SB SPCL @ ARL $ARLX007   
   ARLX007 Amateur Radio Newsline Co-Founder, Editor Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF (SK)   
      
   ZCZC AX07   
   QST de W1AW   
   Special Bulletin 7  ARLX007   
   > From ARRL Headquarters   
   Newington CT  June 12, 2015   
   To all radio amateurs   
      
   SB SPCL ARL ARLX007   
   ARLX007 Amateur Radio Newsline Co-Founder, Editor Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF (SK)   
      
   A well-known voice in the Amateur Radio news media has gone silent. Bill   
   Pasternak, WA6ITF, of Santa Clarita, California, died June 11 following a   
   period of ill health. He was 73. Pasternak was co-founder (with Jim   
   Hendershot, WA6VQP) of Amateur Radio Newsline(tm) (formerly The Westlink   
   Report) ham radio news webcast and a frequent presence at Amateur Radio   
   conventions. Pasternak served as Newsline's managing editor and occasional   
   newscaster for the program. Even while hospitalized earlier this year, he kept   
   his ear to the ground for news from the Amateur Radio community, so he could   
   pass it along to those who had taken over Newsline during his illness -   
   discovered after he broke two ribs in a fall. ARRL Rocky Mountain Division   
   Director Brian Mileshosky, N5ZGT, got acquainted with Pasternak at the   
   Albuquerque hamfest and in 1997 was named Newsline's "Young Ham of the Year"   
   (YHOTY).   
      
   "An incredible man, ham, and one of Amateur Radio's too-few giants, who woke   
   up every day to make the hobby better for everyone, especially its legacy -   
   youth," Mileshosky said. "I've enjoyed the   
   energy he put into keeping hams informed via Newsline, and have been honored   
   to give back to his Newsline Young Ham of the Year Award program, since being   
   asked by him to sit on its judging panel well over a decade ago."   
      
   ARRL Public Relations Committee Chair Katie Allen, WY7YL, said Pasternak would   
   be missed by those within and outside the Amateur Radio community. "He truly   
   was one of the good ones," she remarked   
   on Pasternak's Facebook page. "Thank you for sharing your light with us, Bill."   
      
   A Brooklyn, New York, native, Pasternak became a radio amateur in 1959 as   
   WA2HVK and once was very active on 6 meters. "I love the hands-on approach to   
   ham radio and built my very first transmitter using parts salvaged from an old   
   Dumont television set," Pasternak recounted in an online biography. "It was a   
   modification of a design by Bill Orr, W6SAI, published in his famous Novice   
   and Technician Handbook. A crystal-controlled, low-power 6 meter AM   
   transmitter that doubled in the final, was screen grid modulated, and put out   
   almost no output power."   
      
   He eventually got into broadcasting and made his career in television   
   engineering and production. He retired as a broadcast engineer with KTTV in   
   Los Angeles in 2012 but continued as a broadcasting consultant.   
      
   Pasternak was the spark plug behind the all-volunteer Amateur Radio Newsline   
   bulletin - which was relayed on repeaters around the US and elsewhere - as   
   well as the creator and administrator of the annual YHOTY. He was the author   
   of three books and served as a writer/producer on several educational films   
   and videos, including the award-winning "Amateur Radio Today." In earlier   
   years, he wrote the "Looking West" column for 73 Amateur Radio Today Magazine   
   for 26 years and penned a "VHF, FM and Repeater" column for WorldRadio. He   
   also contributed to broadcast trade publications as well as to CQ.   
      
   In addition to the ARRL, Pasternak belonged to the Radio Club of America and   
   the Quarter Century Wireless Association. He also enjoyed flying, including   
   stints getting on the air from thousands of feet up.   
      
   He was the only person ever chosen to receive the Dayton Hamvention Special   
   Achievement Award (1981) and Radio Amateur of the Year Award (1989). In 1995,   
   the League presented him with an ARRL National Certificate of Merit in   
   recognition of his contributions to the "furtherance of the goals of the   
   Amateur Radio Service."   
      
   Survivors include his wife of 43 years, Sharon, KD6EPW.   
      
   NNNN   
   /EX   
      
   )\/(ark   
      
   ... A church steeple with a lightning rod on top shows a lack of confidence.   
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    * Origin:  (1:3634/12.73)