Howard O. Lorenzen, ham-radio aficionado

Howard O. Lorenzen, a Naval Research Laboratory engineer who helped develop the nation's first portable radar equipment and led the team that in 1960 created the payload of the nation's first spy satellite, wore his success lightly.

Awards for counterintelligence measures, including ship- and space-communications devices, fill part of his Bellevue home, where he moved in 1976.

They include an NRL Captain Dexter Conrad Award for Scientific Achievement, and a Navy Meritorious and Distinguished Civilian Service Award.

But it was the work - and interacting with other electronics buffs - that held his interest.

After his 1973 retirement as superintendent of NRL space systems, he continued his communicating ways with increased "ham radio" activity. He became a leader of Issaquah Amateur Radio Club, using his call number of W7B1 in the group's emergency practice mobilizations.

"It was important what he did at NRL," said his daughter, Susan Black of Redmond. "But he loved ham radio. He was really into that. . . . He got his first call in 1927. He had collected (call) cards from all states and all countries as verified by the Amateur Radio League."

Mr. Lorenzen, recently of Redmond's Emerald Heights Retirement Community, died Wednesday (Feb. 23) of pneumonia. He was 87.

Born in Atlantic, Iowa, he earned an electrical-engineering degree at then-Iowa State College.

At Colonial Radio and Zenith Radio, he built Zenith's first transoceanic portable shortwave radio.

Before World War II he joined the NRL in Washington, D.C., and refined the Navy's first radar equipment. He helped design systems that countered German radio-guided bombs during World War II.

After the war he led his group in developing electronic countermeasures to disable enemy radio- and radar-controlled weapons in space and on the ground. In 1950 he became head of the NRL Countermeasures Branch. His systems were used during wars in Korea and Vietnam.

His most notable achievement was helping engineer the Galactic Radiation and Background payload - or GRAB - for the first operational reconnaissance satellite.

"In June 1960, 52 days after the U.S.' U-2 spy aircraft was shot down over the Soviet Union, he and his team developed the satellite that could transmit space-intercepted ground data back to the U.S.," Black said. "It helped prevent future such incidents."

Mr. Lorenzen served as superintendent of the NRL space systems from 1971 to 1973.

In 1998, on the 75th anniversary of the NRL, he accepted the Conrad Award, the group's highest honor. Mr. Lorenzen also had been named to Fellow Grade by the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers.

Also surviving are his wife, Etta Mae of Redmond, two grandsons and three great-grandchildren.

Services have been held.

Carole Beers' e-mail address is cbeers@seattletimes.com