Bill Barnes WC3B USA. Bill is from Danville, Pennsylvania, where he still resides with his wife and four children, and is an Alumni and long-term employee of Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania in the Office of Technology and Library Services. Bill learned about Amateur Radio from his Commodore 64 days, and the local hams who were involved with the C64. Passed his Technician license in March of 1991 with the help of Keith, KA3RZE (now KB3CB). He upgraded to Tech Plus in 1998, and then upgraded to Extra class on April 15th 2000.
Bill has explored various aspects of the hobby and currently is focused on: Summits on the Air (SOTA) – chaser and activator; Digital Modes on HF, Specifically RTTY contesting and DXing, PSK31/PSK63, and recently FT8; General DX chasing on HF, receiving the DXCC Millennium Award in 2000, filing for the DX Century Club (DXCC) in 200; and the Pennsylvania QSO Party in October (his county is apparently rare DX).
Outside of Amateur Radio, Bill has various other hobbies, such as “retro” video gaming, OSR tabletop RPGs, recreational archery, and can sling a two-inch brush sometimes that makes you feel all happy inside, like the happy little trees you remember as a kid. His active Twitter ID is @ataribill.
Mike Duke K5XU USA. After earning a degree in communications with a broadcasting emphasis at Mississippi State University, he launched a life-long career in commercial and public radio broadcasting. For the past 26 years, he has been director of Mississippi Public Broadcasting’s Radio Reading Service of Mississippi, which provides on-the-air readings of print media for people unable to read due to visual or other physical disabilities. K5XU is a very active ham operator, participating in numerous contests, usually operating CW. Mike has been an officer and Board member of the Jackson Amateur Radio Club frequently over the past several decades. He is considered the “Dean” of amateur operators in Central Mississippi because of his Elmering of many hams over the years, recently reaching the 50 year mark as a licensed amateur.
Ed Durrant DD5LP Germany. Ed Durrant is a well-traveled Amateur / Ham Radio operator originally hailing from Yorkshire England. Originally licensed as G8GLM, Ed re-joined the hobby in Australia where he was licensed as VK2ARE, replacing it with VK2JI. Ed enjoys Summits of the Air (SOTA) and is a proactive chaser and activator. In 2013, whilst in Australia, Ed organized the first and only Contest University in Australia. Ed returned to his wife’s homeland of Germany, and now operates using the call sign DD5LP. He frequently appears on various podcasts, including Amateur Radio Newsline, the ICQ Podcast, RSGB GB2RS weekly, and the WIA News. Ed blogs at vk2ji.com.
Don Field G3XTT United Kingdom. Don’s amateur radio interests are varied, though mostly on the operating rather than the construction side. His preferred mode is CW. G3XTT gained his amateur radio license in 1968, starting out on 160 and 80. Over the years, Don has operated all bands 160 through 23cm, mainly focusing on the competitive side of operating – contesting and DX chasing.
He has all DXCC countries worked and confirmed, and over 3,000 credited to the DXCC Challenge. He has led an active DX-pedition career, having operated from a number of important DXCC entities plus small, holiday operations and a number of single- and multi-op contest expeditions. Don has many IOTA as well as serving as manager of the IOTA contest for 12 years.
Don is a past member of the RSGB Board & Management Committee, past-Chairman of the RSGB Contests Committee, member of ARRL, current President of CDXC (UK DX Foundation – formerly the Chiltern DX Club), UK Six Metre Group, FOC, as well as the Reading & District Amateur Radio Club. G3XTT was the HF columnist for RadCom for 15 years and, for several years, the CDXC Digest. Previously, he was a columnist for Amateur Radio and Ham Radio Today magazines. Don is the author of two amateur radio books – the RSGB Operating Manual and the 6 Metre Handbook (republished in an updated version in 2013 as the 6m and 4m Handbook).
Don is currently editor of Practical Wireless magazine, since October 2013, a role that he enjoys very much.
Thomas Gandy N5WDG USA. Thomas holds an extra class amateur license and has been an active radio operator since 1992. Thomas is a member of the American Radio Relay League and has held the position of Official Observer (OO) within the Delta Division. Thomas has also served multiple terms as a board member of the Jackson Amateur Radio Club. He is repeater Trustee and currently oversees all club repeater operations. When not cobbling together repeater hardware or lending a hand repairing radios or antennas, Thomas enjoys collecting, restoring and operating vintage Collins and Drake transceivers. Thomas has over 30 years of engineering and business experience within the communications industry. Thomas currently works for AT&T and is the RF Design Engineering Manager for the Gulf States Market. Thomas and his wife Christie live in Madison Mississippi and have 3 children along with two West Highland White Terriers (Westies).
Tommy Horozakis VK2IR Australia. Tommy is from Sydney, Australia. He works in the communications industry and owns a communications company in Sydney. He is the founding President of the International Radio DX Group in March 1994. Tommy is Past -President of the Fishes Ghost Amateur Radio Club (2001) and currently serves as President of the Hellenic Amateur Radio Association of Australia. VK2IR is an active DXer. Tommy’s blog is located at vk2ir.com.
Frank Howell K4FMH USA. Frank is Professor Emeritus at Mississippi State University and Adjunct Professor at Emory University. He has been an SWL, avid BCB DXer, and antenna builder since he was 8 years old. At age 20, he led the construction of two radio stations; one FM station at Georgia College (WXGC) and the other a commercial AM day-time station (WXLX) in Milledgeville, holding a Third-Class FCC Radiotelephone License.
After a career as a college professor and administrator at four major universities and the University System of Georgia, Frank obtained his amateur radio license at 58 in 2010 through the Ga Tech Club. He is a Life Member of the ARRL and Assistant Director of the ARRL Delta Division. K4FMH has been Vice President of the Central Mississippi Amateur Radio Association and Past-President of the Magnolia Amateur Radio Club in Starkville. Recently, he launched the Magnolia Intertie Inc. non-profit repeater organization with Mike N5DU. Frank is a Presenter on the ICQ Podcast and blogs at k4fmh.com and here at foxmikehotel.com, syndicated through AmateurRadio.com. K4FMH enjoys most aspects of ham radio, especially tests and measurements on his workbench, rag chewing on HF, portable operations, digital modes, and the occasional DX contest. Frank lives in Ridgeland, a northern suburb of Jackson, MS, on the Barnett Reservoir. He serves as Chair of the Steering Committee.
Vernon “Bill” Lippert AC0W USA. An active contest participant his entire amateur radio career, Bill has many top-five contest finishes and has earned numerous certificates and plaques. Bill acquired his interest in contesting after attending the Austin ARC Field Day in 1968, becoming licensed in April 1969 as WN0YJB and upgrading to WA0YJB (General Class) less than a year later. Bill got his Extra in 1979, receiving his current call of AC0W. In 2000, he won the W/VE SO LP All Band Category in the ARRL International DX Contest. He also holds numerous scoring records in various contests and has participated several times from the other side of the pile-up by operating from KH6, KL7, V4, VP5 and from world famous “The Farm” or W0AIH.
Currently Bill is the NAQP SSB Manager and the Minnesota Wireless Association President. Bill retired after 38 years working for Hormel Foods Corporation, managing the electrical engineering team for Hormel. Bill is licensed in several states as a Professional Electrical Engineer. He is active in his community, serving on the Austin Housing and Redevelopment Authority Board as Vice President and serving on the Austin City Council where he chaired the finance committee. Besides his avid interest in contesting, Bill and his wife Cindy love to travel and enjoy the outdoors by camping, hiking, canoeing and sightseeing. Bill and Cindy have three children and seven grandchildren and visit them as often as possible.
Mike McKay N5DU USA. Mike is an amateur extra class operator first licensed in 1995. Mike is a member of the American Radio Relay League and the Central Mississippi Amateur Radio Association. He has served two terms as President of the Central Mississippi Amateur Radio Association and as a board member and officer of the Jackson Amateur Radio Club. Mike is active in a variety of emergency communications nets, having served as a net manager for several local nets and as a net control stations for both state and regional HF nets. For many years, Mike has also served on the amateur radio team at the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency and currently serves as the State RACES officer for Mississippi. In his professional life, Mike has been practicing law for over 35 years. Mike and his wife Sandra live in Raymond and have two adult children and four grandchildren.
Mike Subocz VK3AVV (SK) Australia. Mike’s interest in amateur radio was sparked when he found a 1944 ARRL Handbook in the high school library. An amateur radio club at the university he attended later fostered the interest resulting in obtaining a limited Z-call in 1958 (it excluded HF at the time). But it took several attempts at passing the CW to get the full call (something he ashamedly never). Working DX was Mike’s initial interest, but contesting soon took over and remains the main focus to date. He has considerable participation in VHF-UHF field days several times a year with a radio club that is seldom beaten in their category.
Nearly all of his professional career has been as research engineer was with PMG/Telecom/Telstra Research Laboratories in Melbourne, with a five-year sabbatical to travel and work in North America. Based in Pittsburgh, travelled to many parts of US and Canada to supervise and assist with the installation and commissioning of computerised railroad classification yards. On return to the Research Labs, became involved with the development of common channel signalling systems between telephone exchanges, participating for two study periods in ITU CCITT (now ITU-T) meetings in Geneva, co-chairing one of the sub-groups on a study question proposed by Australia. Later, led a group to design and construct equipment for the introduction of common channel signalling in Australia, before it was commercially available.
On retirement, there was more time for contesting, but paper logging soon became a limitation and a deterrent. No suitable logging program was found for the local contests of interest in VK, and so VK Contest Log was born, making use of programming experience throughout Mike’s professional career dating back to an initial course in Fortran in 1963. Although VKCL has grown to some extent, but until the Portable Ops Challenge, it has remained largely of local interest. An ambition Mike has is to rewrite VKCL as a true object-oriented C++ program.
Taking advantage of the ARRL Volunteer Examiner scheme in VK, Mike studied for all three levels of FCC examinations last year and now a proud holder of the U.S. AI7MS call sign. Whether it will ever be heard on the air is another matter.
Paula M. Uscian K9IR USA. Paula was first licensed in 1976 as WB9WNN. She is an avid DXer, but always has enjoyed the challenge of portable operations such as Field Day, state QSO parties, DX-peditions (KP4) and Summits on the Air (SOTA). Paula has activated over 150 SOTA summits (17 for the first time), hiking with a KX3, battery, fishing pole mast and home-brew 84’ end fed antenna to operate on 80M and up. In March 2020, she garnered enough points to qualify as a SOTA “Mountain Goat.”. She also has over 11,000 points as a “Shack Super Sloth” chasing other activators. To get on the air as quickly as possible when portable, Paula also has built a 100W “Shack in a Box” that requires only attaching an antenna to get on CW and SSB, and adding a tablet/laptop to operate digital modes.
Thomas Witherspoon K4SWL/M0CYI USA. He is the founder and previous Executive Director of Ears To Our World, a charity that sends self-powered shortwave radios to schools, teachers and children in 3rd world countries. K4SWL is a very avid blogger on the SWLing Post at swling.com and QRPer.com. Thomas is a member of the SEORATS and NCDXCC groups. He was very active in the 2016 National Parks On The Air (NPOTA) and continues to activate parks as he travels. Thomas operates QRP most of the time because he typically hikes to sites with a station in his pack.
Scott Wright K0MD USA. Scott is an active ham contester and DXer and lives in Rochester, MN. He was licensed in 1977 as WD4HAD, and upgraded to Advanced class by age 15. He moved to Minnesota in 1989 to start residency at the Mayo Clinic after finishing medical school. He changed his call to KF0FW, then to AA0PS after upgrading to Extra class in the early 1990’s. He was issued K0MD in 1998 and has kept it since that time. He has contested from Turks and Caicos, Uruguay, Chile and China. He recently has edited the National Contest Journal, an ARRL publication dedicated to Radio Sport activities. He is a strong proponent of new contesting tactics and contests. He has promoted the development of contests which are targeted for urban dwellers who have limitations for permanent antenna structures, including mobile and portable activity type contests.
Dr. Wright is Professor of Cardiology at Mayo Clinic and a clinical trialist researcher. He also is the Director of the Human Research Protection program at Mayo Clinic. He is married and he and his wife have four children. Three of them are licensed hams. His home station is a SO2R contest station using ICOM equipment. He lives on 5 acres and has an excellent antenna farm.