Jeff Wittich AC4ZO... SK

Jeff Wittich AC4ZO helped out on a lot of HamRadioNow episodes, enough to nearly be a co-host. He came with me to Dayton and Orlando several times. The first time, in 2007, he was the Dayton Virgin back when we were making shows on DVD.. While I think he enjoyed it, it was never his favorite thing to do. He did it because I asked him to. I asked him to because he was very good at it. He was very good at just about anything he tried to do.

Except… staying alive.

In the fall of 2020, Jeff was diagnosed with brain cancer. It was bad - Grade 4 Glioblastoma - incurable, with an average prognosis of about 2 years. He underwent surgery and radiation therapy to remove as much of the cancer as possible, but there was no way to remove all of it. As 2021 progressed, Jeff held his own for a while, but his strength was limited. He couldn’t work. In June, he was able to go with us to visit the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, a dream trip. Shortly after that, though, his doctor discovered new cancer in his lungs and lymphatic system. Brain cancer usually doesn’t spread like that. It was a mystery, but worse, it robbed him of what might have been another year of life. Jeff passed away on August 2nd, 2021.

If you watch the videos, it will be obvious that Jeff was more than my video partner. He’d been my best friend since we met in the mid-90s, just after he got his ham license. He was a brilliant, mostly self-taught engineer, and he was always happy to help or share his knowledge, especially with new hams. We had a lot of fun together, and very few hard times.

We lost a good one. - Gary K4AAQ