Cray Valley members are mourning the death of Chris Whitmarsh G0FDZ on 14 October 2025. He was an inspiration to generations of members and was always generous with his help and encouragement.

Chris joined as a teenager in 1968, and served twice as Chairman in the 1980s. He diligently maintained the club’s archives for many years, and served on Committee as Vice President.

He took the lead in developing the club’s Foundation training course and he presented many of the modules. Intermediate and Full licence courses followed a couple of years later. It is a testament to his leadership and attention to detail, that Cray Valley RS remains one of the few clubs offering in-person training at all three levels to this day.

Chris’s primary interest was microwave operating, and his unparalleled construction skills were essential in homebrewing microwave equipment, especially for the higher bands. Together with Roger G8CUB he set many microwave distance records and at the time of his death they held the UK distance records on both 241GHz and 288GHz.

He had the unique distinction of having made two-way QSOs on every single band that is licensed for amateur operation in the UK, from 73kHz (no longer available in the UK) right up to what the microwavers call ‘top band’ – 241GHz. In 2024 in recognition of this feat he was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award by the President of RSGB.

More than twenty years ago, Chris took over as beacon keeper for the GB3VHF and GB3UHF beacons. He rebuilt both to modern standards and oversaw their movement in 2010 from Wrotham to Fairseat, where they continue 24-hour operation to this day. A year ago Chris handed over keeper’s duties to Ian, G0AFH.

Chris was central to the ground-breaking M2000A special event station for the millennium, and followed with GB50 and GB200T. in 2012 when the Olympics came to London he was central to setting up the 2O12L special event station.

Tributes to Chris have been pouring in, many club members giving testimony to the assistance and help he was always prepared to give.