BVARC Officers
Ken Trudel– N1RGK
President
Ken Trudel, (N1RGK) was originally licensed as KA1LIV in the 80’s. He is the former President of the Enfield Radio Amateur Group (E-RAG) and is a Life Member and Diamond Club Member of the ARRL.
Married 41 years to his wife Carol, they have two sons Christopher, (KC0EES) and Scott. They enjoy vacationing throughout Europe and local Bed and Breakfast’s throughout New England.
Ken has been in the IT industry for the past 44 years holding various Executive Management positions and looks forward to retirement in a handful of years.
Besides Ham Radio, Ken is an avid car enthusiast restoring his 1929 Ford Model A Leatherback and enjoying his Model S Tesla.
Paul Fontana – KC1IEN
Vice President
Paul was first exposed to HAM radio in his father's(N1GFF) shack, where he learned the basics. He got his tech and general licenses in 2016 and earned his EXTRA in 2023. Paul mainly is interested in EMCOM, QRP and digital modes like FT8 and APRS. He maintains an APRS weather station KC1IEN-9. He has worked in IT for 30 years, focusing on network and server infrastructure. Paul also works with kids as a mentor and board member in the RI FTC robotics league. He and his wife Giovanna have two dogs Puff and Ice.
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Lloyd Merrill – W1LBM
Treasurer
Lloyd Merrill, W1LBM, earned his Technician license in 2016, upgraded to General in 2017, and then to Extra in 2018. Lloyd enjoys working the HF bands, especially DXing using digital modes and SSB as a POTA hunter. He is also working on getting on the air with CW. He is also an ARRL member.
Married to his wife Gail for 42 years they have 3 children and 5 grandchildren and live in Cumberland.
Lloyd’s professional background has been in IT management for three New England retailers spanning 49 years and is now semi-retired.
Lloyd’s other main interest is amateur astronomy and is a member and former officer for the Astronomical Society of Rhode Island (Skyscrapers) in North Scituate. Lloyd was a three-term treasurer for that organization. Other interests include photography, woodworking, yard work, and restoring vintage radios.
Ray Vilnit – KC1HQB
Secretary
Ray Vilnit (KC1HQB) earned his Technician and General Class licenses in May/August 2017 and his Extra Class license in August 2018. Ray retired from Raytheon Company January 2016 after a thirty-seven year career working in various engineering and management positions. In addition to Ham radio activities such as Field Day, Consortium and Club Meetings, Ray enjoys photography, hiking/walking, gardening, travel and spending time with his six grandchildren’.
Board of Directors
Judson Mitsock – W1JMZ
Secretary of the Board
Judson joined BVARC in 2008 two days after getting his Tech and General class license. He wanted to do ham radio all of his life and is now trying to make up for lost time. He enjoys CW and got his Extra class. He is an avid DXer and also enjoys restoring old AM tube radios. Judson has a Bachelors degree in Music from Boston University. He works as a IT Developer at Amica Insurance. He created the current BVARC website and is the club's webmaster.
Mickey Callahan – K1WMC
Chairman of the Board
Mickey has been a Ham since 2015, first earning his Technician and General tickets before upgrading to Extra in 2017. He enjoys working HF SSB and is striving to become proficient in working CW also. He maintains a modest shack in the finished basement of his house and uses a wire, end fed antenna for HF along with other antennas for VHF/UHF operation that are mounted off the peak of his house in Bellingham, MA.
Mickey has been a professional furniture and cabinet maker for over 30 years and is currently employed with Woodcraft in Walpole, MA as the resident woodworker and Educational Program Director and chief woodworking instructor. In addition, Mickey is the co-founder and past president of the Society of American Period Furniture Makers (www.sapfm.org) and served on its Board of Directors from 1999 to 2014. Prior to his woodworking career, Mickey was a helicopter pilot in the U.S. Army and in civilian life as an electrical engineer employed by both Bell Labs and IBM.
Besides ham radio, Mickey also enjoys building and flying radio control model airplanes and occasionally can be found in his back yard with his telescope looking at the moon, planets and deep space objects. He also enjoys tinkering with building simple circuits and has a goal of building a QRP rig from scratch.
Bob Beaudet – W1YRC
Bob was licensed in June, 1953 and was the youngest founding member of BVARC. At 15 years of age in 1953, he wasn’t old enough to sign the club’s charter application so his dad signed as his representative even though he wasn’t a ham or club member. Bob now holds an Extra class ticket and is a Life and Diamond Club member of ARRL. He is also a member of the ARRL Maxim Society, a group of major supporters of ARRL. He is an active DXer and has contacted 371 countries, more than any other ham in RI and sits at the top of the DXCC Honor Roll. His HF station consists of three separate radios and two amplifiers. Atop his 90 foot tower is an 8 element log periodic array and hanging from the tower at the 60 feet level is a fan dipole for 80, 40 and 30 meters. Standing nearby is an DLM vertical antenna for 160 meters. Bob prefers CW but can also operate SSB, FT8/4 and RTTY. He has collected many old “classic” Collins, National, Johnson and Hallicrafters radios along with other accessories from the 50s. He has a growing Morse code key collection and presently has nearly 100 keys, many 50-60 years old and some dating back more than 100 years. He organized the BVARC Volunteer Examiner team in the late 80s, shortly after FCC authorized the establishment of the VE program in 1984. Bob Jones, WB1P has chaired the BVARC program since 1998.
Bob has been RI’s ARRL Section Manager since 2001 and has served in every elected BVARC office except Treasurer. He was appointed 2006 by ARRL Director, K1KI to serve as the New England representative to the DX Advisory Committee (DXAC). After 42 years with Raytheon Co., he retired in 2000 as a corporate staffing manager. His wife Barbara passed away in February 2010 and they had a daughter Kim and son Mike who remain very close to dad. Bob’s loyal pal Baxter became a Silent Paw in 2017 and he is missed greatly by many hams in RI who knew him very well from his Field Day visits.
Trustee and Board Member
Patty Vilnit – W1AUT
Patty received both her Technician and General license in 2008 and her Extra Class license in August 2018, receiving her first call letters of KB1QOT. In 2009 after her dad Normand Thibault, one of the original founders of the BVARC radio club & her special "Elmer", passed she took his call letters of W1AUT and is very proud to hold them because of his involvement in ham radio for more than 50+ years! She likes chasing DX on SSB but also enjoys working special event stations especially the unique ones. She says she is proud to be part of the .2% ham operators but also to be a YL in Ham radio and meeting so many nice people on and off the air. Besides Ham radio, she enjoys photography the challenge of always trying to improve her skills. She especially likes wildlife photography. Patty also enjoys gardening, antiquing and traveling around the country with her husband and most of all, she loves spending time with her grandchildren, all six of them!