It is with great pleasure that I was privileged to present the 2022 Warren Bruene Award to Chip Coker KD4C at the annual Richardson Wireless Klub President’s Dinner for 2022. It was clear that the club has recognized the effort that Chip has put into the club, as he was the overwhelming winner with 2/3rds of the votes cast.
During the years that Chip has been club president, he has worked tirelessly to try and make RWK better than ever. “RWK has so much potential! With a club our size and the amount of smart, technically-minded hams that we have, RWK has the potential to be one of the best radio clubs in the state – if not the country – and that’s been my goal as RWK President,” said Chip. “We need to be creating more opportunities for our members and for new hams to promote the hobby.”
One of the first things that Chip told me when he became president was “I’m tired of us not holding VE sessions because of COVID, I know you’re doing sessions online, make something happen!”, so I did, and Chip has been at almost all of the sessions the RWK VE team has held. With that and so many other aspects of the club, he doesn’t just participate, he leads.
He’s been promoting RWK Foxhunting and hiding Fox#1 for quite some time, and honing his skills finding Wheatley. When DCARA asked RWK for help finding the source of the signal jamming their repeater, Chip was one of the first people to jump into the search. If you missed the tale of those exploits, here’s a link.
If RWK is doing something, Chip is there, offering support and help to anybody that wants or needs it. He’s revitalized The Chawed Rag, making it timely, and easier to read, with current, topical material and hotlinks for people to find more information about the multitude of subjects. He’s also been continually improving the RWK Website, adding content so it can be an invaluable resource to the members and the ham community, and making it better organized and easier to read. “The website is our central repository of the Klub’s activities and knowledge. Everything we do as a club needs to be reflected there and recorded for future hams”, said Chip.
We can also thank Chip for a lot of effort behind the scenes, such as working with Bob KG5WRY and Doug KD5OUG and others to make the monthly meetings available in real time on Zoom, and having recordings that club members can watch at their convenience. It’s my firm belief that most people have no idea how much work Chip puts into being President, I see more than most, and I’ve always been impressed.
For me, I think the defining aspect that makes Chip such a great President is that he cares (perhaps too much sometimes) and wants the club to improve, and this award is an indication that I’m not the only person that feels this way.
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Previous winners of the RWK Warren Bruene Award are Carl Soloman W5SU, Doug Kilgore KD5OUG, Grant Loughlin W5XJ, Danny Siminiuk K5CG, Bill Owens AD5EW, Hal Wolff N5BT (SK), Andrew Koenig KE5GDB, and Michael Masterson WT9V.
Oh, and who is Warren Bruene you ask? All will be answered on our Warren Bruene tribute page: Warren Bruene & The Warren Bruene Award
