On 5/22/2016 8:53 PM, W7IXA wrote:

I am very sad to report that Dave, KD7DR has succumbed to cancer and has passed away this afternoon at about 1500 Hrs. I have no additional information at this time.

While we all will miss Dave, I will certainly be missing him especially with all are various projects, mountain top trips and the "T" hunting we did through the years.

Dave has been a great friend and advocate for SARBA and the Cactus Intertie system for many years.

Regards, Doug, W7IXA

I am very sad to hear this. We all thought he had lots of living ahead and was pulling out of his surgery well.

Dave was always there and ready to help.

Dave came out to Guadalupe quite a number of times over many many years to fix something or meet me so we could sweat an A/C fan motor change in August.  He even managed to tolerate a few of my multiple day - or rather night - site trips.  One Towers-Elden combo trip he even made a complete round trip home from Towers to get an Astron, and still managed to put up with another full day of rework on Towers followed by a drive to Elden.  Another Towers trip we decided to take the "direct " road down to the west to get to Guadalupe - where we arrived at 5 AM. It wasn't quite as fast as we thought it would be.

He even put me up a few times at his place in some of my multi site runs, and went with me to the next site - or more.

How many trips to Pinal?  Can't count that high without an Abacus.

Board projects - many! and LOTS of efforts to make the system sound right.   Retrofitting 85 surface mount parts on each of 65 Palomar filter boards done by Dave and his lady,an incomprehensible job for most of us.

Dave spent a lot of time on "background" daily system configuration management making things work better for all of us

73, Dave, and rest well.  We all miss you

Robin, WA6CDR

I am so sorry to hear this - Dave was a great guy and a terrific ham. He was also far too young and vital.

I had the pleasure to work with him at both Motorola and Freescale until he retired, and always enjoyed his intelligence, wit, wisdom and attitude. Even after he retired, he was my go-to guy when I needed some RF thingee built and tested, as his skill with the tiny soldering station and microscope, and ability and means to test the widget afterward was unparalleled.

Before he retired from Motorola and Freescale, he was Mr. ZigBee and 802.15.4 board designer/builder extraordinaire for the Wireless Connectivity Operations (WCO) organization within the Wireless and Mobile Systems Group at FSL. He was part of the team that made the MC13213 (the most successful 15.4 chip in the market, through 2012, at least, FSL sold around a hundred million of them)  and its descendants successful. When he wasn't talking RF board design, he'd tell us stories about his time in the USAF and the avionics systems of some of the birds he worked on. 

When we moved to Arizona back in 2001, he was in my group at Motorola and on the BoD of SARBA, and made sure I joined up with and got involved with SARBA.

Dave Cowley, RIP.

Jon Adams N7UV

As we have now all been alerted of this life event.

I would like to comment from my heart on Dave. I met Dave when I was young and now I am old, but in the 40 years that I had the privilege to know Dave, I always thought he was my friend, I was one of the many friends that Dave had in the Cactus family. He was a person of impeccable character and was always willing to help the cause. I spent many a trip with Dave and Doug on the mountain sites that made up the SARBA network. I always enjoyed his company and candor, Dave always spoke his mind and didn't hold back on telling you, that you were not seeing the whole picture. He was always ready to go when something was broken on a site. Dave spent a lot of time with Ingo during his final days as did many other members of our SARBA family.

Dave will be GREATLY missed by our SARBA family, and by CACTUS Intertie, and by me as a friend.

I have noted that getting older has its benefits but it has the drawback of the losing the family and friends around you that you cherish the most. DAVE you will be missed, REST IN PEACE my FRIEND.

Regards

Chris Radicke, N7TWW

Dave was my Elmer. He convinced me to get my Ham ticket 13 years ago and has delivered much knowledge and help to me ever since. I will miss him dearly.

Rest in Peace my friend and Thank you.

I will see you again on the other side.

Ed, kd7yat

Really sad to hear the news of Dave's passing, I remember talking to him on so many occasions and also working alongside him on some packet projects and also seeing him up on the mountain tops, particularly Pinal where every now and then there'd be a couple of work parties up at the different ham sites.

RIP Dave, you'll be missed.

Dan GB/N7MRP

I have known Dave since he worked and lived north of here at Holloman AFB. He could hear the El Paso cactus radio and really enjoyed what he heard. Then when he moved to Phoenix, he got to know us all. What a guy. He joined up and immediately became such a great asset to the system. He will be missed for sure. I am glad that I got to spend time with him at Havasu.

73 my good friend.

Martin, WB5LJO

Very saddened to hear about this. Dave was a key player in our ability to expand our legacy site controllers and he developed several new boards for them.

He was always willing to listen to my ideas and he and I ALWAYS shared a laugh at every meeting we were at.

Dave was quite an engineer and the Intertie as a whole has lost a significant member, but more so, a significant contributor.

My heart goes out to his family. If they need anything at all, please let me know.

Godspeed, Dave. Look forward to catching you on the other side.

Chris Baldwin/KF6AJM