[CTSARA] W1WY, W1LUH, W1BBJ and W1MQA

[Tom Alessi]

I woke up thinking about old hams that influenced me as a kid and I had
these thoughts.

When I was 14, I passed my Novice class license and was given WN1TNK.  By
age 15, I got my General class license and was WA1TNK.  In Feb 1976 I moved
from Greenwich to Stamford.  I was really into radio so I looked for local
hams by checking out their roofs.  I remember seeing a 80' tower at the
corner of Sherwood Rd and Oaklawn Av. so I asked around and people in the
Stamford Club said "yeah, that's Frank Anzalone, W1WY."  WOW, a 1x2 call
before there were Vanity Callsigns!  I eventually met Frank and found out
that he was really into CW, and so was I.  Frank was a nice guy who sort of
resembled Carl Malden or Jimmy Durante with his huge, bulbous nose.  You
couldn't miss Frank. Well, Frank passed away in 1995, I know because I was
one of the guys that responded to his house.  Anyway, for some reason I
thought about W1WY this morning so I looked up his call in the FCC ULS and
to my surprise it was not listed because he died before ULS became the law,
so I did an internet search for W1WY and came up with several things.
The first was a tribute to Frank on HamGallery.com

http://hamgallery.com/Tribute/W1WY/w1wy.pdf

The second was a the CQ Hall of Fame:

http://www.cq-amateur-radio.com/cq_awards/cq_hall_of_fame_awards/2016_cq_contest_hof_and_cq_dx_hof.pdf

Now I had casually know this guy since 1976 and I never know about any of
this until this morning.  Frank was kind of a DX Contest legend.  Since his
death, Franks call has been reissued to someone else and now I wonder if he
knows who the original W1WY was and how big his shoes are that he is
filling?

I have several old ham friends who have passed away that I think about from
time to time.

There is John Stokes, W1MQA, my mentor and Elmer.  You can read a tribute
to Mr. Stokes at the bottom of my QRZ page.
Bill Stempel, W1BBJ, a CW operator who I looked up to and who also mentored
me in Jr. High School.
Joe Leferson, W1LUH, who owned Radio Communications, *founder of the
Stamford Amateur Radio Club,* who gave me a job in 2-way radio and who was
a visionary in the electronic world.
Dr. Gene Herman, N1AIX, physician and Mechanical Engineer who could build
ANYTHING!
George Buzel, K1LZZ, my dad's friend who owned a sports car with one of
those cool license plates with the lightning bolt that I wanted to get.
Tony Brunton, KA1HI (WA1QHS) my friend Mark's dad who was a pioneer in WCBS
New York News Radio, who helped me get my Novice.
And of course, Frank Anzalone, W1WY who was just a real nice, quiet guy who
strolled by the fire station in Belltown and would talk ham radio with a
young kid in the 1970's.

Anyway there is no other point to the story except to say that sometimes
you run into people and you never know about them.

73 de Tom K1TA

Tom Alessi
*Tom at K1TA.com  |**  www.K1TA.com <http://www.K1TA.com>*
*State of Connecticut - Justice of the Peace & Notary Public*
C: (203) 253-7745 | O: (914) 231-1691 | F: (914) 813-4091
*"CW Forever !"* Look for me on 20m, 30m or 40m CW