After a long battle with cancer, our dear friend Zorro JH1AJT passed away. Zorro had been in and out of the hospital lately and his health had deteriorated a lot. Unfortunately, he passed away, he left peacefully, in his sleep, as this great man deserved…
We met Zorro in 2014, when he helped Father Apollo SV2ASP (SK) upgrade his antennas and on this occasion, he visited Mount Athos. He was a great man, kind, smiling and loving. Since then he struggled with his health. He impressed us that the battle he was fighting did not frighten him and he was active both as a person and as a Radio Amateur. Because he had amazing courage to go to the hospital for chemotherapy and leave for a dxpedition the next day!
Zorro was behind a lot of DXpeditions. But there are some countries that would not be activated if it were not for him. Such are definitely Bhutan (A5) and Eritrea (E3). His contacts and friendship with those in charge, were the ones that led to the Amateur Radio activation of these countries. Cambodia (XU) was also near on the list.
Thus we can say that Amateur Radio mourns a True Beacon, a man who by his action, helped to spread amateur radio, the good reputation of radio amateurs and Ham Spirit. He carried out many humanitarian actions, often combined with activations in many places, such as Cambodia, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Eritrea, Bhutan, but also in Japan, his home country.
As a radio amateur, he had won the DXCC #1 Honor Roll award, he was first in the world in the 10m DXCC award(!), and was entered, after the proposal by RAAWG (SZ1A), into the CQ DX Hall of Fame in 2015, he received the YASME excellent award in 2018, and was named Radio Amateur of the Year 2020 at Dayton. But whatever he won, it was a little for what he really was: a truly worthy radio amateur, and a man who sincerely helped other radio amateurs, often silently.
Zorro had helped our organization many times, and assisted in the creation of the SZ1A Contest station. He really wanted to come but was not able to due to the deterioration of his health. Among other things, he had donated his personal radio to our station and we have named the station’s Operating Position Nr.1 (Run 1), in his honor, as the Zorro JH1AJT Station.
Recently, while he was very ill, he wore the SZ1A t-shirt in our honor and was photographed with it in his shack.
Dear friend farewell, we will miss you. We will always have your photo posted next to the station that bears your name, together with your good friend Father Apollo…
