in a Retirement Village, no longer set up for radio experimentation, but still do a lot of writing.
"
[ May 2, 2019 ]

Since I am also passionate about fishing, sailing and gardening, I also exchanged some impressions on these topics with Mr. Butler.
And I was pleasantly surprised to receive the following answers from him:

"OK on your fishing and sailing. I never took to fishing but for many years I sailed with one of
our local sailing clubs. I started with a Mirror and progressed through two 420.s and finally a Sabre.
Our two  boys got involved too. In earlier years Simon first sailed a Holdfast Trainer and later a
Rainbow. On Saturdays we tore down to the club,two cars and two trailers with boats.
"

"My life in communications and electronics is pretty complicated. I have worked in broadcasting,
telecommunications,  airways communications and navigation and the last 35 years up to retirement,
in a research and development organisation. I taught Civil Aviation technicians in one year and
over a 14 year period, I ran a night class at the SA Institute of Technology (now University of
South Australia). That started with electron tube technology, but during the period the first
germanium transistors were developed and I added these to the course. All blackboards and chalk in
those days.
"
[ May 6, 2019 ]

Unfortunately, Mr. Butler also wrote to me:

"My wife Margaret and I moved into the Retirement village in Pasadena, a suburb of Adelaide, in
2007. We had lived, not too far away, in the suburb  of Panorama for many years.  We had a
large allotment on which the house was built [...] this had plenty of extra room to house the work bench,
electronic gear and  radio communication gear.
Several trees put in had grown to large dimensions which were useful to hang a few antennas.
[...]
Up until a couple of years ago, I used to have scheds on  40 metres with a net of other old timers.
I have used an expanding fishing rod which is close to a quarter wave on 40 and I put up as a
vertical.. The inner structure of the house is steel and I have tapped into this as a ground
plane - It gets out pretty well. But the older operators have just dropped off, many joining the
silent keys. So the net has just faded into oblivion.
[...]
I do have a 2 meter J pole inside in the corner of the garage and even inside, I can trigger two
fairly local repeaters if I want to.
[...]
But I didn't die first. Margaret passed away in October 2017. We had been together 67 years.
Now I have to get on alone - but it puts a strain on one's handling of life.
"
[ also May 6, 2019 ]

I was very saddened when I read the above. Starting with 2020, I tried to correspond with Mr. Butler, but unfortunately I did not receive any reply.
Now the reason has become clear to me and I can only express my condolences to the grieving family and transmit on the air my most beautiful thoughts for a special man like Mr. Butler.

I add below the QSL that I sent him in 2019 and a picture of the flowers in front of his house from the retirement village.





May God rest him in peace!

Cezar YO3FHM

VK5MCH

Very kind words Cezar. We appreciate your input very much.
Mick VK5MCH