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Rush S. Drake La Center, WA QCWA # 18659 Chapter 4 |
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Past ARRL Director, Contest Hall of Famer Rush S. Drake, W7RM, SK:
Past ARRL Northwestern Division Director Rush Drake, W7RM, of Vancouver,Washington, died March 11. He was 87. Drake served as Northwestern DivisionDirector from January 1987 through December 1989, when he stepped down dueto medical problems. Prior to serving as Director, he was the division'sVice Director for two years. A Life Member of the ARRL and an inductee tothe CQ Contest Hall of Fame (Class of 1993), Drake may have been best knownfor his wholehearted devotion to contesting and to hosting some of thenation's top operators--initially from his well-outfitted oceanfrontmulti-multi station on Foul Weather Bluff northwest of Seattle.
"I am sure many tributes will follow, but as one who knew Rush very wellduring his glory years at Foul Weather Bluff, I must say that it was anhonor to have grown up in contesting at the helm of his station and at hisside on many a tower," said Chip Margelli, K7JA, in a message to the CQContest Reflector. "He put together a potent antenna farm at one of thepremier locations in North America and reshaped contesting in the USA formany years."
The heyday of Foul Weather Bluff was during the 1970s, with major multi-opand single-op wins in DX events and in the ARRL November Sweepstakes. "Rushbrought curiosity and passion to his station and his crew," Margelli said.
Drake acquired the 2.5-acre tract atop a 210-foot bluff on a peninsulanorthwest of Seattle in the 1960s. As Margelli recounted, Foul Weather Blufffeatured "a sheer drop-off to 20 miles of salt water toward Europe and deepAsia, salt water to the east and west and a gentle downward slope to thesouth." As a result of this confluence of superb location and effectiveantennas, W7RM was able to challenge the dominance of East Coast DXers withtheir built-in advantage of being a continent closer to Europe.
The W7RM Foul Weather Bluff contest station sported several towers' worth ofmultiband arrays and contributed to several first-place DX contest finishes.It also lived up to its name, Margelli recalls. "Foul Weather Bluff claimedmore than its share of antennas that obviously were 'big enough.'"
Drake sold the Foul Weather Bluff site to his neighbor, Gordon Marshall,W6RR, in the late 1970s due to the failing health of his late wife, LaVonne(Marshall still lives there). Drake subsequently started all over again onfive acres in La Center, in the hills north of Vancouver. Recalls ARRLContributing Editor Ward Silver, N0AX, "By the mid-90s he had it all upagain--at age 80--and the station started making pretty big scores again."
Silver says Drake retired from multi-multi operating "by default" after the2002-2003 contest season and moved into an assisted-living facility not longafterward.
Drake initially got into contesting while attending the University ofWashington, and he won a club award as W7ESK for his 1938 ARRL InternationalDX Contest effort. He built his contesting reputation as W4ESK, operatingwith the Potomac Valley Radio Club from Arlington, Virginia. He became W7ESKagain when he moved back to the Pacific Northwest in the late 1950s to startup an electronics distributorship.
Past ARRL Midwestern Division Director Lew Gordon, K4VX, said Drake, a closefriend, "possessed a charismatic presence" that served him well in businessand in Amateur Radio. "I will miss him," he said.
Source:
The ARRL LetterVol. 24, No. 12March 25, 2005
