Inducted 2013
In 1984, David Robbins moved to Peru, MA. He was very interested in contesting and became very active in the Yankee Clipper Contest Club. The Amateur Radio contesting world has forever been changed by the generosity and ingenuity of Dave, K1TTT. For those of us who know Dave well, we understand he does not like to do things small. In fact, his first tower was 150 feet of Rohn 45. Dave became infected with the contest bug and quickly set out to build his superstation. That work continues today.
The focus of many multi-multi station owners is building the best possible station and crew. The paradox for many inexperienced operators is they cannot get a seat due to lack of experience. Through Dave’s generosity and open-door policy, countless numbers of operators have been able to hone their skills and to learn techniques from experienced operators while operating a top-notch station. Many of these ops have gone on to become great single-ops or members of other multi-op teams. Many continue to return to the station they love.
The lifeblood of any contest is activity. Dave’s generosity has led to many #1 repeat finishes in many contests outside the Big Four – such as the CQ and ARRL 160 Contests, WPX both Modes, ARRL and CQ RTTY Contests, the Russian DX Contest , the New England QSO party, and ARRL Sweepstakes, to name just a few. Pick any weekend when a contest is on, and there’s a good chance someone will be operating from Dave’s place.
One could measure the success of Dave and the station simply by the number of trophies and plaques on his walls – too numerous to count – but a far better measurement would be the number of guest operators he has hosted and the friendships he has made.
During the course of building a superstation, you learn quite a lot of tricks. Dave’s generosity extends to the internet, where he has chronicled the ups and downs and all the neat tricks he has come up with on his website, K1TTT.net. He has compiled the story of his station into a book, which is available for free from his site. Judging from the number of hits it receives, Dave’s work is used by thousands around the world.
Many of us around the world know Dave through his station. However, that station is just one piece of Dave’s contribution to this hobby and our sport. Not only does Dave have a passion for contesting, but he also has a passion for software. Dave has written his own software and contributed to many popular packages. How many of us used his CT TCP networking gateway? He has contributed countless hours to some of the larger free amateur radio applications, such as N1MM Logger. Dave was instrumental in getting real-time scoring up and running, helping with both the N1MM support as well as with the getscores website. Packet Spotting, in all its forms, from VHF links to internet DX Clusters to the RBN, has been greatly influenced and supported by Dave.
Dave served YCCC as President in 1990 and Webmaster in 1995. Always a supporter of YCCC, Dave has hosted many regional meetings at his place. Dave has been known to pay the membership dues for new contesters operating at the station to ensure his ARRL DX Contest operations were 100% YCCC.
A relentless supporter of Amateur Radio, Dave has taught classes, hosted the Boy Scouts many times, and actively watched for intruders to our frequencies. He is always happy to share his wealth of knowledge. We are a lucky club to have such a ham and outstanding individual in our midst. For these reasons, we nominate David Robbins, K1TTT, to the YCCC Hall of Fame.
Nominating Members: W1VE, NJ1F, W1WEF