Steve Uhrig, in memoriam

A few weeks ago, I learned about the passing of a good friend, Steve Uhrig. A few years ago, I was involved in projects relating to IT security, surveillance, tracking and communications, and in this line of work I met Steve. When I joined a TSCM mailing list, actually, the TSCM mailing list, one of the members that caught my attention was him – always outspoken, honest and technically sound. He would not take crap from anybody, and provided lengthy explanations or rebuttals in his posts. He was always there to lend a hand.
Steve ran SWS Security, and specialized in everything related to surveillance and communications, working with many government agencies over the years, and even becoming the technical advisor in the movie ‘Enemy of the State‘, where he also got a small part as the guy selling electronics in a shop. You can read more about him and his activities in his own website, still maintained by his friend M.L. Shannon. He was also involved in the amateur radio community, his callsign WA3SWS now silent, also actively participating in emergency communications support.
Whenever I got stuck in a particular subject, Steve would always gladly help, spending hours answering to emails about technical subjects in great depth, be it grounding systems for lightning protection to high-performance surveillance camera systems. I will miss him a lot, and only wish I could have had more time to get to know him better. This time of the year is when one tends to remember parted friends and family, so this is my little tribute to his memory.