- Dick Smith
Dick Smith AO (born Richard Harold Smith on 18 March 1944, is an Australian businessman and aviator. He is commonly known for his qualities as an Australian patriot, and philanthropist. He gained his amateur radio licence at the age of 17 and holds callsign VK2DIK. In 1968, he founded a small electronics retailer Dick Smith Electronics. In 1982, he sold the business to Woolworths for $25 million, …
- Art Bell
Arthur "Art" W. Bell, III (born June 17, 1945) is an American broadcaster and author, known primarily as the founder and longtime host of the paranormal-themed radio program "Coast to Coast AM". He also created and formerly hosted its companion show, "Dreamland". Semiretired from "Coast to Coast AM" since 2003, he hosted the show on many weekends for the next 4 years. He announced his retirement from weekend hosting on July 1, 2007, …
- Walter Cronkite
Walter Leland Cronkite, Jr. is a retired American broadcast journalist, best known as anchorman for the "CBS Evening News" (1962–81). During the heyday of CBS News in the 1970s and 1980s he was often cited in viewer opinion polls as "the most trusted man in America", because of his professional experience and avuncular demeanor.
- Hiram Percy Maxim
Hiram Percy Maxim (September 2, 1869 - February 17, 1936) was co-founder of the American Radio Relay League and originally had the amateur call sign 1AW, and later W1AW, which is now the ARRL Headquarters club station call sign. His rotary spark gap transmitter "Old Betsy" has a place of honor at the ARRL Headquarters. Hiram Percy Maxim was a mechanical engineering graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
- Sergei Krikalev
Sergei Konstantinovich Krikalyov is a Russian cosmonaut and veteran of six space flights. He has been dubbed by many "the last Citizen of the USSR " as in 1991–1992 he spent 311 days, 20 hours and 1 minute aboard the Mir space station whilst back on Earth the Soviet Union collapsed. Krikalyov has spent more time in space than any other human being. On August 16, 2005 at 1:44 a.m. EDT he passed the record of 748 days held by Sergei Avdeyev.
- Barry Goldwater
Barry Morris Goldwater was a five-term United States Senator from Arizona (1953–1965, 1969–87) and the Republican Party's nominee for president in the 1964 election. He is the American politician most often credited for sparking the resurgence of the American conservative political movement in the 1960s. Goldwater rejected the legacy of the New Deal and fought inside the Conservative coalition to defeat the New Deal coalition.
- Marlon Brando
Marlon Brando, Jr. was a two-time Academy Award-winning American actor whose body of work spanned over half a century. He is widely regarded as perhaps the most influential actor of the 20th Century. Brando is perhaps best known for his roles in "A Streetcar Named Desire" and "On the Waterfront", both directed by Elia Kazan in the early 1950s, …
- Jean Shepherd
Jean Parker Shepherd (July 26, 1921 - October 16, 1999) was an American raconteur, radio and TV personality, writer and actor who was often referred to by the nickname Shep. With a career that spanned decades, Shepherd is perhaps best-known to modern audiences for narrating the film "A Christmas Story" (1983), which he co-wrote, based on his own semi-autobiographical stories.
- Joe Walsh
Joseph Fidler "Joe" Walsh (born November 20, 1947) is an American guitarist and rock musician. He has served stints in two successful bands, James Gang and Eagles. He has also experienced success as a solo artist.
- Steve Wozniak
Dr. Stephan Gary "Woz" Wozniak (born August 11 1950 in San Jose, California) is a U.S. computer engineer and the co-founder of Apple Computer (now Apple Inc.), with Steve Jobs. His inventions and machines are credited with contributing greatly to the personal computer revolution of the 1970s. Wozniak created the Apple I and Apple II computers in the mid-1970s. The Apple II gained a sizable amount of popularity, …
- Ronald A. Parise
Ronald Anthony Parise, Ph.D., (May 24, 1951—) is a NASA astronaut and payload specialist.
- Bruce Perens
Bruce Perens is a former Debian GNU/Linux Project Leader, the primary author of the Open Source Definition, a founder of Software in the Public Interest, founder and first project leader of the Linux Standard Base project, the initial author of BusyBox, a founder of the UserLinux project, and co-founder of the Open Source Initiative (OSI). Perens also has a book series with Prentice Hall PTR called the Bruce Perens' Open Source Series.
- Phil Karn
Phil Karn is an engineer from Baltimore, Maryland. He earned a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Cornell University in 1978 and a master's degree in electrical engineering from Carnegie Mellon University in 1979. From 1979 until 1984, Phil Karn worked at Bell Labs in Naperville, Illinois, and Murray Hill, New Jersey. From 1984 until 1991, he was with Bell Communications Research in Morristown, New Jersey. Since 1991 he has been with Qualcomm in San Diego, …
- Bdale Garbee
Bdale Garbee is a computer specialist who works with Linux, particularly Debian GNU/Linux. He is currently the Linux CTO at Hewlett-Packard, and the current President of Software in the Public Interest. Bdale Garbee has been a Debian developer since the earliest days of the project in the mid-1990s, and he set up the original developer machine named "master.debian.org" in 1995. He has later served as a Debian Project Leader for one year (2002-2003).
- Patty Loveless
Patty Loveless (born Patty Lee Ramey on January 4, 1957 in Elkhorn City, Kentucky, raised in Louisville, Kentucky) is an American country music singer. Loveless rose to stardom thanks to her mix of honky tonk and emotive country ballads. She is a distant cousin of Loretta Lynn and Crystal Gayle.
- Wes Hayward
Wes Hayward is an engineer, author and a renowned Radio Amateur residing in the United States. He holds the amateur radio callsign W7ZOI and has written numerous articles about amateur radio electronics construction, in various magazines. Together with another fellow amateur, Doug DeMaw, W1FB, Wes was responsible for popularizing home made construction of simple radio equipment, which fostered experimentation among radio amateurs.
- Arnie Coro
Arnaldo Coro Antich, aka Arnie Coro, is a Cuban radio host, academic and popular amateur radio operator. He is a cofounder of Radio Havana. He hosts the English language Radio Habana show "DXers Unlimited" which broadcasts twice a week. He is also a professor of broadcasting at the University of Havana.
- Paul Crouch
Paul Franklin Crouch (born March 29, 1934) is a the co-founder, chairman, and president of the Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN), the world's largest Christian television network. The network has grown to 47 satellite stations and 12,500 affiliates, reaching nearly 100,000,000 households globally. Crouch, raised in Missouri, is the son of Pentecostal missionaries.
- Rajiv Gandhi
Rājiv Ratna Gāndhī (August 20, 1944 - May 21, 1991), the eldest son of Indira and Feroze Gandhi, was the 9th Prime Minister of India (and the 3rd from the Gandhi family) from his mother's death on 31 October, 1984 until his resignation on December 2, 1989 following a general election defeat. Becoming the Prime Minister of India at the age of 40, he is the youngest person to date to hold that office.
- Dick Rutan
Dick Rutan , aviator and adventurer, made "the world's longest flight" in the airplane "Voyager", the first airplane to circumnavigate the globe without refueling. In realizing his dream, with desire and determination, Dick successfully completed the mission which would earn him world records, international fame and a place in the Smithsonian Institute. On the morning of December 14, 1986, a fuel-laden Voyager took off on the history making flight.
- Grote Reber
Grote Reber (December 22, 1911 - December 20, 2002) was one of the pioneers of radio astronomy. He was instrumental in repeating Karl Jansky's pioneering but somewhat simple work, and conducted the first sky survey in the radio frequencies. Reber was born and raised in Wheaton, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, and graduated from Armour Institute of Technology (later Illinois Institute of Technology) in 1933 with a degree in radio engineering.
- Ronnie Milsap
Ronnie Milsap (born Ronnie Lee Milsap January 16, 1943 in Robbinsville, North Carolina) is an American Country/Pop Singer and Musician. He was one of Country Music's most popular singers in the 1970s and 1980s. He became Country Music's first blind superstar. He was one of the many crossover Country singers in Country Music at this time, which was also called Countrypolitan or Country Pop. His biggest crossover hits include "(There's) No Gettin' Over Me", …
- Hussein Of Jordan
Hussein I bin Talal, King of Jordan (' was the ruler of Jordan since his father, King Talal, abdicated in 1952, until his death.
- Hugo Gernsback
Hugo Gernsback, born Hugo Gernsbacher, was a Luxembourg American inventor, writer and magazine publisher, best remembered for publications that included the first science fiction magazine. His contribution to the genre as publisher was so significant, that along with H.G. Wells and Jules Verne, he is sometimes popularly called "The Father of Science Fiction".
- Rupert Goodwins
Rupert Goodwins (born May 23, 1965) is a British writer and technology journalist. His career actually started as a programmer for Sinclair Research in the early 1980s, working on the ZX Spectrum ROM. He remained with the company after its acquisition by Amstrad. He has written for a number of UK computer publications, including: * Sinclair User * Personal Computer World * PC Magazine UK * IT Week He currently works full-time for ZDNet UK, …
- H. Peter Anvin
Hans Peter Anvin (born on 12 January 1972) is a computer programmer, Linux kernel hacker, and author and contributor of several other free software projects.
- Paul Horowitz
Paul Horowitz (born 1942) is a U.S. physicist and electrical engineer, known primarily for his work in electronics design, as well as for his role in the search for extra-terrestrial intelligence (see SETI). At age 8, Horowitz achieved distinction as the world's youngest amateur radio operator (or "ham"). He went on to study physics at Harvard University (B.A., 1965; M.A., 1967; Ph.D., 1970), where he has also spent all of his subsequent career.
- Helen Sharman
Born in Sheffield's Jessop Hospital in 1963, Helen's family originally lived in Grenoside where she attended Grenoside Junior and Infant School and then moved to Greenhill. After studying at Jordanthorpe Comprehensive, Helen gained a Chemistry degree at Sheffield University.
- Curtis Lemay
Curtis Emerson LeMay was a general in the United States Air Force and the vice presidential running mate of independent candidate George C. Wallace in 1968. He is credited with designing and implementing an effective systematic strategic bombing campaign in the Pacific Theatre of World War II. After the war, he headed the Berlin airlift, then reorganized the Strategic Air Command into an effective means of conducting nuclear war.
- Jay Maynard
Jay Maynard is a computer programmer and system administrator. He is most famous for his electroluminiscent Tron Guy costume. He became an Internet phenomenon when his costume inspired by the movie "TRON" spread across the net from postings on Slashdot and Fark. Jay's overweight physique and skintight costume was the subject of much derision on the net.
- Maximilian Kolbe
Maximilian Kolbe, also known as Maksymilian or Massimiliano Maria Kolbe and "Apostle of Consecration to Mary," born as Rajmund Kolbe, was a Polish Conventual Franciscan friar who volunteered to die in place of a stranger in the Nazi concentration camp of Auschwitz in Poland. He was canonized by the Catholic Church as Saint Maximilian Kolbe on October 10, 1982 by Pope John Paul II, and declared a martyr of charity.
- William I Orr
William Ittner Orr (W6SAI) (1919-2001) is the author of several amateur radio and radio engineering texts. His titles include: * "All about Cubical Quad Antennas, …
- Joe Rudi
Joseph Oden Rudi (born September 7, 1946 in Modesto, California) is a former left fielder in Major League Baseball who played for the Kansas City & Oakland Athletics (1967-76, 1982), California Angels (1977-80) and Boston Red Sox (1981). He batted and threw right handed. Currently works in real estate in Baker City, OR. He is also an Amateur Radio Operator, call sign NK7U.
- Sergei Avdeyev
Sergei Vasilyevich Avdeyev is a Russian cosmonaut. Avdeyev was born in Chapayevsk, Samara Oblast (formerly Kuybyshev Oblast), Russian SFSR. He graduated from Moscow Physics-Engineering Institute in 1979 as an engineer-physicist. From 1979 to 1987 he worked as an engineer for NPO Energiya. He was selected as a cosmonaut as part of the Energia Engineer Group 9 on 26 March 1987. His basic cosmonaut training was from December 1987 through to July 1989.
- Juan Carlos I of Spain
Juan Carlos I de Borbón y Borbón (b. January 5, 1938, in Rome) is the reigning King of Spain. On 22 November 1975, two days after the death of Francisco Franco, Juan Carlos was designated King according to the law of succession promulgated by Franco. He successfully oversaw the transition of Spain to a democratic constitutional monarchy. Recent polls show that he is widely accepted by Spaniards. Juan Carlos's titles include that of King of Jerusalem, …
- Paul Flaherty
Paul Andrew Flaherty (1964 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin - March 16, 2006 in Belmont, California) was an American computer scientist. He was a renowned specialist for internet protocols and a co-inventor of the AltaVista search engine. Flaherty received his Bachelor's Degree in Electrical Engineering and Mathematics from Marquette University, and his Master's Degree and PhD from Stanford University. He joined Digital Equipment Corporation in 1994 and, …
- Arthur A. Collins
Arthur A. Collins (1909-1987) founded Collins Radio Co., which is now a part of Rockwell Collins, Inc.. Art Collins' father owned several thousand acres of farmland. After graduating from Washington High School (Cedar Rapids, Iowa), Collins attended college and later started a very successful radio business, Arthur began to take his business into more research and development. Art's father managed the financial end of his son's business until his death, when afterward, …
- Harold Beverage
Dr. Harold Henry "Bev" Beverage (1893 in North Haven, ME - 1993) is perhaps most widely known today for his invention and development of the wave antenna, which came to be known as the Beverage antenna and which for the last few decades has seen a resurgence in use within the amateur radio and broadcast DXing hobbyist communities.
- Henry Feinberg
Henry Robert Feinberg Henry Feinberg is an interpreter of science and technology. Best known as the person who made it possible for E.T. to “phone home,” he created E.T.'s Communicator for Steven Spielberg's classic film. Feinberg designed educational exhibits and science demonstrations for Walt Disney's Epcot Center, Universal Studios theme parks in Florida and Los Angeles, and AT&T's InfoQuest Center in New York City.
- Karl Rothammel
Karl Rothammel was an amateur radio enthusiast, author and educator. He published articles in the journal "Radioamatér" for five years, and authored several books including "Very High Frequencies" and "Practice of the Television Aerials". Rothammel was born in 1914 in Fürth, Bavaria; he died at the age of 73 in Sonneberg, Thüringen. Y21BK was his last amateur call sign.