Dave Patton, NN1N, has Departed ARRL
After nearly 19 years working in Newington, Dave Patton, NN1N has returned to his home state of Illinois and is working for Western Illinois University. Dave was not happy with recent changes made at Headquarters, so when an opportunity arose for him and his wife to return home to be closer to their family, the decision to leave was easier to make.
Patton originally started work at ARRL as the Special Assistant to the Executive Vice President (K1ZZ). It was during this time, in 2000, that Dave was given the assignment of creating (as a result of a board action) some sort of electronic QSLing system. As part of this project, Dave created the hugely popular Logbook of the World concept which was originally built by ARRL's chief software engineer, Jon Bloom, KE3Z. In January, 2007, Patton took over the Membership Services Department (he was already leading the Field Services Department) which oversaw DXCC and awards, W1AW, Emergency Preparedness, and contesting.
Patton's last major achievement was the ARRL Centennial QSO Party, for which he was the major architect of the operating event, the W1AW portable operations, and the world's largest-ever QSLing effort that followed in 2015 and 2016 and involved sending out about 800,000 QSLs.
Dave dismantled his 5-tower, 22 yagi station in CT and having won the CQWW CW contest from his station in 2013, and checked-off that box, he will not build such a big station again. But, he will return to the air with a more typical installation sometime.
"I want to thank all the great people with whom I worked, played, and shared my time with in Connecticut and at ARRL." Patton relayed. "There were some real challenges in the DXCC area when I took over -- especially with the annual backlog (remember that?), but once management finally allowed me to make changes to the way the program was administered and fees assessed, that problem went away. I can't list everyone, but I want to thank: all of our DXCC Card Checkers around the world for their selfless work -- especially my great friend and elmer, Masa Ebisawa, JA1DM, who led the adoption of LoTW in Japan as well as running DXCC Card Checking in Japan for many years; all of our contest managers and log checkers; the hard working Section Managers who are the League's front-line; one of my real-ham heroes who proved to be a great sounding board and advisor, past ARRL President Joel Harrison, W5ZN; all-around good guy and trusted resource, Ward Silver, N0AX, and especially Dave Sumner, K1ZZ, who gave me the leeway needed to pull-off projects like the LoTW and Centennial QSO Party."
After nearly 19 years working in Newington, Dave Patton, NN1N has returned to his home state of Illinois and is working for Western Illinois University. Dave was not happy with recent changes made at Headquarters, so when an opportunity arose for him and his wife to return home to be closer to their family, the decision to leave was easier to make.
Patton originally started work at ARRL as the Special Assistant to the Executive Vice President (K1ZZ). It was during this time, in 2000, that Dave was given the assignment of creating (as a result of a board action) some sort of electronic QSLing system. As part of this project, Dave created the hugely popular Logbook of the World concept which was originally built by ARRL's chief software engineer, Jon Bloom, KE3Z. In January, 2007, Patton took over the Membership Services Department (he was already leading the Field Services Department) which oversaw DXCC and awards, W1AW, Emergency Preparedness, and contesting.
Patton's last major achievement was the ARRL Centennial QSO Party, for which he was the major architect of the operating event, the W1AW portable operations, and the world's largest-ever QSLing effort that followed in 2015 and 2016 and involved sending out about 800,000 QSLs.
Dave dismantled his 5-tower, 22 yagi station in CT and having won the CQWW CW contest from his station in 2013, and checked-off that box, he will not build such a big station again. But, he will return to the air with a more typical installation sometime.
"I want to thank all the great people with whom I worked, played, and shared my time with in Connecticut and at ARRL." Patton relayed. "There were some real challenges in the DXCC area when I took over -- especially with the annual backlog (remember that?), but once management finally allowed me to make changes to the way the program was administered and fees assessed, that problem went away. I can't list everyone, but I want to thank: all of our DXCC Card Checkers around the world for their selfless work -- especially my great friend and elmer, Masa Ebisawa, JA1DM, who led the adoption of LoTW in Japan as well as running DXCC Card Checking in Japan for many years; all of our contest managers and log checkers; the hard working Section Managers who are the League's front-line; one of my real-ham heroes who proved to be a great sounding board and advisor, past ARRL President Joel Harrison, W5ZN; all-around good guy and trusted resource, Ward Silver, N0AX, and especially Dave Sumner, K1ZZ, who gave me the leeway needed to pull-off projects like the LoTW and Centennial QSO Party."