[GreenKeys] List of notable Amateurs

Dave Horsfall dave at horsfall.org
Mon Oct 5 16:22:29 EDT 2020


This is a list of the "notable" Amateur callsigns that I have been
gathering for some years.  I would appreciate any updates -- send
them to "lona at horsfall.org".  Of course, "notable" is purely in the
eye of the beholder; I consider it as someone in the (non-Amateur)
public eye.

Another way of putting it is: "Did you know that XXX is/was an
Amateur?" when explaining to someone what Amateur radio is all
about.  Thus, people like Monk Apollo etc would be regarded as
notable (who would think a monk would be an Amateur?), although few
people outside of the Amateur community would have heard of him,
or somebody in the public eye not suspected of being an Amateur.
Note that I have deliberately left out the current crop of Astronauts
-- it doesn't seem to be a novelty any more, and is almost a
requirement...

They have been gleaned from various places: amateur magazines,
USENET postings, and straight-out rumour :-)  It is probably out
of date, and most likely contains errors.  However, over time it
should develop into an accurate list, suitable for PR purposes.

Please note that I have no way of authenticating most of these
entries; many seem to have been obtained by trawling the callbook
server for likely names (and subsequently excised).  If you do this,
then please double-check the entry; for example, I don't know Andy
Griffith from a bar of soap, but I'm told he's in his 70s (if he's
still alive), so he can't be the one in the callbook.

Reproduction in part or whole permitted if the source is acknowledged.

Thanks to all who contributed -- I tried to acknowledge each one.  Special 
thanks to "The Canadian Amateur" and Jim W6CF for many contributions.

Thanks also to the folks on the Greenkeys RTTY list.

Enjoy!

7L2NJY		Dr Mamoru Mohri, Japanese astronaut
9K2CS		Prince Yousuf Al-Sabah
9M2TR		Tunk Abdul Rahman, first Premier of Malaysia
9N1MM		Father Marshall Moran, missionary (SK)
A41AA		Qaboos bin Said Al-Said, Sultan of Oman
AC3PT		P. T. Namgyal, former King of Sikkim (SK)
CN8MH		Moulay Hassan, former King of Morocco
CP1CL		Dr. Hugo Banzer, past President of Bolivia
DP3MIR		Dr Ulf Merbold, astronaut
EA0JC		Juan Carlos, former King of Spain
EP1MP		HIH Prince Mohmud Pahlavi, former Prince of Iran
FO5GJ		Marlon Brando aka Martin Brandeaux, actor (SK)
G0MSL		James ?, town crier
G2DQU		Lord Rix (formerly Sir Brian), former actor and charity head
G3EUJ		Gillie Potter, comedian (The Squire of Frogmorton) (SK)
G3TZH		Tony Dolby, brother of "the" Dolby
G3YLA		Jim Bacon OBE, weatherman
G4CEZ		Bill Kitchen, 1956 world champion speedway rider (SK)
GB1MIR		Helen Sharman, astronaut
HK6LT		Luz Marina Zuluaga, Miss Universe 1959
HS1A		Bhumibol Adulayadej, King of Thailand (SK)
HS1LY		Prince Titiphan of Thailand
HZ1TA		Prince Talal bin Abdulaziz of Saudi Arabia
I0FCG		Francesco Cossiga, former President of Italy
JA1MP		Sako Hasegawa, founder of Yaesu (SK)
JA5FHB		Former Japanese Minister for Transport and Communications
JY1		King Hussein of Jordan (SK)
JY2		Queen of above
K0DWC		Lt. Gen. Francis "Butch" Griswold, colleague of Curtis LeMay
K0HWY		Tex Beneke, band leader
K1JT		Dr. Joseph Taylor Jr, 1993 Nobel Prize winner in Physics
K1OKI		Mickey Schulhof, head of Sony US
K2HEP		John Sculley, former CEO of Apple and Pepsi (lapsed)
K2ORS		Jean Shepard, author/actor (nickname "Shep"), host of radio 
WOR, was W4QWN/W8QWN/W3STE (SK)
K2ZCZ		George Patacki, Governor of New York
K4LIB		Arthur Godfrey, TV performer (SK)
K4TPJ		David Funderburk, member USA House of Reps
K4ZVZ		Paul Tibbets, pilot of the Enola Gay (SK)
K6DUE		Roy Neal, television reporter
K6IR		Ken Miller, QCWA distinguished service, company executive
K6RFU		Albert Glasser, scores feature films
K7TA		Clifford Stoll, author ("Cuckoo's Egg") & astronomer
K7UGA/K3UIG	Senator (US) Barry Goldwater (ret)
K9GWT		Bill Henry, co-founder of HAL Communications (SK)
KA1FZQ		Lawrence Bacow, 29th president of Harvard University
KA6HVA		Burl Ives, singer (SK)
KA6UXR		Dr. Alex Comfort, author of "The Joy of Sex"
KA7EVD		Donnie Osmond, entertainer (lapsed; no, he's not in the book)
KB2GSD		Walter Cronkite, former news anchor
KB6LQR		Jeana Yeager, Voyager '86 pilot
KB6LQS		Dick Rutan, Voyager '86 pilot
KB6OLJ		Paul J Cohen, mathematician
KB7LPW		Len Winkler, radio talk show host
KC4OCA		Gordon Barnes, weatherman
KD4WUJ		Patty Loveless (Patricia Ramey), country singer, XYL of W4WRO
KD6WUS		Hugh Downs, TV compere ("Concentration")
KG7JF		Jeff Duntemann, author and publisher of Coriolis Group
KK6OTD		Tim Allen, actor in the comedy series Last Man Standing (in 
which he has the callsign KA0XTT)
KH6IJ		Katashi Nose, radio columnist and former physics professor (SK)
KI6M		Stu Gilliam, comedian
KN4UB		Larry Junstrom, rock musician (bass player in .38 Special)
KX2Z		Tony Bongiovi, cousin of Jon Bon Jovi
LU1SM		Carlos Saul Menem, President of Argentina
M7GJM		Gareth Mitchell, technology journalist etc
N4KET		David French, CNN newsman
N4RH		Ralph Haller, FCC PRB chief
N5YYV		Kathy Sullivan, Chief Scientist NOAA (former astronaut)
N6CKF		Lloyd Bochner, actor ("Colby")
N6FFT		?, talk radio host
N6FUP		Stu Cook, bass player for CCR
N6GGM		Laura, XYL of N6FUP
N6KGB		Stewart Granger (born James Stewart), actor (SK)
N6NHG		Kevin Mitnick, cracker
N6XMW		Judge William H. Alsup, amateur programmer
N6YOS		Priscilla Presley (Lou Lou Beaulieu), actress, Elvis' widow
N9LC		George Sweigert, inventor of cordless phone (was W8ZIS)
NK7U		Joe Rudi, baseball player (ret)
NZ6N		Randy Powell, actor (was WA0QZW)
OA4FB		Fernando Belaunde Terry, past President of Peru
ON1AFD		Count Dirk Frimouth, Belgian astronaut
SV2ASP/A	Monk Apollo (SK)
TI2DR		David Ruben MD, author of "Everything you wanted to know..."
U2MIR/UV3AM	Musa Manarov, cosmonaut
UA1LO		Yuri Gagarin, cosmonaut (SK)
VE3RX		Arthur Meen, former Ontario Cabinet minister
VE3VGW		Gilles Morin, Ontario MPP and Deputy Speaker
VK2AHU		Dick Huey, professor-emeritus (was VK2HU)
VK2AHZ		Tex Morton (Robert Morton), singer (SK)
VK2AXN		Keith Alder, former chief of AAEC (SK)
VK2BL		Graham Conolly, radio announcer and former voice on VNG
VK2CAX		Dr. Ken McCracken, founding Chief of CSIRO Mineral Physics
VK2DIK		Dick Smith, entrepreneur & millionaire
VK2EF		Sir Ernest Fisk, MD of AWA, radio pioneer (SK)
VK2KB		Sir Allan Fairhall, politician (SK)
VK2YOW		Bob Hughes, radio announcer
VK3JU		Ross Hull, Australian radio pioneer (SK)
VK4HA		Harry Angel, centenarian (SK)
VK4HH		Norman Hurll (was VK2BC), inventor
VK5AX		Alf Traeger, inventor of the pedal wireless (SK)
VK5NIV		Ivan Venning, Australian MP
VK6TP/G3KDH	Tommy Price, speedway rider of Wembley fame
VR6TC		Tom Christian, great*3-grandson of Fletcher Christian
VU2RG		Rajiv Gandhi, former Prime Minister of India (SK)
VU2SON		Sonia Gandhi, XYL of VU2RG
W0CXX		Arthur Collins, founder of Collins Radio (SK)
W0EHR		Marguerite Beneke, wife of Tex Beneke K0HWY
W0ORE		Tony England, astronaut
W2JOF		Cliff Richard (Harry Webb), singer
W2SKE		Bill Leonard, former President of CBS News (SK)
W2TDY		Julius Baker, first flautist NY Philharmonic Orchestra
W2TQ		Joel Miller, IEEE lawyer
W2ZGU		John Campbell, editor of "Analog" (SK)
W3ACE		Armin Meyer, former US Ambassador to Japan
W3GYH		John F. Clark, former director Goddard Space Flight Center
W3NOD		Jacob Beser, radar operator of the Enola Gay
W4WRO		Emory Gordy Jr, record producer and OM of Patty Loveless KD4WUJ
W4ZG		Worth Gruelle, started "Raggedy Ann and Andy"
W5LFL		Owen Garriot, astronaut
W6AQ		Dave Bell, film producer and Academy Award winner
W6EZV		General Curtis "Iron-Ass" LeMay, introduced SSB to USAF SAC 
(SK)
W6JKV		James Treybig, CEO of Tandem
W6NRM		Robert Weitbrecht, physicist, developer of TTY for deaf (SK)
W6OBB/4F1AB	Art Bell, talk radio host (SK)
W6QHS		David Leeson, Chairman and Pres. of California Microware (ret)
W6QYI		Roger Cardinal Mahony, Los Angeles (autopatch handle "Trinity")
W6UK		Alvino Rey, musician/bandleader
W6ZH		Herbert "Pete" Hoover III, grandson of US Pres (call 
re-issued), father Hoover II also held it
W8JK		John Kraus, radio astronomer
W8PAL		Albert J. Gross, helped invent walkie-talkie, CB, pager, 
cordless phone (SK)
W9GFZ		Grote Reber, pioneer of radio astronomy (SK) and almost 
remembered as W9GFO in "Contact"
WA2MKI		Larry Ferrari, organ player
WA4CZD/W4CGP	Chet Atkins, guitar player (SK)
WA4SIR		Ron Parise, astronaut
WA6TJM		?, President of ISD Inc
WB4KCG		Ronnie Milsap, singer
WB6ACU		Joe Walsh, rock musician (James Gang and The Eagles)
WB6RER		Andy Devine, cowboy actor (SK)
WN6I		William E Moerner, co-recipient of 2014 Nobel prize in 
chemistry
WV6VLY/WA6BND	Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple (lapsed)
YN1AS		General Anastasio Somoza, former President of Nicaragua (SK)
ZK1AN		Sir Thomas Davis, former Premier of Cook Islands


Suspected or callsign unknown:

 		Freeman Gosden, actor (SK)
 		"Some royalty of the Netherlands"
 		James Hardie (Aussie entrepreneur)
 		Stan Gadsen (ditto)
 		John Button, Australian senator
 		St. Maximilian Kolbe, Polish martyr (SK)
 		Merville Shavelson (W6?), Hollywood director
 		Roc Kirby VK3???, chairman Village Roadshow Corp
 		Dale Buggins, motorcycle stunt rider (SK)
 		Fred Gwynn ("Herman Munster") (SK)
 		Violinist of LA Philharmonic (or is this W2TDY?)
 		Dr. Russell Hulse, co-shared with K1JT (lapsed)
 		Elke Sommer's husband
 		Edwin Armstrong, inventor of FM, superhet etc (SK)
 		Very Rev Dr John Flynn OBE, founder of Flying Doctor (SK)
 		James Clark, founder and chairman of Silicon Graphics
 		Clive Robertson, Australian radio host
 		Dr Amar Bose (Bose Audio)
 		Cliff Arquette aka Charlie Weaver, appeared on Jack Parr TV
 		Shaquille "Shack" O'Neal, NBA star (uses "Bill" when on air)
 		I. I. Rabi, Nobel Prize Winner
 		Founder of Hallicrafters Radio (SK)
 		Paul Weitz, astronaut and Shuttle commander

Disputed (some say yes, some say no):

 		Tony Hancock, actor (SK)
 		Neil Armstrong, astronaut (but see Edwin)
 		Richard Feynman, scientist (SK)
 		Samuel F.B. Morse III, W6FZZ, grandson? (SK)

Never licensed (but rumours circulate):

 		Bernard Goetz (of subway fame)
 		Jon Bon Jovi (but see KX2Z)
 		Jose Feliciano
 		Andy Griffith (he and Jose are in the callbook; it's not them)
 		Jimmy Stewart, actor and USAF flag reserve officer
 		HRH Sir Prince Phillip the Duke of Edinburgh, patron of RSGB
 		Gary Shandling, comedian (callbook is incorrect for KD6OY)
 		Hugo Gernsback, SF editor, held exp. call 2XAL, comm. WRNY

Additions welcome!

-- Dave


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