Highfields Amateur Radio Club
Useful Info Pages.

If no menu use the Sitemap Here.

Following on from the popular 100 Famous Amateurs page, here's another 100 famous or, at least notable, amateur radio operators. As with the previous page, some you may not know, others you'll say "really, I never knew that!" The list is sorted alphaneumerically by callsign. Pictures have been included where available.

The list has been compiled from various sources and I have checked the authenticity of the callsigns wherever possible. If there are any inaccuracies please let me know (with proper citation {not just someone else's list!}) so I can put them right, "missing" photos are also welcome. Please see the note at the bottom before sending in corrections.

All the persons are listed as though they are alive, still holding office/position etc and still operating. Some may have been replaced in their position (politicians etc), or be "silent key" others may have let their licence lapse or just no longer active on the bands.

1ANB	Phillip Hagar Smith	Inventor of "Smith Chart" used to calculate transmission-line impedance.
1AY	Clarence D. Tuska	Co-founder of the ARRL.
1XAM (Also JL, 1XT, 1QP, K6BJ)	John L. Reinartz	Early radio pioneer and inventor. Invented the first practical CW tuner. Also a North Pole explorer.
3BEC	Arthur Middleton Young	Inventor of the first commercially practical helicopter (Bell Helicopter), philosopher, poet and painter.
6BHI	Dr. Harold A. Zahl	Military electronics and radar pioneer who invented Zahl radar tube used throughout WWII. RADAR built with his design detected the planes that attacked Pearl Harbor, although they were mistakenly thought to be friend, not foe, at the time.
AK1A	Richard A. Newell (Dick Newell)	Invented Packet Cluster thus changing the face of DXing.
DD6CF	Reinhard Alfred Furrer	German Space Agency astronaut. Payload specialist of STS-61A the West German D-1 Spacelab mission (1985, the last successful Space Shuttle Challenger mission, also the largest crew, 8 in total, 3 were licenced Amateurs). First mission where payload activities were controlled from outside the US.
DG2KM	Dr Ernst Willi Messerschmid	German Space Agency astronaut. Payload specialist of STS-61A the West German D-1 Spacelab mission (1985, the last successful Space Shuttle Challenger mission, also the largest crew, 8 in total, 3 were licenced Amateurs). First mission where payload activities were controlled from outside the US. Later became head of the ESA's Astronaut Center.
FX0STB	Jean-Pierre Haigneré	Engineer, French government space agency (CNES) spationaut. Flew on two missions to the Mir space station in 1993 and 1999.
HI8MMJ	Manuel Rafael Mota Geronimo (Manny Mota)	Famous baseball player with the Pittsburgh Pirates and LA Dodgers.
HS1D	Maha Chakri Sirindhorn	Princess to throne of Thailand
IZ0JPA	Paolo Angelo Nespoli	Itallian Astronaut of the European Space Agency, Mission Specialist on board Space Shuttle Discovery for the STS-120 flight to the ISS.
JA1AN	Shozo Hara	President of Japan Amateur Radio League (JARL) for over 30 years. Helped guide development of amateur radio in Japan, which has more licensed amateurs than any other country.
K2AGZ	David A. Mann (born David Freedman)	Composer, wrote hundreds of songs. His most popular, perhaps, was "There I've Said It Again", the last No.1 hit in the US before The British Invasion, being knocked out of 1st place by The Beatles' hit "I Want to Hold Your Hand".
K2GL	Hazard E. Reeves	Invented the stereophonic sound system used with Cinerama.
K2ORS	Jean Shepherd	Author, Actor, Radio and TV personality.
K2SSQ	Henry R. Feinberg	Designed "E.T.'s" communicator in Steven Spielberg's 1982 movie "E.T." and has had a long career as "interpreter of science and technology for the public".
K2ZCZ	George Elmer Pataki	Governor of New York January 1, 1995 - December 31, 2006.
K4FW (Also 9BBI, W8DUS)	Albert R. Kahn (Al Kahn)	Founder of ElectroVoice (1930). Co-founder of Ten-Tec (1968).
K5FLU	Martin F. Jue	President of MFJ Enterprises Inc., which he founded in 1972.
K5PSG (Also KE5AKW)	Peggy Sue Gerron-Rackham	The namesake of the late Buddy Holly's 1957 "rockabilly" hit "Peggy Sue" Rackham went to high school with Holly and later married the drummer in his band, "The Crickets."
K6ATX	Walter A. Tompkins	Author "SOS at Midnight", "CQ Ghost Ship", "DX Brings Danger" and "Death Vally QTH". Credited as a screenwriter for TV series' "Death Valley Days" and "The Lone Ranger".
K6BBC (Also WA6LGW)	Tony Randel / Anthony Randel / Anthony Randell	Hollywood director of "Hellraiser II (1988)" among others. His former callsign, WA6LGW, is heard over a shortwave radio in this and other films he worked on.
K6BP (Also WA2TNM)	Bruce Perens	Software engineer with movie credits on "A Bug's Life" and "Toy Story 2".
K6DGN	Keith A. Wester	Emmy Award-winning sound engineer. Earned Oscar nominations for his work on "The Perfect Storm," "Armageddon," "Air Force One," "Black Rain," "The Rock," and "Waterworld".
K6LFH	Chuck Towns	Amateur satellite pioneer. OSCARs I & II were built in his garage.
KA2WEU	Dr. Ulrich L. Rohde	The "Rhode" in the Rohde & Schwarz company.
KA9Q	Phil Karn	Developed basis for wireless internet communications by adapting Internet communications protocol (TCP/IP) for radio use;
KB2LHI	Joseph M. Walsh (Joe Walsh)	The "Guinness Book of World Records" listed him as the "World's Fastest Shooter." (not to be confused with rock singer Joe Walsh, WB6ACU).
KB4VJG	Tommy Tucker	Band Leader and network radio host. Best remembered for his 1941 hit recording ''I Don't Want to Set the World on Fire,''
KC5VWK	Richard J. Abruzzo	World famous balloonist and world record holder; the first balloon voyage from North America to Africa.
KD4KMQ	George B. Hill (Byron Hill)	Country Music songwriter, whose hit songs have been widely recorded by such singers as George Jones, George Strait, Ray Charles, Randy Travis, Anne Murray, Conway Twitty, and Clay Walker, among many others.
KD5VNP	Barbara Radding "Barb" Morgan	NASA "educator astronaut" on STS-118 aboard Endeavour. She was back-up educator astronaut for the STS-51L (Challenger) flight that ended in disaster 73 seconds after lift-off in 1986.
KG4UYY	James Lance Bass	'N SYNC pop singer.
Kon-Tiki Raft Expedition 1947 LI2B		The callsign was used on the raft by two radio operators: Lieut. Kurt Malvin Haugland (LA3KY) (no photo) Torstein Raaby (top). Dr. Thor Heyerdahl (bottom) was the leader of this famous expedition. The callsign was also issued to Heyerdahl's later expeditions of the reed boats: Ra (1969) and Ra II (1970).
N1ZSU	Theodore Y. Ts'o (Ted Ts'o)	Linux kernel developer.
N3BIZ	Dr. Winthrop M. Leeds	High-voltage circuit-breaker designer and developer at Westinghouse Electric for 44 years. Inventor with 100 patents. Fellow of the IEEE. Designed the circuit breakers for the Hoover Dam.
N4CBC	Lt. Col. John H. DeWitt	Completed first moonbounce (Earth-Moon-Earth / EME) transmission from Fort Monmouth, NJ, on 10 January 1946.
N4ZFM	Robert E. Turner (Zack Turner)	Country music songwriter, "High-Tech Redneck", "If I Were a Drinker", "Freedom".
N5YYV	Kathryn Dwyer Sullivan Ph.D.	NASA astonaut. First American woman to walk in space (1984). Flew on a total of three space shuttle missions, logging 532 hours in space.
N6KR	Wayne Burdick	Co-founder of Elecraft LLC in 1998.
N6OTW	Sidney Padrick	TV and radio technician who claims to have flown in an alien flying saucer on January 30, 1965. (Some people will do anything to get on this list!)
NE2Q (Also WV2BLX, WA2BLX)	Jay Kolinsky	Invented and manufactured the electronic sirens used on most burglar and fire alarm systems throughout the world.
OH2BH	Martti Laine	Telecommunications expert, noted DXer and DXpeditioner. Has introduced or re-introduced Amateur Radio to several countries.
ON1AFD	Dirk Dries David Damiaan, Viscount Frimout Ph.D. (Dirk Frimout)	Astrophysicist and an European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut. First Belgian in space on space shuttle Atlantis (STS-45) 1992 (the first Spacelab mission dedicated to NASA's Mission to Planet Earth). Ennobled and given the title of viscount after his flight.
ON1DWN	Frank De Winne	European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut. Flight engineer on the newly designed Soyuz TMA, Odissea mission, a support flight to the International Space Station (2002).
PE1LFO	Wubbo Johannes Ockels	First Dutch citizen in space and payload specialist on the STS-61A the West German D-1 Spacelab mission (1985, the last successful Space Shuttle Challenger mission, also the largest crew, 8 in total, 3 were licenced Amateurs). First mission where payload activities were controlled from outside the US.
RAEM	Ernst Krenkel	Famous polar explorer, saved the lives of 104 people for which he was named "Hero of the Soviet Union". Here's an interesting page that explains his unusual callsign, written by Alf Lindgren SM5IQ.
RK3DUO	Col. Yuri Ivanovich Onufriyenko	Russian cosmonaut. Mir and ISS missions. He has been named a Hero of Russia, been awarded two Armed Forces medals and named a Chevalier in the French Legion of Honour.
RK3DUP	Yuri Ivanovich Malenchenko	Russian cosmonaut. The first person to marry in space, on 10 August 2003, when he married Ekaterina Dmitrieva, who was in Texas, while he was 240 miles over New Zealand, on the International Space Station. (You may now kiss the bride!)
RN3DX	Oleg Kononenko	Astronaut on the ISS.
RO3FT	Talgat Amangeldyuly Musabayev	Kazakhstan born cosmonaut, flight engineer of the Mir-25 mission. Later founded National Kazakhstan Space Agency and became Director of Aerospace Agency of Republic of Kazakhstan.
RV3DB	Nikolai Mikhailovich Budarin	Cosmonaut. Several space missions including Mir and ISS. In 2002 Nikolai went to the ISS onboard STS-113 Space Shuttle Endeavour and returned in 2003 aboard Soyuz TMA-1.
RV3DD	Vladimir Aleksandrovich Dzhanibekov	First Soviet cosmonaut to perform five space flights.
RZ3FK	Valery Grigorievich Korzun	Russian cosmonaut. On a trip to the ISS in 2002 his team improved future station amateur radio operations by adding two amateur radio antennas on the Zvezda module.
S53MV	Matjaz Vidmar	Designer and builder of high-speed (11 MB/s) amateur digital network, several AO-40 satellite components, VHF/UHF/microwave radios.
SP3RN	St. Maximilian Kolbe (also known as: Maximilian Mary Kolbe, Maksymilian or Massimiliano Maria Kolbe) Born Rajmund Kolbe	The Patron Saint of Amateur Radio Operators. Roman Catholic WW II martyr / canonised saint. (died 1941 at Auschwitz by lethal injection, he offered his life to the Nazi camp commandant in exchange for another prisoner chosen at random in reprisal for an escape).
VE2AHZ (Also VK2AHZ)	Robert W. Lane (Tex Morton)	Country and Western singer-songwriter, born in New Zealand, well known throughout North America and Australia. recorded over 300 songs. Known as the "Father of Australian Country Music".
VE3CJ	Noel Eaton	First non-U.S. president of IARU Helped build international support for new ham bands at 10, 18, and 24 MHz (WARC bands). Long time friend of His Majesty King Hussein (JY1).
VK2FV	Florence Violet McKenzie OBE	Australia's first female electrical engineer and first female certified telegrapher. Trained over 10,000 servicemen in use of Morse code. Founded the Women's Emergency Signalling Corps, which became the Women's Royal Australian Naval Service, for which she received the OBE. In May 1941, the RAAF appointed Mrs McKenzie as an honorary Flight Officer in the Women's Auxiliary Australian Air Force (WAAAF) in appreciation of her services.
VK3JU	Ross A. Hull	Australian radio pioneer in VHF and UHF. Co-inventor of first publicly demonstrated Radio Controlled aircraft (1936). Died from electrocution in Connecticut, USA, (1938) while experimenting with early TV broadcasting.
VP2VI (W0DX)	Bob Denniston	Leader of the first modern DXpedition (“Gon-Wacky”) in 1948. Pioneer in 160 metre DXing. ARRL President, 1966–1972, IARU President, 1966–1974.
W0GFQ	Leo Meyerson	Founder of World Radio Laboratories.
W0ORE	Dr. Anthony Wayne England Ph.D. (Tony England)	Part of the support team for Apollo 13. Developed and communicated instructions for construction of the lithium hydroxide CO2 scrubber that helped those astronauts to return safely to Earth. Mission specialist on the Challenger space shuttle flight in 1985 (STS-51-F).
W0ROW	Eugene Senti	As engineer for Collins Radio, invented the radio transceiver (transmitter and receiver in a single package, with shared circuitry).
W1ICP	Lew McCoy	Amateur radio writer. Educated thousands about preventing TVI.
W1HQ (Also W1CUT)	Laird Campbell	First amateur to use transistorised transmitters on 160, 40, and 20 metres.
W1UHI	Ernest Wheatley	Was once known as the "oldest living US ham," died, still licenced, at age 106 in 1993.
W2ALS	Frank Gunther	Established first mobile two-way police communications system in 1932, opening up VHF mobile spectrum. Frequency Modulation pioneer. The picture shows Frank testing his portable 56-Mc transmitter-receiver from a rooftop location in New York City in 1932.
W2BML (Also 2BML)	Dr. Harold Henry Beverage	Inventor of the Wave antenna, more commonly known as the "Beverage antenna". Read his short history here.
W2JTP	Byron Kretzman	RTTY and FM pioneer,
W2QBO	Wilson Greatbatch	Inventor of the cardiac pacemaker.
W2SGG	Stanislaus Francis Danko (Stan Danko)	Co-inventor of printed circuits.
W2YHO	Herman Gross	Recognised, at age 86, as the World's Oldest Active Scuba Diver.
W2ZH	Dr. E. Stuart Davis	Personal Telegrapher to President Franklin D. Roosevelt original spark call was "4IV".
W2ZK	Amory "Bud" Waite	Radio pioneer, inventor and Polar explorer, after whom the Waite Islands and Cape Waite are named. Rescued Admiral Byrd in 1934.
W3KAS	Paul Baran	Invented packet switching, basis of Internet and other modern communication networks; developed first telemetry equipment for NASA.
W4USR (Also K8KXK)	Dennis J. Had	Founder of Dentron Radio Company, Ameritron, and Cary Audio Design.
W5BQU	Byrl H. "Tex" Burdick, Sr.	Was the "oldest living US ham," at 103 years old on 25 September 2003. Passed away at his home on May 30th, 2004.
W5MAP	Robert A. Broding	Leading inventor in field of oil exploration, who made major contributions regarding sonic logging.
W6AQ (Also W6BVN)	Dave Bell	TV and Movie producer, The World's Most Dangerous Animals (I, II & III), LAPD, Deep Red, The Long Walk Home.
W6CGD	Dr Clyde E. Wiegand	Renowned physicist who worked on Manhattan Project and present at first detonation of atomic bomb.
W6DOE	Clarence Leonidas Fender (Leo Fender)	Prolific musical-instrument inventor, including the legendary Telecaster and Stratocaster Fender electric guitars.
W6QYT	Oswald Garrison Villard, Jr. (Mike Villard)	Renowned RADAR and SSB pioneer, RF engineer, Stanford University researcher, and technical author.
W6SP	Col. John W. Browning	Decorated fighter pilot who was "father" of military satellites and former AMSAT board chairman.
W6VR	Faust Gonsett	Amateur radio author and technician. Founder of Gonset Laboratories. Brought affordable VHF equipment to amateur market.
W8CYE	Robert Lloyd Drake Sr.	Founder of R. L. Drake Co. (1943).
W8GZ	Major General Loren G. Windom	Inventor of the Windom antenna (1929).
W9AC	William J Halligan (Bill Halligan) (Wireless Willie)	Founder of Hallicrafters (1932).
WA2HVM	Ronald Alan Swoboda (Ron Swoboda)	New York Mets and New York Yankees baseball player. Later became a TV sportscaster.
WA2JXX	Gerson Strassberg	Inventor of the plastic pocket protector.
WA3MFH	Lt. Col. Pierre A. Finck, MD	Forensic pathologist, one of three doctors who performed the controversial autopsy of John F. Kennedy shortly after JFK's assassination.
WA4DSY	Dale A. Heatherington	PC modem pioneer and co-inventor of "smartmodem" with Dennis Hayes. Co-founder of Hayes Microcomputer Products in 1978.
WA6BND (Also WV6VLY)	Stephen Gary Wozniak (Steve Wozniak / Woz)	Co-founder of Apple Computer in 1976 (the technical brains behind Apple - without him, nothing would have happened). He had his licence by 6th grade (11–12 years old).
WA6HHQ	Eric Swartz	Co-founder of Elecraft LLC in 1998.
WA6MOS	Joseph Pevney	Director of numerous movies: "Man of a Thousand Faces", "Away All Boats", "Tammy and the Bachelor". Many TV shows: "Star Trek", "The Munsters", "Mission: Impossible", "Bonanza", "Fantasy Island", "The Fugitive" Also an actor: "Street With No Name".
WB2AQC	George Pataki	No, not THAT George Pataki! This prolific traveler / writer / ham is responsible for lobbying Senator Barry Goldwater to sponsor the legislation that eliminated the rule that limited licensing to US citizens only. He also helped supply information that led to the publishing of the first callbook (American Flying Horse) of Soviet radio amateur callsigns. This encouraged other Eastern European radio clubs to send their lists to the Callbook.
WB4APR	Bob Bruninga	Developer of APRS (Automatic Position Reporting System).
WB6EWU	John Draper	In the late 60's and 70's he was known as the notorious "phone phreak" "Captain Crunch". Famous for his use of the telephone "blue box" - a device for defeating the telephone company's long distance billing equipment (the device was built by an engineer friend of his.) While serving a sentence related to his phone phreaking activities, John wrote the EasyWriter word processing program - the first popular word processor for the IBM PC. Longtime friend of Steve "the Woz" Wozniak (WA6BND).
WD4LZC	Larnelle Harris	Country / Christian Music Singer. Grammy award winner.

Note: I have only included people who are famous in their own right. To my mind the brother, sister, cousin, wife etc. (except for royalty) does not make someone famous. If they have a claim to fame in their own right then they're in.
I have not included people who are listed with a Special Event callsign (astronauts operating stations under a special call for example), but do include such people if I can ascertain there usual call.

I do research quite thoroughly to check that the call was (is) issued to the person so claimed, If I find glaring errors then I leave them out. If I can find no errors or, better still, confirmation then in they go.
Example: N6KGB, listed as actor Stewart Granger (many references in lists) - born James Lablache Stewart, died August 1993. The callsign was issued to James J Stewart in December 1994. So Stewart Granger not only changed his middle initial but also applied for his licence over a year after he died! That's just one of many examples of non research and copying verbatum from an erroneous list that I've encountered.