Sunday, August 5, 2018

Names (Calls) in the News: WB8SCT, W3XO, KO4MA, KT4TZ

Jack Gerbs, WB8SCT, has been appointed General Chairman of the 2019 Dayton Hamvention. Gerbs succeeds Ron Cramer, KD8ENJ, with whom he worked as assistant chairman for the past two years. Gerbs selected Rick Allnutt, WS8G, to serve with him as Assistant General Chairman. Allnut has previously served on the Hamvention Awards Committee and was this year's international relations chair. Cramer, meanwhile, will continue playing a leadership role as the new president of the Dayton Amateur Radio Association, which sponsors the Hamvention.

The AMSAT News Service reports that former AMSAT-NA President Bill Tynan, W3XO, has resigned as AMSAT's OSCAR Number Administrator due to poor health. Bill has been in charge of determining eligibility and assigning OSCAR (Orbiting Satellite Carrying Amateur Radio) numbers to newly-launched ham radio satellites for more than 20 years. In that time, he has issued nearly 60 OSCAR numbers. Current AMSAT-NA President Joe Spier, K6WAO, named Drew Glasbrenner, KO4MA, to succeed Tynan. Glasbrenner is also AMSAT's current Vice President of Operations. [Update 8/10: W3XO became a Silent Key on August 7. See story above.]


Speaking of the AMSAT News Service, ANS Senior Editor Lee McLamb, KT4TZ, has also stepped down. Spier had not named a replacement as of press time, but was seeking volunteers to join the existing group of AMSAT News Service rotating editors.