In Memory of Jim Jones — N7PHX

Passed: September 20, 2010  Age 58

I met Jim during my time at Radio Shack — though I can’t quite recall if he was working at the repair center or one of the stores back then. I do know he was on my payroll for a while at the Kyrene and Warner Radio Shack store in Tempe, Arizona.  Things didn’t work out well for Jim there, so he returned to the repair center around 1994. Incidentally, that Radio Shack store closed shortly after I left in 1995.  Jim finally left the repair center and took his final job at the office supply superstore, Staples.

Jim passed away from cancer on September 20, 2010, following complications from brain surgery. He was just 58 — far too young. He and Richard DeRose had spoken on several occasions, though I wouldn’t call them close friends. Still, they were acquainted, and it’s strange how those circles overlap.

In the ham radio community, Jim is now a “Silent Key.” His vanity call sign, N7PHX, has since been picked up by the Mesa Radio Club in Arizona. If you ever hear that call sign echoing across the ether, send a warm “hello” from Gil — KE9F (formerly KT9OUT and WE5ABQ).

In the photo below, Jim is on the left, pictured with two of his ham radio buddies — a moment frozen in time from a life that touched many.