Legends of Amateur Radio - Biographies, Expeditions, Picture Galleries

Who is a "prominent" radio operator? A king, a state president, prime minister, or sultan? A pop-singer, Nobel-prize-winner, or jazz musician? A polar explorer or a DXpeditioner? And who decides what "prominence" means? We present, on this pages, a random number of personalities - of fame or shame. Judge yourself.

A gallery of legendary operators
compiled by Mike Manafo, K3UOC & WH2D, of the Marianas ARC, is to be found at ext. Link

The "Original Famous Hams and ex-Hams List"
one of the most comprehensive of its kind, was compiled by N2GJ & W2SG ext. Link

Inventors with ham background
Presented by the Highfields Amateur Radio Club - ext. Link

The "Hall of Fame"
ext. Link a semi-official virtual pantheon of amateur radio, initiated by CW Magazine, assembles the most outstanding personalites of their era - or those who once were considered to be the big guns of their time. Some of them are really unforgotten, the glory of others faded, and a few real pioniers never made it to that list - but such things happen whenever a jury has to decide.

Gus Browning #1 Hall of Fame - CQ MAgazine 11/1967 [PDF , 3.85 MB]

01a - A62ER/ZM3 - Scheich Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahayan (1938-2004) Founder and first President, from December 1971, of the United Arab Emirates (Memorial Station)
01b - AC3PT - Palden Thondup Namgyal (23.05.1923 – 29.01.1982) 12. und letzter Chogyal (König) von Sikkim. ext. Link
02a,b - HZ1TA, HZ1UN - Talal Bin Abdulaziz, Prinz von Saudi-Arabien †2018-12-22
03 - HZ1SH - Faisal Bin Mishal Al Saud, Prinz von Saudi-Arabien
04 - HZ1TC - Waleed Bin Talal Bin Abdel Aziz, Prinz von Saudi-Arabien
05, 06 - EA0JC - Juan Carlos I. (*05.01.1938), seit 22.11.1975 König von Spanien ext. Link.
07 - JY1 - Hussein I. bin Talal (14.11.1935 - 07.02.1999), 1952 bis 1999 König von Jordanien ext. Link
08 - JY2 - Prinzessin/HRH Muna al-Hussein von Jordanien (geb. Antoinette Avril Gardiner) (* 25.041941) Zweite Frau von Hussein I. (Scheidung am 21.12.1971) ext. Link
09a b, 10 - VU2RG - Rajiv Gandhi (20. August 1944 - 21. Mai 1991), 1984 bis 1989 Premierminister Indiens (7 = VU2RG Club, 8 = VU2RG QSL) ext. Link
11 - 9M2TR -"Tunku" Abdul Rahman (d.i. Abdul Rahman Putra Al-Haj ibni Almarhum Sultan Abdul Hamid Halim Shah) 08.02.1903 - 06.12.1990), 1955 Ministerpräsident der Malaiischen Föderation , ab 1957 Malaysias erster Premierminister. ext. Link
12 - SU1AM - Muhammad Abdel Moneim Beyefendi (20.02.1899 - 01.12.1979), Kronprinz von Ägypten, 1952/53 Regent. ext. Link
13 - OE5AH (OE1AH, OE3AH) - Anton Habsburg-Lothringen (d.i. Anton Maria Franz Leopold Blanka Karl Joseph Ignatius Raphael Michael Margareta Nicetas) (20.03.1901 - 22.10.1987), Erzherzog von Österreich ext. Link
14, 15 - LU1SM - Carlos Saúl Menem Akil (02.07.1930-14.02.2021), 1955-1999 President of Argentinie, 2005-2019 Senatorhttp://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlos_Menem
16 - I0FCG - Francesco Maurizio Cossiga (26.07.1928 - 17.08.2010), Ministerpräsident und Staatspräsident Italiens ext. Link
17, 18 - Cossiga Memorial Award

19 - Juri Alexejewitsch Gagarin (09.03.1934 - 27.03.1968), ext. Link sowjetischer Kosmonaut, erster Mensch im Weltraum, war nicht Funkamateur...
20 - ...aber hier mit seinem MIR-Rufzeichen KEDR 1966 an der Jugendlager-Klubstation U5ARTEK
21 - HS1A - Ehrenrufzeichen von Bhumibol Adulyadej der Große, (Rama IX.) (*05.12.1927), seit 1946 König von Thailand; Schirmherr des Amateurfunkverbands ext. Link
22-24 - K7UGH, K3UIG, Gastlizenz BV0 - Barry Morris Goldwater (02.01.1909 - 29.05.1998), 1953-1965 US-Senator für Arizona, 1964 Präsidentschaftskandidat der Republikanischen Partei gegen Amtsinhaber Lyndon B. Johnson. ext. Link
25 - YU1YU - Ivica Dačić (*01.01.1966), 2006 Parteivorsitzender der Sozialistischen Partei Serbiens, 2008 Innenminister, 2012 Ministerpräsident ext. Link
26 - WA4CZD - Chet Atkins (d.i. Chester Burton Atkins) (20.06.1924 - 30.06.2001), US-amerikanischer Country-Musiker ("Mister Guitar"), Mitbegründer des Nashville Sound ext. Link
27 - KD4WUJ - Patty Loveless (d.i. Patricia Lee Ramey) (*04.01.1957), US-amerikanische Country-Sängerin, zählte in den 1990er Jahren zu den erfolgreichsten Country-Interpreten in den USA ext. Link
28 - WP2MAP - Rebecca Ann King (*1950), Miss America 1974
29 - K4ZVZ - Paul Warfield Tibbets, Jr. (23.02.1915 - 01.11.2007), US-amerikanischer Pilot der Luftstreitkräfte. Leitete am 6. August 1945 den Abwurf der ersten Atombombe über Hiroshima. ext. Link
30 - K5LFL - Owen Kay Garriott (*22.11.1930) US-amerikanischer Astronaut, 1973 Space Shuttle Columbia, STS-9; 1983 Skylab 3 ext. Link
31 - RAEM - Ernest Theodorowitsch Kernkel (11.12.1903 - 08.12.1971), sowjetischer Polarforscher
32 - VK2KB - Sir Allen Fairhall, FRSA (24.11.1909 - 03.11.2006), australischer Rundfunkpionier und Politiker. ext. Link
33 - M0SDX, UT5UDX - Sergej Rebrow (*03.06.1974), ukrainischer Fußballspieler (Dynamo Kiew, Tottenham Hotspur...) ext. Link
34 - WN6I - William E. Moerner (*24.01.1953), 2014 Nobel Prize Winner, Chemistry ext. Link
35 - YD2JKW - Joko Widodo, President of the Republic Indonesia (Foto). YC8HYK - Josef Kalla, Vice President of the Republic Indonesien (QSL missing)
36,37 - FR8VX - Emperor Duy Tân i.e. born Nguyễn Phúc Vĩnh San of Vietnam, exiled to Réunion ext. Link
38, 39 - E22AAA - Ham News Clubstation for Ham Thai
40, 41 - PY0AEB - Marcos Cesar Pontes, 2006 First Brasilian cosmonaut on ISS, Minister for Science and Technology (from January, 2019)
42 - ET3XY - Club call. Prince Sahle Selassie ( 1932-1962) was a son of the famous Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia.Sahle is mentioned in a biography of his father as an active radio amateur who was ableto communicate and relay information during an attempted coup in 1960. ET3XY was calling for messages to be sent to the embassies in the Netherlands and Tel Aviv
43-46 - 7X2VX - ex AL2VX, K1PYE, FA2VX, K1PYE/XV5, HL9AA, W3AAC(?) - William James Porter, *1914-09-01 †1988-03-15 - First US Ambassador to Algeria, served in various countries, 1963 Head of the delegation to sign the Vietnam peace accord in Paris. 43-45 ÷AQ, 46 ©US State Dep. ext. Link and ext. Link
47 -Franklin Eugene Milton (*1907-08-19, †1985-10-16 ), long-time sound engineer for Metro Goldwyn Mayer Studios, won a number of Academy Awards, 3 Oscars, including one for the 1959 version of Ben Hur Card from 1957 ÷AQ ext. Link

02 HZ1TA, HZ1UNN (HRH Prince) Talal bin Abdulaziz Al Saud
passed away December 22, 2018. Prince Talal was the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) rep at the GCC, Gulf Cooperation Council, and was President of the Arab Gulf Program for the United Nations Development Organization, AGFUND. Many years ago, he was Saudi Arabia's Communications Minister. He was 87 years old. Talal, as he was called in the Washington, D.C. area, owned a 2,100-acrew property in Northern Virginia for a few years, the estate previously owned by American radio and TV personality Arthur Godfrey, who was also a ham. Both Talal and Godfrey were well-known celebrities in the area. Godfrey had a TH6 tribander. The Prince added a Telrex Big Bertha with stacked monobanders, with local advice ä from W4QAW, who lived nearby and had a multi-tower (AB-105) station with Telrex monobanders. Godfrey had had an indoor ice-skating rink in a log building. Talal converted it to an elephant barn, stocking the estate with exotic animals, turning it into a "game farm." From the Washington Post newspaper: "In 1979, Godfrey sold Beacon Hill to Saudi Prince Talal bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud. The prince, who rarely visited the estate, spent $10 million to renovate the mansion, which has 11 bedrooms, 11 bathrooms, 13 fireplaces and three kitchens. He later built a villa nearby with an indoor swimming pool and racquetball court, two elevators, four kitchens, a soccer field and a heliport. He sold the estate in 1986 for $16 million to Beacon Hill Limited Partnership, the group whose development plans drew opposition from neighbors. The partnership, which included former Secretary of State Alexander M. Haig Jr. and Porten Sullivan, a major Washington area home builder, unsuccessfully tried to sell the villa and mansion for $10 million to finance the construction of the other homes. The deed to the land, held by a failed Vienna savings and loan institution, eventually wound up with the Resolution Trust corporation, which auctioned off the land last June." (1995). (The Daily DX, 2018-12-28)
11 - Jack Moseley, G2CIW *1923-11-11, †2018-11-05. Jack began his working life at the age of 14 in his father’s bike shop. His interest in radio began after reading Practical Wireless and he went on to build a receiver that started him on the road to amateur radio. He first began to copy DX commercial broadcast stations but it was the amateur signals that really excited his interest. He soon met local amateurs, taught himself Morse code and went on to build all his own equipment. In early 1939 he obtained his amateur licence, 2CIW. His shack was in the garden shed. His amateur activities were cut short in September, 1939 on the outbreak of WWII, when his transmitter was confiscated – but his skill with Morse code, which included the teaching of Air Cadets, had been noted. He was approached by the authorities with a view to his joining the Radio Security Service (RSS) and becoming a Voluntary Interceptor (VI). He readily accepted the job and, after signing the Official Secrets Act would, when not working in the bike shop or on ARP duty, sit in his shack listening for German signals. Those evening and night time activities attracted the attention of neighbours who reported Jack to the local police. This was a common problem amongst the VIs, fortunately the police were aware that VIs were not enemy spies. It soon became clear to the authorities that it was necessary to have full time RSS stations to copy the enemy signals and in 1941/42 Hanslope Park in Buckinghamshire became the first such station. Jack joined Hanslope Park in February 1942. In 1943 Jack was sent to Gibraltar, a highly secure military base, where, toward the end of the war, he and a friend operated on the bands using the call EA7AB. ... In the 1950s Jack worked in Tangier. ... For his last few years he lived in an apartment where his radio activity was severely limited – but he still managed to put a signal on the bands using a stealth antenna. His last entry in his log was 17th June 2018. Jack was appointed to the rank of Chevalier in the Ordre national de la Légion d’honneur (the highest French order of merit for military and civil merits) by decree of 18 June 2018, recognising his “engagement and steadfast involvement in SIGINT activities during the Second World War … responsible for saving countless Allied lives and played a key role in the Liberation of France … we must never forget the heroes like you … we owe our freedom and security to your dedication” .
Tribute by Peter Windle, G8VG

◄ Gus Browning, W4BPD

The "gentleman" in the small group of early DXpeditioniers. Well, not even he was always working from where he pretended to be. But this does not lessen his importance - at his time such a fake was considered a trifling offence

◄ Don Miller, W9WNV

(Picture: with Gus Browning) A controversial hero of amateur radio: One of the first expeditionoers, an unparalleled CW operator - but when it turned out that he had fouled some of his operations his reputation came to a sudden end. His private life, too, led him into behind bars. We review the ups and downs of Don's life - also in his own words: with an exlusive interview for our Archives.

◄ King Hussein of Jordan, JY1

To be translated

Not the only royal radio amateur, not the only velebrated politician in the ranksa of prominent hams - but probably the most popular and, witout doubt, most active one.

◄ Ernst Krenkel, RAEM

To be translated

Der Arktis war er verfallen, auf einer treibenden Eisscholle funkte er nach einem Schiffbruch Hilfe herbei - so erwarb er sich das ungewöhnliche Rufzeichen -, Held und Verfemter der Sowjetunion in der Stalin-Ära... ein außergewöhnliches Leben.

◄ Martti Laine, OH2BH

To be translated

"Where do we go next?" - seine legendäre kryptische Frage. Keiner hat das Wesen von Funkexpeditionen in den letzten dreißig Jahren so verändert wie er. Ein Dutzend neuer DXCC-Gebiete hat er "on the air" gebracht, mit unvergleichlicher Perfektion und nicht überbietbarem Selbstbewusstsein. ext. Link

◄ Romeo Stepanenko, 3W3RR

Rise and fall of a Russian/Ukranian radio amateur who succedded to activate the most elusive and exclusive DXCC-entities - well, almost. The frauds were discovered and Romeo's career ended in disgrace - and with a personal desaster.

◄ Stuart Meyer, W2GHK

"Mr. DXpedition of the Month". For almost twenty years, "Stu", an employee of Hammarlund, promoted radio expeditions to semi-rare and rare DXCC-entities.

◄ Louis Varney, G5RV

Inventor of the famous G5RV antenna, outstanding personality in British Amatuer history - and a world traveller: take a look at his QSL gallery