[SFDXA] Fwd: [FCG] Ellen White W1YL - SK

Randy Shirley wil9926 at bellsouth.net
Tue Nov 8 14:35:07 EST 2022 

Thanks Chris for the info.  We, at the DX Club, are sad to see her go.  
She was in huge inspiration to DXers and contesters here in South Florida!

I'm forwarding this to the South Florida DX Association.

Very 73,
Randy N4QV


-------- Forwarded Message --------
Subject: 	[FCG] Ellen White W1YL - SK
Date: 	Tue, 8 Nov 2022 14:19:27 -0500
From: 	W4WF Chris Plumblee <chris.plumblee at gmail.com>
To: 	FCG <FCG at groups.io>



Dan suggested that I forward my more lengthy message to the FCG 
reflector as well. Any other remembrances of Ellen are encouraged as well.

73/OJ/LN,
Chris W4WF

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: *Chris Plumblee* <chris.plumblee at gmail.com>
Date: Tue, Nov 8, 2022 at 1:10 PM
Subject: Ellen White W1YL - SK
To: CQ-Contest Reflector <cq-contest at contesting.com>


It's the end of an era, not only in Florida but in ham radio in general 
and in the contesting world in particular. W1YL, who was instrumental in 
the founding of two big contest clubs, died peacefully on Saturday while 
many of us were operating SS CW. Virtually everyone who was active in 
contesting in the 1960's - 1980's knew Ellen. Most old timers probably 
knew her better than I did, but for the benefit of the next generation 
of contesters I thought it might be beneficial to give a superficial 
overview of Ellen's biography to highlight her impact on ham radio and 
contesting.

Ellen had served as the contest branch manager at the ARRL for decades 
alongside her husband Bob W1CW who oversaw DXCC. I was reminded in 
preparing to write this email that Ellen was the first licensed woman to 
work at ARRL HQ when she and Bob joined the staff in 1952.

Ellen and the rest of the Whites were instrumental in the founding of 
Murphy's Marauders, which morphed into the Yankee Clipper Contest Club. 
Thanks to some crackerjack detective work by K1CC who unearthed the 
original Murphy Messages and very helpfully scanned them, I can pinpoint 
February 21, 1968 as the first meeting of 29 W1's who formed Murphy's 
Marauders.

Surviving charter members of Murphy's Marauders include (according to 
the first Murphy Message)

K1GUD (K1BV)
K1JHX (K1RM)
K1THQ (K1WA)
K1UDD (K1DD)
K1ZND (K1ZZ)
W1ARR
W1RAN
WA1DJG (K1CC)
WA1HOL (AF3I)
WA1JCX (K6JJR)

Other members present were Ellen W1YYM, Bob W1CW. and Jamie White (then 
unlicensed, later to be WA1NNC).

Bob and Ellen retired from the ARRL and moved to South Florida in the 
1980's. Hurricane Andrew destroyed their home in SFL in 1992 and they 
moved to the Tampa area to be nearer to K1ZX. In Seffner, Jim and Bob 
built a formidable contest station with a 40m yagi to soothe Bob's 
insomnia and sufficient other antennas to support multi-op and 
competitive single-op entries in major contests by K1ZX/K4OJ. Highlights 
included several competitive M/S and M/2 efforts in the CQWW and ARRL DX 
CW contests and a 3-peat in Multi-op in SS CW from 1996 - 1998. This 
station formed the core of the very successful (and perhaps still the 
record score for W1AW/x) W1AW/4 effort in the 2002 IARU contest, and 
sadly was the site of the W1CW memorial M/M in CQWW CW 2003.

While attending the annual FOC Florida Dinner in the early and 
mid-1990's, Jim, along with G4BKI got the idea to form a Florida-based 
contest club. They recruited Jim's long-suffering parents, who were 
happy to provide their living room again. The first meeting of the 
Florida Contest Group was held in the White's living room in Seffner in 
about 1994. Attendees included all three Whites (again) as well as AC1O, 
G4BKI, WC4E, WB4TDH, K4XS, and a handful of others (unfortunately I 
don't have the luxury of having the FCG founding documents electronically).

Sadly, Bob passed away in 2002 and Jim passed away in 2004. Ellen lived 
for another decade in the White House, though after Jim's death all the 
towers but one were taken down. In 2015, Ellen sold and moved out of the 
White House and into a condo with no outside antennas in the Tampa area. 
She had resigned herself to not being active on CW any longer. 
Fortunately, thanks to the generosity of a number of FCG members and of 
K5RC, we were able to purchase and provision a RemoteRig box and K3/0 
for Ellen's use. With local IT support from W4LT and K1KNQ, Ellen was 
able to be on remote from the W7RN station quite often, resolutely 
working her way through the JA callbook and maintaining friendships on 
the air with her FOC confederates, thanks to the magic of the internet.

Ellen would have been 96 years old next month. She was endlessly 
optimistic and enthusiastic about life, and specifically about ham 
radio's role in her life. Until July (according to RBN data) she was 
active on the air frequently, most often between 0800 and 1100z when the 
other W7RN remote users were asleep.

Ellen was a fierce proponent of the ARRL, and received her 70-year 
member pin in 2016, having joined shortly after she earned her license 
in 1946. At the time of writing, I don't know any arrangements or 
memorials that may have been set up in her memory, but I can theorize 
that a contribution in her memory to the ARRL would be most appreciated.

Feel free to share this email with other groups who you think might 
appreciate it. Any errors of fact above are mine.

73/OJ to LN...

Chris Plumblee W4WF
President, Florida Contest Group


-- 
Chris Plumblee
407.494.5155
-- 
Chris Plumblee
407.494.5155
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