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| Meredith Attwell Baker (FCC Photo) |
… FCC Commissioner Meredith Attwell Baker stepped down from the Commission on June 3 -- about a month before the end of her term -- to take a job with Comcast as its Senior Vice President of Government Affairs for NBC/Universal. President Obama will have to name a Republican to replace her, as the law permits no more than three members of one political party on the five-member commission.
… Julio Ripoll, WD4R, Assistant Coordinator of the amateur radio station at the National Hurricane Center, was honored in April at the National Hurricane Conference. The ARRL Letter reports that Ripoll was awarded the National Weather Service's Distinguished Service Award for "exceptional service in providing emergency communication during hurricane events over three decades while leading (the) WX4NHC Amateur Radio station at the National Hurricane Center."
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| W2BXA (Courtesy Bill Hellman, NA2M) |
… The first post-war recipient of CQ's Worked All Zones (WAZ) award has become a Silent Key at age 97. Ben Stevenson, W2BXA, of Colonia, New Jersey, qualified for the award in mid-1947, using all postwar contacts. Prior to World War II, only three hams had qualified for WAZ. Stevenson also held Satellite DXCC #1, mixed DXCC #6 and phone DXCC #6. He was also a founding member and first president of the North Jersey DX Association and active on amateur satellites. The AMSAT News Service reports that W2BXA and W2RS made the first-ever multisatellite contact in any radio service, linking up via AO-6 and AO-7 in 1975.
