WB4APR

[David Dobbins]

Sad to pass this along:

Robert Bruninga, WB4APR, creator of APRS, has passed away. 73 and RIP

[K7FZO]

Wow, Dave that is sad news.

We lose yet another pioneer and leader in our hobby.

I first met Bob in person in Seattle at a DCC conference in 1996. He and I kept in contact via email for the next 24 years.

I would each year invite him to attend the NWAPRS Summer Gathering knowing full well he had obligations at the Naval Academy, but it became a ritual joke between us.

Bob was a pioneer and an inspiration to those wanting to experiment and learn new things.

He and I had a lot of fun testing new ideas of double hop APRS packets between earth to satellite to ISS back to earth.

I believe to this date we still hold the record for the longest double hop APRS packet. From the West Coast out over the Pacific Ocean to the ISS rising in the west through space to to AO-44(?) that was setting in the east out over the Atlantic back to Annapolis Maryland.  Something like a 9000+ mile path in total.  He would call me often in those days to tell me to turn on my radio that an opportunity to try something new was about to happen. I don’t think I ever missed an opportunity to at least try.

Being the experimenter he always had something in the works. He called me once to tell me he had just taken a wrecked Prius and converted it to a plug in charge system using solar panels on the roof and at home charged it via solar panels down by the water. As far as he knew he was the first to do this and soon he would have a tow behind solar panel to be completely off the grid and free from the coal burning power plant he could see from his home.

Over the years I would meet graduates of the Naval Academy that would mention being in classes where Bob either taught or ran the lab for the satellite program. They would always mention Bob’s push for trying something new or repurposing an old technology to fit into a new idea.

Several people here in the Northwest had the opportunity to meet Bob at different conferences and get to know him. It would be fun to hear other stories about this pioneer. I know some ran into the bristly side of his character occasionally but that was Bob, and he never apologized for what others thought of him.

Bob would often tell me, “make it happen, even if it takes 99 tries”.

I guess this is something we can all take away from those that push the edge to see what’s possible.

One last 73 to you Bob…….. it’s great to know there are satellites in space today with your fingerprints on them.

Thom / K7FZO

On Tue, Feb 8, 2022 at 7:56 PM David Dobbins <ddob...@gmail.com> wrote:

Sad to pass this along:

Robert Bruninga, WB4APR, creator of APRS, has passed away. 73 and RIP

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73 de K7FZO / Thom

[Mark Huffstutter]

Aw, Heck….. Sad indeed, another Great One has passed.

He leaves quite a legacy, and a terrific system that We all

Have, and will, enjoy for many years.

 

73 and RIP, Mr. Bruninga

 

Mark  K7ZGT

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[Ann Reeves]

Bob was born in April 1948. So 73 years old. 

wa7...@gmail.com

Sent from my iPhone

On Feb 8, 2022, at 7:56 PM, David Dobbins <ddob...@gmail.com> wrote:



Sad to pass this along:

Robert Bruninga, WB4APR, creator of APRS, has passed away. 73 and RIP

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[David Dobbins]

Thanks Thom for sharing your story of Bruninga. He was a pioneer, indeed. My turn to share a story:

I first became aware of Bob WB4APR thru APRS, of course, while stationed at Goodfellow AFB, San Angelo, TX from 1991-94. I had recently attained my first ham radio license and read about APRS. That looks like fun! I used to download revisions to the APRS-dos program over a phone BBS system he maintained, about weekly downloads of 45 minutes or more. The monthly phone bill did catch the wife's attention. Somewhere along the line I asked Bob to create a tornado icon so we could input location and tracking info into APRS for Skywarn. He had the new icon distributed in the next version a week later. I think it was Navy business that took me to DC about 1992-93 and I had an extra day so travelled up to Maryland and the Naval Academy to me Bob and coincidentally Mac-APRS developer Keith Sproul WU2Z. We three sat in one of the Academy computer labs, Bob was creating new content for APRS-dos and two computers down Keith was working the same magic on a Mac. I sat between them, hoping to soak in some electrons that were being passed back and forth. Most of the talk was (way) over my head. All I could say was to make sure I got a copy of the completed and updated Mac and dos APRS programs before I had to leave and head back to Texas. I did, and went on to sharing and talking up APRS to ham radio groups in Texas, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Hawaii. I'm not sure how many disks I handed out with the latest copy of the APRS software Bob developed. APRS was gangbusters in the 1990s. What a ride. I kept in touch with Bob over the years; ran into him here and there, and caught on to his discussion of solar power and the Prius electric vehicles. If Bob's first pioneering opportunity was APRS, then solar power was his second challenge he made great strides into. Anybody around him could feel the energy he created. I managed to catch up with Bob at Hamvention in Dayton one year, and saw him at other ham radio gatherings all over the country. A couple years ago, on a phone call, he shared with me his cancer diagnosis. He didn't make a "big deal" over it, pretty much kept it to himself, and considered it a pain in his work he had yet to accomplish. Great guy. My hat is off to my friend and fellow ham, Robert Bruninga, WB4APR, and to his family and friends. Dave K7GPS   

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/nwaprs/CABgNHE525B8FTmv1-tJSMCPRYjftg6fAHn6FiuLADhuM_226-Q%40mail.gmail.com.