SK: Neil Penfold VK6NE

[VK2ZRH]

I have been saddened by the news that Neil Penfold VK6NE passed away very recently.

I knew Neil since first meeting him in the 1970s. A true gentleman and a quiet achiever.

Among his legacies is the success the WIA achieved, during the time he was Federal WIA President, in heading off a proposed huge increase in licence fees, from $37 to $72, in 1995. The fees for beacon and repeater sites were massively affected, to an even greater extent.

Neil was instrumental in marshalling the Institute's sparse resources, encouraging key people to tackle the authorities and to make the proposal a public issue to bring pressure to bear on both the regulator (then the Spectrum Management Agency) and Australian Government. It became a parliamentary issue. The communications industry saw the WIA in a new light and accorded the Institute new respect at the highest level - in the government's Radiocommunications Consultative Council.

Equally importantly, Neil gently fended-off the naysayers, barrow pushers and grandstanders who sought to derail the licence fee campaign effort, keeping them at bay so that those volunteers working on the Institute's behalf could do what needed to be done.

The campaign's result was a $50 fee for individual amateur licences and a consolidated fee for beacon and repeater sites. A legacy of benefit to all Australian radio amateurs.

Vale Neil.

Posted in a spirit of great respect.

73, Roger Harrison VK2ZRH

[VK6MB]

Sad news

Neil was my QSL manager when I was VK9ZYX on Cocos (Keeling) Is.

73 Mike

[VK4TS]

Vale: Neil VK6NE

When I first gained my amateur licence Neil co-ordinated the old VK/ZL Contest- no question was to small not to get a hand written note..The explanations he provided a newbie to the hobby always inspired me to what the amateur code was really about.. The term "one of life's gentlemen" certainly referred to Neil..he will be certainly missed by the entire radio community and especially in Western Australia - my sympathies to his family and friends

de Trent VK4TI

ex VK2NDK, VK2YHA, VK2KTS, VK2ZI

[VK6ADF]

For those who knew him and those that didn't, the VK6 pages (ex VK6 WIA website) have a small profile of Neil.

http://www.vk6.net/p-vk6ne.html