SB SPCL @ ARL $ARLX008   
   ARLX008 Former "The World Above 50 MHz" Conductor Gene Zimmerman,   
   W3ZZ (SK)   
      
   ZCZC AX08   
   QST de W1AW     
   Special Bulletin 8  ARLX008   
   From ARRL Headquarters     
   Newington CT  June 5, 2012   
   To all radio amateurs    
      
   SB SPCL ARL ARLX008   
   ARLX008 Former "The World Above 50 MHz" Conductor Gene Zimmerman,   
   W3ZZ (SK)   
      
   Gene Zimmerman, W3ZZ, of Gaithersburg, Maryland, passed away on   
   Sunday, June 3. He was 71. Zimmerman wrote the popular QST column   
   "The World Above 50 MHz" from 2002-2011. He also served on the ARRL   
   Contest Advisory Committee, edited the VHF contesting column for CQ   
   Contest magazine during its five-year lifespan and was director of   
   the CQ VHF Contest from 2000-2002. An ARRL Life Member, Zimmerman   
   earned VUCC on six bands: 50, 144, 222, 432, 903 and 1296 MHz, as   
   well as DXCC, Worked All States and Worked All Continents on 6   
   meters. He was an early proponent of -- and participant in --   
   aggressive contest log checking.   
      
   First licensed in 1956 -- and an Amateur Extra since 1963 --   
   Zimmerman has logged several national Top-10 finishes in the ARRL   
   November Sweepstakes (both modes), as well as a second-place North   
   American finish in the CQ World Wide CW Contest (from VP2MDD). He   
   also placed in the Top 10 several times in the ARRL VHF QSO Parties   
   and in the ARRL VHF Sweepstakes.   
      
   Zimmerman earned a PhD in Microbiology from the University of   
   Maryland in 1968. He began his professional career at the National   
   Institutes of Health (NIH), where he spent a year as a technician in   
   an NIH laboratory, studying respiratory viruses. This experience   
   sparked an interest in virology and conquering the common cold.   
   After this, he conducted early research at NIH, studying the   
   relationship between retroviruses and cancer, the use of the simian   
   model for studying leukemia and the use of interferon as an immune   
   system modulator. In 1976, he joined the NIH Grants Associate   
   Program, which groomed promising scientists for careers in managing   
   NIH research programs. Zimmerman was then recruited to be the   
   Scientific Review Administrator of the Allergy and Immunology Study   
   Section of the Immunological Sciences Integrated Review Group, where   
   he evaluated research proposals to provide funds for research in   
   immunology.   
      
   "Gene brought the same intensity and depth of knowledge of his   
   career at the NIH to understanding propagation," said Ward Silver,   
   N0AX. "His tenure as the conductor of QST's 'The World Above 50 MHz'   
   usually resulted in a sharp recounting and analysis of the month's   
   unusual on-the-air events. I learned something from every single   
   column. But what most will remember about Gene, though, will be his   
   amazing capacity for storytelling and the twinkling of his eyes as   
   he told of the undoing of scoundrels with obvious and undiluted   
   glee. I've had the pleasure of being his roommate at Dayton and WRTC   
   and I don't believe I've ever laughed harder or longer. Gene knew   
   where all the bodies were buried and relished his role as sage and   
   historian."   
      
   Zimmerman was a shortwave listener before becoming a ham. After he   
   got his ticket when he was a freshman at Yale University, Zimmerman   
   became interested in weak signal VHF, due to his friendship with   
   Paul Doane, W1HAD, who at the time was a college student at Brown.   
   "I remained active on the VHF bands until I left Connecticut in   
   1964, but I also developed an interest in HF and VHF contesting," he   
   told the ARRL in June 2011. "When I moved to Washington, DC, I   
   became involved in HF contesting in a serious way, particularly   
   building multi-op contest stations with Tom Peruzzi, W4BVV (SK). I   
   returned to weak signal VHF in 1981 and built a pretty decent VHF   
   station, which I have expanded to 10 GHz."   
      
   Unlike HF where some band is open for long distance communications   
   all the time, Zimmerman said that openings on VHF are few and far   
   between -- and extremely exciting when they happen. "I guess I don't   
   like things that are easy, so I chose to do VHF+, "he explained.   
   "Over the years, I have worked more than 140 DXCC entities on 6   
   meters, 38 states and 9 DXCC terrestrially on 2 meters, 36 states on   
   222 MHz and VUCC on 50-1296 MHz. In contests, I have also been in   
   the Top 10 nationally several times from my home station, and have   
   won the multi-unlimited category four times with K8GP, the Delmarva   
   VHF and Microwave Society. I think once you have built an interest   
   in the VHF+ bands, it never goes away."   
      
   "Gene was a pleasure to work with, witty and insightful," said QST   
   Editor Steve Ford, WB8IMY. "I am sure he will be greatly missed by   
   many."   
      
   "Amateur Radio has had its share of characters but none were more   
   colorful or more widely respected than Dr Gene Zimmerman, W3ZZ -- a   
   man who in one breath could identify the source of the world's   
   greatest hot dogs, explain once-in-a-lifetime propagation and   
   recount the history of contesting and contesters," Silver said. "We   
   will all miss Gene's presence greatly and it is a sad day for us all   
   to learn of his passing."   
      
   Zimmerman was a member of the Delmarva VHF and Microwave Society,   
   K8GP, the Grid Pirates Contest Group, a Past President of the   
   Potomac Valley Radio Club and an honorary member of the Connecticut   
   Wireless Association. Funeral arrangements are pending.   
      
   The Zimmerman family has requested that memorial contributions may   
   be made in Gene's honor to the ARRL Education and Technology Fund.   
   NNNN   
   /EX   
      
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