BCC Member of the Year 2022: DL8DYL

Nach zwei Jahren Zwangspause fand endlich wieder die HAM Radio mit unserem traditionellen BCC-Buffet vor Ort in Friedrichshafen statt. Zur Abendveranstaltung nutzte Chris, Präsident des BCC, die Chance, und zeichnete ein Mitglied aus. Hier ist seine Rede:

Since 2002, the Bavarian Contest Club is awarding the “BCC Man of the Year” award to honor members with outstanding dedication and commitment to the BCC. Over the last years a lot has happened, times have changed, and the “BCC Man of the Year” turned by itself into the “BCC Member of the Year”.

At the age of 12 she found enough time between the sports program and the accordion lessons to learn morse code at school. Three years later she received her amateur radio license and the callsign Y89RL. The first years were dominated by high-speed telegraphy including several national championships. When she got in contact with the radio club Y33ZL (DF0SAX, DA2X), DXing and Contesting were added to her list of hobbies within the hobby. And this not only at the club near Dresden, but also on the other side of the pileup in Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago or New Hampshire, USA. Today she is not only the chairwoman of the local club Sierra 01, but also teaching her own CW classes. And organizing operators for various contests.

The personal highlight in her contest career was the participation in the WRTC 2014 together with Sandy, DL1QQ, as the first qualified YL team ever and 2018 with Martin, DL4NAC. Always outperforming many many world class contest operators.

This all would not have been possible without the help and assistance of her family, her husband Ralf, DL9DRA, and her son Robert, DM7XX, also active contesters by themselves.

Our Member of the Year joined the BCC in January 2003. In June 2003 while decorating the ball room for the 20th anniversary of the BCC, then President Dieter, DL8OH, asked her about her profession. “I am working for a newspaper.” – “Newspaper, interesting…”.

Since then, she is responsible for public relations in the BCC. Writing articles, updating the homepage, and filling it with content, being the driving force among the BCC newsletter editors or just informing folks in Facebook about the latest news around the BCC. She is always there when putting anything on paper. Apart from the PR work she brings in many new ideas in the BCC board and contributes to a lot of topics most of us would not recognize. And this is not only, based on her passion for chocolate mousse, the annual fight to influence the dessert menu of the BCC Buffet.

She often has her own mind and is not afraid to push it through in heated discussions. But having someone to look differently on certain topics often helps to make it better in the end for everyone. And funnier as well.

Ladies and Gentlemen, it is a great honor for me to present the BCC Member of the Year 2022: Irina Stieber, DL8DYL