Past Lockheed Amateur Radio Club President and W6LS Trustee Bill Welsh, W6DDB, became a Silent Key on November 9 in Lancaster, California.

Bill was a tech writer for Lockheed before retiring in the 1990's. Bill also wrote the CQ's Novice columnist from 1977 to 1997. In addition, Bill also wrote for QST, 73 and Ham Radio magazines. Bill became a club member in the 1950's.

Bill was a commercial radio operator since 1944 and an amateur since 1949. Born in Boston in 1927, Bill was a veteran of the Merchant Marine in World War II. He ran amateur radio licensing courses for 50 years. 40 of those were from the W6LS club in Burbank, CA. Bill was a member of A-1 Opera-tors Club, ARRL, FISTS, OOTC, QCWA, RNARS, and SKCC.

Bill produced volumes of training materials including amateur radio training tapes for blind students, which were available through the Library of Congress. He taught thousands of people how to become amateur operators. Bill continued to encourage new hams through his on-air activity in the Novice bands. He sent a QSL card for every contact he made and he created the Ten American Districts (TAD) Award, which was named after his dog.

Bill name was synonymous with the W6LS club/call which are well noted legacy's in the amateur radio community