HFU HF Underground
General Category => General Radio Discussion => Topic started by: JoeFLIPS on January 04, 2017, 1638 UTC
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Another sad bit of news to pass along here. HV Short of Radio Free Massachusetts (RFM) and personal friend passed away August 2, 2016. I first met HV back in the early 1990s and visited with him at his home several times talking about the free radio hobby and what not. We lost contact with each other for several years but I always remembered our enjoyable visits and how he was doing. Then in early June of 2016 I received an email from HV stating he was seeing my postings on HFU and that he had just got back into the hobby after seeing that RFM was inducted into the North American Pirate Radio Hall Of Fame back in 2012. He was wondering how many of the guys we both knew from the 90s were still around and we had a few email exchanges in the early summer last year. He was "SHORTY" on the HFU boards. I was planning on visiting with him again then my emails started going unanswered. This morning I did a Google search and found his obituary online. Don't know what made me do it but after seeing the recent postings of two other deaths in the free radio hobby it gave me a bad feeling. I was shocked and saddened to hear about HV's passing last year. RIP sir, you were a great friend and I will always cherish our friendship and great times spent together. HV Short was 79 years old.
From his online obituary: "(HV Short), 79, died unexpectedly on Tuesday, August 2, 2016 after being stricken ill earlier in the day. (HV Short) worked as an electrical engineer for the Raytheon Corp. for many years before his retirement in 2006. In his younger years (HV Short) was an active auto racer and throughout his life was active with his short wave radio. A celebration of life is being planned for September."
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I'm sorry to hear that Joe :-[
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Thank you for the sentiment Redhat.
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My condolences, Joe. I'm very sorry to hear that. I just checked my old pirate logbook and found three entries for RFM going back to 1989. Fuzzy memory here, but I think RFM frequented the top of the AM dial in good company with WJDI and WKND (among others) back in the day. I was never able to hear him on the AM band but I did make recordings of his shortwave broadcasts. Here's a scratchy recording I made in October 1989 of RFM on 7490 that includes music and monologue by HV Shorts. Might bring back some good memories:
RFM_7490_kHz_0527-0611_UTC_29OC89.mp3 (http://amdxer.com/download/1980s_Pirate_Radio_Recordings/RFM_7490_kHz_0527-0611_UTC_29OC89.mp3)
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I wondered what happened with him when his posts here stopped? RIP HV.
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He and I went out for dinner one night back in the Summer of 1990. Got to ride in his white Corvette, which if I remember correctly he called his "plastic pig." Even though I had figured out who he was he smartly stayed in "HV Short" character all night. Really cool guy. My condolences, Joe.
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Thanks for the sentiments guys. That's a great recording Kilokat7 and was interesting to listen to! I never heard him at the top of the AM band either but I did hear his FM pirate station one time during one of my trips to his house back then. He wanted to see how far the FM signal was getting out as I got closer to his QTH. If I remember right I started getting the signal an exit or two on the highway before his. Even got a QSL from him, my first and only FM pirate reception. Thanks for posting the clip, I started listening to pirates in 1991 so it's cool to hear one of HV's broadcasts from 1989.
I remember his white Corvette sitting in the driveway Nick. Both he and his wife were big NASCAR fans and traveled around the country attending various events and auto races. :)
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Sorry to hear that a friend of yours passed away, Joe. That never gets easy. Sounds like he was a very good person.
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Thank you MDK2.
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Wow, really sorry to hear this. I only met him briefly at a hamfest about 20 years ago, but I talked to him on the phone a few times & was in contact a lot in the late '80s & early '90s. I e-mailed him in the past year & he said "How many years has it been for us? Gads, I'll be 80 on my next birthday!! Where has the time gone?"
And his last words to me were "Remember, broadcast laws are for dogs!"