Charles Arthur Tade

Charles was born on December 29, 1944 and passed away on Sunday, February 20, 2011. Charles was a resident of Marysville, California. Charles Arthur Tade aka Charlie or Chuck, First to his family, my condolences ! I would like to share a few memories, Charlie knew how to be a loyal friend. We met back in 1987 when my family moved into the sunset district of San Francisco, we both had studied to achieve our Amateur Radio license, Charlies Radio call sign was ( KC6GGK the Golden Gate Kid ). During the Earthquake in 1989, we were the first two stations up on the air from the City with the help of generators, moving traffic for the American Red Cross as well as personal inquiries from people world wide linking them into their Loved ones, if there was no answer via phone patch, we had a network of people who would go personally to the address and follow through and report back to the stations in waiting for reply, many days with little to no sleep. Charlie was an avid friend to the Maritime Net on 14.300 MHZ ( 20 Meter Band ) assisting radio operators with land line communications in the the USA and Canada or answering and alerting the United States Coast Guard to distress MAYDAY calls from ships in deep sea trouble. Two more stories I would like to share, Charlie had made a lot of friends on the ocean. besides a skipper on his own sailboat, a airplane mechanic, he was certified, licensed and flew a twin engine Beech Craft, a Mechanical Genius Machinist with a shop and Lathe within reach, when it came time to roll up his sleeves and get the job done, he was an Ace! He experimented with a patten to prove the validity of the water fuel cell and was in contact with other people who were proving the same to be correct, Charlie built his own Ham Radio gear and Two point Five Kilowatt Amplifiers and Antennas. As I started to say Charlie had a lot of friends on the ocean, One was a research vessel drilling in the deep seas for thermal energy, fossil fuels and would assist the crew anytime they needed to call their families, somewhere on the floor of one of the worlds oceans is a cap covering a drilling with a painted call sign ( KC6GGK ) and the last story I would like for every to know the big heart this man had, Early Morning on one Christmas Eve, I believe it was ( The Aircraft Carrier USS Independence ) had connected up with the Ships Radio Operator, Charlie was up for Three days straight, going down in frequency with the night and up in frequency with the day till everyone one of the crew was able to call home and wish there families a Merry Christmas and when that phone bill came, he smiled and chuckled, one day he asked me to stop by, he wanted to show me something, The Crew of The USS Independence held up a huge banner on the flight deck with just about everyone surrounding it in a salute, the picture looked like it was taken from a helicopter, it read ( KC6GGK Thank You Charlie) --- I salute Charlie as well, Thanks for being a Pal !! RIP 73's