David Sourdis, HK1A, SK..
it was a sad day, March 25, 2025, the world lost one of the more brilliant radio frequency engineers that I have come to know. I have known him for over five years and done multiple projects with him. A lot of them are documented on this blog. We built all kinds of antennas raised towers and did all kinds of fun stuff. It’s so sad to hear of his passing. He was in Columbia, visiting his mother when he had a massive heart attack. He leaves behind his children, his mother and his sister’s family. Unfortunately I am not aware of all the details.
I first got to know him through Brightleaf Amateur Radio Club meetings. He talked about using the antenna modeling software 4EzNec2 and I recorded the presentation and put it up on Vimeo. The link is here. Other times he would give lectures on radio frequencies and how to calculate feed lines and antenna lengths. The link is here. He used to work for Behr & Associates in Greenville for quite a few years and when his visa needed to be renewed, he could not renew his H1B visa. He moved to Canada. He was there for a year trying to get the Visa reinstated. He finally realized that this was going to be denied or delayed due to Washington Administration change. Then he moved to Spain. There he started to work with a satellite communication company and help build some of their large dishes. After a couple of years in Spain, he then left to visit his mother in Columbia.
He was a fierce CW competitor. One time, he went out to voice of America site C. He climbed the corner leg of the tower of one of the large 1000 foot-long rhombic antennas. There, he connected his little radio to it. He managed to get second place finish in the world on that contest because his signal really got out with just 100 W on an IC 7300. He sat in his car for hours doing CW with the wire going up connected to the large antenna. That was the start of the project that he and I were working on. He was helping me design a ham station at the Voice of America site C. We had gotten estimates and designed an amateur radio station that would’ve been world class. Two events interrupted getting the funding for it and completing this project. One was the sudden passing of my wife. The other was his loss of his visa. America’s lost a really fine individual and a really bright RF engineer. I have lost a good friend.
Ride the airwaves my friend and I will see you later, 73 Peter, N4PVH, SK . .
