Clifford C. Buttschardt K7RR Silent Key

Cliff Buttschardt, K7RR (formerly W6HDO) became a silent key July 30, 2006 at 9:47 PM PDT.

He was a lifetime member of both AMSAT and the ARRL, and an original member of Project OSCAR. He died quietly in his
home in Morro Bay after battling inoperable cancer of the esophagus for many months.

Cliff was born in 1931 in Brooklyn, NY and later lived in Garden City on Long Island. Cliff finished school in San Jose and went on to graduate from San Jose State with a degree in electrical engineering. After graduation Cliff joined the Navy where he worked as a radioman. He later worked at Raytheon in Santa Barbara and SRI International in Palo Alto.

While at SRI he became a member of the original Project OSCAR Radio club & supported the construction of OSCAR-I.

Over his lifetime Cliff supported many of the amateur satellites that were launched from Vandenberg AFB. In 2001 Cliff while teaching at Cuesta College in San Luis Obisop, Cliff, along with Ed English W6WYQ, began work on the
CubeSat project. Cliff then moved over to California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly) where he and Ed continued to mentor students who were just starting up the initial CubeSat designs.

In March of 2006 the Project OSCAR Board of Directors voted unanimously to award Cliff its highest honor, the Lifetime Achievement Award, for his contributions to amateur satellites, amateur radio and the CubeSat program. The award was presented during the CubeSat Launch Party at Cal
Poly on 26 July 2006, and to Cliff personally at his home on the same day.

Cliff is survived by his wife Mabs, who was with Cliff when he passed on. It is requested that in lieu of flowers, a contribution to AMSAT be made in Cliff's name.

Note - a more complete story and photos will be available in the upcoming edition of the AMSAT Journal.

Thanks Emily, N1DID,
for the above information

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