Concept News UK
 Ken at Communicate 88 24 September 1988 BACK to Concept News Ken Fletcher 1944 - 2021 |
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Ken Fletcher was born in the Irish Republic, went to school in York and was once a church organist in Ireland. In 1972, he came to England and worked as a social worker in Wallsall. He also learned sign language and worked in conjunction with Wirral social Services on Merseyside, assisting deaf people when applying for benefits and interpreting during court procedures etc. Ken's main hobby was shortwave DX'ing and has been a member of the British DX Club since the 1970's. He once represented the BDXC at the HFCC Conference in 2007 He also used to ring pirate radio stations with reception reports and used to provide a contact number for Concept Radio in the 1980's. Ken also took part in Concept Radio Christmas specials and did an occasional show on the station. When Wirral Community Radio was on in 1995, Ken used to read local community news on weekdays in the morning and during the Jim Lowe Show. Unfortunately Ken Contracted Covid and died in hospital aged 76 on 18 January 2021. Jim Lowe ________________________________ From BDXC Members
" Very sad news about Ken, I have
fond memories of meeting him on many occasions at DX meetings around
the country and of visiting him in Birkenhead a couple of times to
attend local meetings he set up in Merseyside.
Ken joined
BDXC (or Twickenham DX Club as it was then) in October 1975 and a
letter from him in that same issue of Communication suggested the
club started a Tape Circle on C90 cassettes - which was inaugurated
by Ken in February
1976. Remarkably, it still continues to this day as Audio Circle.
For some time Ken was
also TDXC Social Secretary and the club's EDXC representative, he
often jovially talked about "DX Hermits" and he would encourage
DXers to attend meetings. Another of Ken's
campaigns (which did not go down too well with some hard-core DXers
at the time!) was to encourage the use of the tropical bands by
international broadcasters - these were reserved for domestic
stations in the tropics and at the time were full of local
broadcasts from Africa and Latin America. But the broadcast bands in
the 1970s and 80s were overcrowded and Ken could
see that more spectrum was needed at the time.
Ken continued
to attend meetings and to keep in touch by email until his health
deteriorated a few years ago, but he remained interested in the
hobby and kept up his club membership throughout."
Dave Kenny BDXC _________________________ "I remember meeting him in the early 80s, I think it was at Baden-Powell House for the AGM (?). He was a stickler for meeting etiquette, but also funny in his own way." Klaus Werner BDXC "Yes, Ken was a lovely person. I got to know him along with many of my other DXing friends when I first started going to the Reading DX meetings in the late 70's/early 80's. He was always a cheery person that I think most people got on with and had his own sense of humour. One term I seem to remember that I think it s Ken who invented it was "DX Hermit" where he made a bit of nice fun out of local DXers (local to Reading) who were not to be seen at Reading DX meetings, but it would seem would rather stay marooned back at home in their radio shack. RIP Ken" John Gleeson BDXC |