BCC Man of the Year 2013: DL1MGB

Am 29. Juni 2013 fand das BCC-Buffet 2013 im Rahmen der HAM Radio in Friedrichshafen statt. Dieser Anlass wurde durch unseren Präsidenten Ben, DL6RAI genutzt, ein Mitglied des BCC für sein Engagement zu würdigen. Die Auszeichnung „BCC-man of the Year“ ging in diesem Jahr an Chris, DL1MGB. Die Laudatio kann hier nachgelesen werden.

Ladies and Gentlemen, this year I am proud to honor a member of our club, who has, over the years, made major contributions to the BCC and also to world wide DXpeditioning.

A ham since the age of 14 and a BCC member since almost 20 years, this guy has made his career from a rookie to a senior DXpeditioner already at the age of 37.

His first activity from the Faroe Islands in 1997 was only the beginning of an impressive series of activities. 4U1VIC, CN8WW, LX5A, S50S, CS8W, 9Y4TBG, A61AJ – these were some of the callsigns he operated from in multi OP teams.

By mid-2000, he got interested in serious DXpeditioning. In his words, DXpeditions are like running a long contest. So the first major activity lead him to a little island in Oceania. His organisational skills when he helped to bring the VK9DWX team together to make 95,178 QSOs in October 2008.

In 2010, the next major activity came up. With a team of 14, he put another rare Pacific island on the air: ZL8 – Kermadec. The net result of 145,178 QSOs still lists the ZL8X expedition at place 4 of all Mega DXpeditions honor roll.

In 2013 a team of 25 operators went to another rare one in the Pacific: Clipperton Island. And again, this guy was at the head of the organisation, taking care of radio operations and logistics big style. The equipment list of the expedition contained over 1,000 technical items which had to be shipped to the island, put in operation and later packed and sent back. 10 stations and 6 power generators were prepared for this activity and shipped in a single large container from Germany. Not only hours but days, weeks and months were spent setting up this large scale operation. Finally he sacrificed his position on the WRTC 2014 qualification list.

With 113,601 QSOs in the log, the TX5K operation of 2013 is history and the final question is now, to speak with the words of another DXpeditioner: Where do we go next?

Ladies and Gentlemen, let me call on the stage:

Christian Janßen, DL1MGB