Our silent keys of Lakes Region Repeater Association are deeply missed by our association. We offer our condolences to their family and friends.

• KC1TJC SK Norman Head 04/23/24
• W1LAD SK Lee Duncan 04/04/2024
• W1SND SK Sandy Percy 06/09/2023
• N1HAZ SK Jim Hazard 2022
• W1STS SK Scott Karvonetz 12/ 2022
• NJ1B SK Joe Bradley 8/2022
• WA1CIR SK John Heaney III 2021
• K1HTN SK Bruce Beaman 11-02-2021
• N1LT SK Dick Christopher 2020
• KC1HGN SK Mike Galiberti  2020
• N1MAZ SK Frank E. Quimby  2020,  former Treasurer of LRRA
• K1ERO SK Dean Halpin 2015-16
• N1HQD SK Louise Jeffrey 2015-16
• W1RRN SK Joe Fermano 2015-16, former Vice President of LRRA
• N6PMM SK J.J. Lauer 2015-2016
• K1OLV SK Henry J, (Pete) Colbath Jr, March 24, 2009, former President of LRRA
• WA1GQL SK Gerry Ingham 1998
• W1JY SK Johnny Johnson 1998, former President of LRRA
• K1OIZ SK Jim Thrippleton 1998
• W1BST SK Karl “Doc” Steady.  LRRA uses his call for our club call.
• K1MPK SK Ed Kenney 1997, former Treasurer of LRRA
• N1UVB SK Terri Taylor 1997
• KA1KTU SK Bob Taylor
• KJ1O SK Dick Brooks, former Secretary of LRRA
• W1NBL SK Dick  Patten, former Secretary of LRRA,Repeater Trustee, Life Member
• K1OGU SK Maxine Andrews
• K1NYS SK Guy Andy Andrews, former Treasurer of LRRA
• W1FYX SK Dave Walsh Former President of LRRA
• W1QXB SK Howard Gilbert, former Treasurer of LRRA
• K1NZJ SK Harold Wallace 1989
• K1CIG SK Paul Powers 1982

A silent key is a radio operator who has passed away and no longer can be heard on the air wave community.  The people we list were Amateur Radio Operators who were friends  and members of Amateur Radio Clubs and ours.

The SK refers to silent key and most of the time silent key call signs are displayed with the call sign in front of their name.

The National Silent Key Archive

The goal of the National Silent Key Archive is to collect and preserve photographs, life event narratives, and data artifacts of deceased Amateur Radio operators, and to make The Archive’s digital library available to anyone wishing to view its contents online. 

National Silent Keys Archive

Samuel Morse (1791-1872) helped invent the telegraph which revolutionized long-distance communication. It worked by transmitting electrical signals over a wire laid between stations. Samuel Morse also developed a code that assigned a set of dots and dashes to each letter of the alphabet and allowed for the transmission of messages across telegraph lines.

In 1844, Morse sent his first telegraph message, from Washington, D.C., to Baltimore, Maryland. A few years later by 1866, a telegraph line had been laid across the Atlantic Ocean from the U.S. to Europe.

The telegraph is not used as much today. It has fallen out of widespread use and has been replaced by the telephone, fax machine and Internet, it laid the groundwork for the communications revolution that led to those later innovations.

Silent key is a term originated with telegraph operators and continued with early wireless and then amateur radio operators.

While widely used in ham circles, SK has two differing meanings.  Specific to CW work, SK is a Morse code procedural signal (prosign) for indicating a final transmission in a message or QSO.

More generally, SK means silent key, a term of respect for a deceased ham.  

Know Any Additions?

This list has been assembled by our club over the years of operation. If you know of a LRRA related Silent Key, please send us this information to contact us to have them added to this tribute.