SPOTLIGHT ON MEMBERS
No. 5 - Kenneth George ("Ken") Melton - GM3WKM

Ken came to the Society in May 1967 whilst serving at 35 Base Workshops, Old Dalby. He gave his first talk to Members on 19th October that year "Radar Today" and immediately it became apparent that he shared the outright enthusiasm of Doug, G3FDF for furthering the hobby and the technical expertise of its devotees. and in particular the aspiring newcomer. Many Members, both past and present, continue to avow their great debt of gratitude to Ken for the dedicated hours of tuition he gave to them both privately and as a lecturer in the field of Further Education when he left the British Army.
His 29-year career from Boy Service to a Serving Officer with REME inevitably took him to many parts - Singapore, Manorbier in Wales, Military College of Science, Shrivenham, Colchester, Bromley, Benbecula in the Outer Hebrides (on more than one tour of duty) - which enabled his much-remembered visit to St. Kilda some 124 miles west of the Scottish mainland - and Northern Ireland. One or two local amateurs are the proud possessors of the undocumented "Worked all WKM Award" for contacting him by amateur radio at all of these latter locations!
During his time locally he involved himself to the full with Society activities and became very popular with his "Free Raffle" for a bag of components at each of our Meetings and organising and acting as humorous "Auctioneer" at our annual Junk Sales in addition to his highly acclaimed RAE Course given at Melton Mowbray College of Further Education, now sadly missed by potential newcomers to the hobby.

GM3WKM
Ken with Sylvia's assistance served as Membership Secretary to the Royal Signals Amateur Radio Society for many years and for which he was appointed Honour Member by the RSARS Council. His "Safety Lesson" appears on the RSARS website as an example of his abilities as a born teacher - for which he was well known. Son Paul holds the callsign G6AEA and Son-in-law Iain has the RAE Pass slip in his sporran. Beset for many years by ill-health Ken nevertheless continued to maintain as many of the aforesaid interests both on and off the air as he was able to and demonstrated a noted degree of pride in being "a Radio Amateur" thus belying his undoubted technical expertise. He and Sylvia removed to Inverness as his health declined (to be near their daughter) and from where Ken continued in the forefront of modern communications media (including computing and PSK31) in pursuit of his beloved hobby and following the local events of the I.E.E. of which he was a longstanding Member.

KEN BECAME SILENT KEY ON 27th October 2005, aged 72 years

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RICHARD WINTERS

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