http://dokufunk.org/amateur_radio/personalities/

Legends of Amateur Radio - Biographies, Expeditions, Picture Galleries

03.10.11

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 "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.

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 Rasdio Club -

ext. Link

: P.T. Namgyal, former King of Sikkim

: Talal Al Saud, Prince of Saudi Arabia

: Hussein I, former King of Jordan

: Carlos Menem, former President of Argentine

: Juan Carlos, King of Spain

: Rajiv Ghandi, former Prime Minister of India

: Country Music singer

: Owen Gariott, Astronaut

: Ernest T. Krenkel, Polar explorer

: Paul Tibbets, Hiroshima Bomb Pilot

: U.S. Senator Barry Goldwater, K7UGA, here with a guest licence from Taiwan

: Juri Gagarin, in spite of being repeatedly listed, never held a ham license.

: He only worked some ham stations using his Space Mission call KEDR (Credit: U5ARTEK)

: Francesco Cossiga, former Italian State President

: Cossiga Award

: Ivica Dačić, YU1YU, Serbian Prime Minister

: Mongolia's lastKhan(King) Bogd Javzandamba Hutagt's radio operator 1917 (Credit: JT1CO)

: Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan

<-- 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.