YCCC Member Andy Bodony, K2LE, turned 90 on December 7th, 2023. Andy got his ham license in Hungary when he was 16. Upon becoming an American citizen on May 1st, 1962 he passed the General Class Amateur Radio exam on May 2nd. Andy upgraded to Extra class shortly thereafter and in 1975 qualified for the vanity call K2LE.
Contesting was already in his blood. In 1955, Operating as a Multi-Single HA5KBA, under Soviet rule, they won CQWW CW M/S World — for the first time that category existed. Who did they beat? None other than W6AM!
Andy has been a member of many DXpeditions around the world. I had the opportunity to operate with him as a two man Multi-Single from Aruba in ARRL DX CW. We won the world!
Andy has been an active participant in submitting scores for YCCC pretty much since the formation of the club.
In the early years, he hosted M/M CW ops, while his best friend, W2AX (SK) hosted SSB ops. Later, Andy worked both CW and SSB contests from his Vermont station location. More importantly, he has hosted many YCCC ops over the years in the big 4 DX contests.
Andy proudly hosted NU1AW in the IARU HF World Championship in 2000, 2004, and 2007 in VT, and represented W1AW/1 Vermont in the 2014 ARRL Centennial.
Andy has been a big supporter of the New England QSO Party and has put in many great scores over the years.
Andy has helped to advance the contesting state-of-the-art over the years. His friend W2AX remotely controlled his Vermont station in the 90s; however, it was not very practical over phone lines.
He decided early on to set the station up for remote access. With a lot of growing pains, he now has a full M/2 contest station that can be operated remotely with ease.
For his dedication to the art of Amateur Radio, his dedication to contesting, his incredible generosity, and for 7 decades of incredible operating, I nominate Andrew Bodony, K2LE, to the YCCC Hall of Fame.
Gerry Hull, W1VE