| Notable amateur radio operators |
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| Scope | Well-known people who hold or held an amateur license |
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| Groups | Science and engineering; spaceflight; entertainment and media; public life |
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| Call signs | As held by each person; some have since been reissued |
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| Related | Silent Key (a deceased amateur) |
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Notable amateur radio operators include scientists, astronauts, musicians, broadcasters and politicians, people who became famous for other things but held a ham license and, in many cases, were active on the air. This list covers a selection whose licenses and call signs are documented by reliable sources such as ARRL news reports. It is not complete: many more public figures have been licensed, and new names appear as astronauts and others take up the hobby. Entries marked "d." give the year the person died; a ham who has died is often described by other amateurs as a Silent Key.
Call signs are given as each person held them. A person may hold several over a lifetime, and after a holder dies a US call sign can eventually be reissued to someone else, so a famous call heard on the air today may belong to a different operator.
Science and engineering
| Name |
Call sign |
Known for
|
| Hiram Percy Maxim (d. 1936) |
1AW |
Co-founded the ARRL in 1914 and led it until his death; the ARRL headquarters station W1AW is named in his memory
|
| Joe Taylor |
K1JT |
Astrophysicist who shared the 1993 Nobel Prize in Physics with Russell Hulse for discovering a new type of pulsar, the first known binary pulsar; author of the WSJT weak-signal software that led to WSJT-X and FT8
|
| Bob Bruninga (d. 2022) |
WB4APR |
Engineer at the US Naval Academy who created APRS and guided student satellite projects
|
Spaceflight
| Name |
Call sign |
Known for
|
| Owen Garriott (d. 2019) |
W5LFL |
NASA astronaut who made the first amateur radio contacts from space, on the Space Shuttle Columbia in 1983, using a handheld radio and a window-mounted antenna
|
| Richard Garriott |
W5KWQ |
Game developer and private space traveler; son of Owen; in 2008 the two became the first American father and son to make ham radio contacts from space
|
| Reid Wiseman |
KF5LKT |
NASA astronaut on the International Space Station in 2014; commanded Artemis II, the first crewed flight around the Moon since Apollo, in April 2026
|
| Alexander Gerst |
KF5ONO |
European Space Agency astronaut from Germany
|
| Samantha Cristoforetti |
IZ0UDF |
European Space Agency astronaut from Italy
|
| Gennady Padalka |
RN3DT |
Russian cosmonaut
|
| Mikhail Kornienko |
RN3BF |
Russian cosmonaut
|
| Kjell Lindgren |
KO5MOS |
NASA astronaut
|
| Kimiya Yui |
KG5BPH |
Japanese astronaut (JAXA)
|
| Tim Kopra |
KE5UDN |
Former NASA astronaut, retired in 2018
|
| Tim Peake |
KG5BVI |
First British astronaut of the European Space Agency
|
| Rabea Rogge |
LB9NJ, KD3AID |
First German woman in space, as pilot of the private Fram2 mission in 2025, the first crewed polar-orbit flight; made the first amateur radio contact from a SpaceX Crew Dragon
|
Most astronauts and cosmonauts who fly to the space station are licensed so that they can talk with school groups and hams on the ground through the ARISS program; see also Amateur satellites.
| Name |
Call sign |
Known for
|
| Walter Cronkite (d. 2009) |
KB2GSD |
CBS News anchor; narrated an ARRL video introducing amateur radio and received awards from the Radio Club of America and the ARRL
|
| Chet Atkins (d. 2001) |
W4CGP |
Country guitarist and producer; the suffix of his call sign matched "C.G.P.", for "Certified Guitar Player", the title he used
|
| Joe Walsh |
WB6ACU |
Eagles guitarist and ARRL life member who recorded public service announcements for the hobby and has operated from W1AW
|
| Jean Shepherd (d. 1999) |
K2ORS |
Radio storyteller whose tales became the film A Christmas Story; often talked about ham radio on his shows
|
Public life
| Name |
Call sign |
Known for
|
| Barry Goldwater (d. 1998) |
K7UGA |
US Senator from Arizona and a strong supporter of amateur radio in Washington; an ARRL achievement award bears his name and call sign
|
| Greg Walden |
W7EQI |
US Representative from Oregon until 2021 who chaired the House communications subcommittee, backed amateur radio legislation and was the first recipient of the Goldwater award, in 2014
|
| King Hussein of Jordan (d. 1999) |
JY1 |
Keen radio amateur who operated whenever his duties allowed and founded the Royal Jordanian Radio Amateur Society in 1971; his radio equipment was later given to the RSGB for display
|
To see who holds a US call sign today, search the FCC's
Universal Licensing System. A call sign connected with a famous ham may have been reissued, so check before assuming a station on the air is the person you have heard of.
See also
