Tribute to William B. Smith

Tribute to William B. Smith - W9VBV, W9VA
Born May 22, 1937 - SK December 22, 2023

Taken from Bill's QRZ.com page!

I was first licensed in 1952 as WN9VBV, becoming W9VA in April 1977. I was involved in the insurance business in Brazil from 1980 through 1984 and was licensed as PY1ZFO, living in Rio de Janeiro. Through this experience I met a number of great Brazilian hams, and through these connections made my first trip to Fernando de Noronha in March 1988. Since then, I have been back to Noronha 12 times, and was part of the PWØT DXpedition to Trindade Island in 2002. I am QSL Manager for my host on Noronha, Andre PY0FF, as well as my own operations from the island as PY1ZFO/0, ZY0FX, PS0F, and PY0ZFO. The photo is from trip #12 in March 2009 as PS0F. Sadly, Andre became a Silent Key in September 2020. I have his logs back to 1988 and will continue to respond to QSL requests.

I am a member of the Caribbean Contesting Consortium, which operates the PJ2T contest station on Curacao. The DXCC status of Curacao changed on October 10, 2010, when it gained increased autonomy from The Netherlands. I had the opportunity to operate from PJ2T for almost a week beginning October 12. Although I have operated from some fairly exotic places, nothing was quite like operating from "An All Time New One!" Pile-up management was a real issue, and I appreciated the discipline and patience of almost all of those calling. I return to Curacao frequently, usually in February as a member of the PJ2T team in the ARRL CW DX Contest.

Recently I acquired an interest in QSL cards - vintage as well as recent. Although logs for PY0FF, W9VA, and PJ2/W9VA are uploaded to the ARRL Logbook Of The World facility, I look forward to receiving your QSL card and respond 100%.

Bill was a good friend for many years. We would always meet at the Dayton Hamvention. Bill was a member of the QSL Collectors Group that I am also a member. He also helped with many projects on Hamgallery.com. It was sad to hear the Bill became a SK at 86 years old a few days before Christmas 2023. You will be missed my friend. K8CX

Dayton 2001