Lloyd and Iris Colvin
| Lloyd and Iris Colvin | |
|---|---|
| Lloyd Colvin | Born April 24, 1915, Spokane, Washington; died 1993, in Turkey |
| Iris Colvin | Born April 15, 1914; died 1998 |
| Married | August 11, 1939 |
| Known for | Nearly 30 years of DXpeditions around the world |
| Amateur radio | |
| Call signs | Lloyd: W6KG (earlier W7KG); Iris: W6QL |
| In Japan | J2AHI, their joint station, 1940s |
| Expeditions | "Yasme Round the World DX-Pedition", from 1965 |
| Sponsor | YASME Foundation |
Lloyd and Iris Colvin, W6KG and W6QL, were an American husband-and-wife team who spent almost 30 years traveling the world to put rare countries on the air. Beginning in 1965, they operated from more than 200 DXCC countries by the count of the YASME Foundation, which sponsored their travels, handled their QSL cards, and still makes grants with the money they left it.[1][2]
Early years
Lloyd Dayton Colvin was born in Spokane, Washington, on April 24, 1915. His family moved to Idaho in 1922, and he was first licensed there in 1929; his early call sign was W7KG.[2] He studied at the University of California, Berkeley, where he joined the Army Signal Corps officer training program and graduated in 1938.[2]
Iris Atterbury was born on April 15, 1914, and graduated from Berkeley in 1937. She and Lloyd met on a blind date and married on August 11, 1939, and their only child, a daughter, was born the following year.[2] Iris received her own amateur license in 1945.[2]
Army years and Japan
Lloyd was called to active duty in 1940 and spent much of World War II on construction and communications projects in Alaska and Canada, including work connected with the Alaska Highway.[2] In 1946 he was posted to Allied headquarters in Tokyo, and Iris and their daughter joined him early the next year.[2] In Japan the couple ran a joint station, J2AHI, and Lloyd led the Far East Amateur Radio League, whose headquarters station signed J2USA.[2] In 1948 they helped provide emergency communications after a major earthquake in Japan, and in May 1948 the station earned DXCC certificate number 193.[2]
Lloyd retired from the Army in 1961. The couple had done well from land deals in Alaska and from construction work, and Iris held a contractor's license of her own.[2]
Around the world
In 1965 the Colvins sold their house, wound up their construction contracts and set off on their first DXpedition,[2] a trip to operate from places where few or no hams are active (see DXing). They traveled under the banner of the YASME Foundation, which had earlier sponsored the voyages of the British yachtsman Danny Weil, and called their travels the "Yasme Round the World DX-Pedition."[1]
For nearly three decades they moved from country to country, often staying several weeks in each and making thousands of contacts before moving on.[1] Their lifetime total came to more than a million contacts.[2] Yasme volunteers served as their QSL manager, mailing hundreds of thousands of Yasme QSL cards to the hams who had worked them.[1] Away from the bands, Lloyd applied in 1974 to become a member of the Federal Communications Commission.[2]
Lloyd Colvin died in 1993 in Turkey, while the couple were on an expedition.[2] A gift from Lloyd's estate later helped pay for a 1997 DXpedition to Scarborough Reef in the South China Sea, which was cut short after three days.[2] Iris Colvin died in 1998.[2]
Legacy
In 1998 the YASME Foundation received a large bequest from the Colvins' estate,[1] and it has used the money since then for grants to amateur radio projects, especially for young people and for hams in developing countries. Their story, along with Weil's, is told in James D. Cain's book YASME: The Danny Weil and Colvin Radio Expeditions, which the foundation offers as a free download.[3]
See also
References
External links
- About the YASME Foundation
- The YASME Book, free download