Amateur Radio satellite pioneer Pat Gowen, G3IOR, of Norwich, England, died on August 17 after a lengthy illness. He was 85.

Gowen was a co-founder of AMSAT-UK and a member of its Board of Directors in 1974. He wrote the satellite column for Practical Wireless for many years and was a frequent contributor to The AMSAT Journal and OSCAR News.

Gowen was the first radio amateur to work DXCC via low-Earth-orbit (LEO) satellites, although his award is #4, since he had to wait for QSLs to arrive. Fluent in Russian, he enjoyed conversing with the cosmonauts aboard the now-defunct Russian Mir space station and the ISS. Gowen was the first to discover the resurrection of the long-dormant AO-7.

He also was a prominent HF operator and DXer and a member of the First-Class CW Operators Club.

“Pat was passionate about Amateur Radio, amateur satellites, and the environment; he contributed much over his long life to each of these and will be sadly missed,” said AMSAT-UK Chair Martin Sweeting, G3YJO. A biochemist, Gowen was retired from the University of East Anglia.

“No mention of Pat would be complete without noting his decades of work in cleaning up the beaches and waters of his beloved Norfolk,” Ray Soifer, W2RS, commented. — Thanks to AMSAT News Service