World Wide Radio Operators Foundation

The Dayton Hamvention is this coming week. This is the biggest ham radio event of the year, and a gathering place for operators from around the world.

The WWROF will be there – nearly all of our Directors will be attending. Look for us at the Contest Super Suite at the Crowne Plaza any evening, at the Contest Forum Saturday mid-day, or at the Contest Dinner Saturday night. In addition, several of our Directors will be instructors at Contest University on Thursday, May 13. We’d love to hear from you about ideas for programs we ought to consider sponsoring, as well as chat about anything related to radio operating.

I just returned from the International DX Convention in Visalia, CA. This was the first public announcement of the WWROF, in conjunction with the news release we distributed via various email lists and Web sites. Besides me, WWROF Directors K3LR and K3EST were present.

The response has been very very positive, and tells me that we are indeed addressing a void in the amateur radio community. We had numerous donations and lots of one-on-one discussions on projects we ought to initiate, outside projects we ought to support, and advice in general.

One event that I want to note specifically was the Friday night induction of Larry Weaver, N6TW, to the CQ Contest Hall of Fame. Most contesters don’t know Larry well, although most have probably worked him at one time or another. Larry’s contest experience is extensive, and includes numerous contest DXpeditions where he accompanied N6AA and friends to various far-off locations. However, Larry’s biggest contributions to contesting have been off-the-air. For many years, he worked tirelessly behind the scenes to fix electronic log submissions that were bounced in the log-checking process. He also created the system that made individual log-checking reports (“UBN reports”) available with password-protection to allow operators to see their mistakes and learn from them.

On behalf of the WWROF (and personally), congratulations to N6TW on this award, and thanks to the CQ Hall of Fame Committee for recognizing his efforts!

It was terrific to see everyone at Visalia, and I’m looking forward to Dayton in a few weeks. Most of the WWROF Directors will be present, and I hope you’ll take the opportunity to say hello.