W3JY - Joseph A. 'Joe' Ames W3JY

Joseph A. 'Joe' Ames
Malvern, PA

QCWA # 31722
Chapter 166
W3JY - Joseph A. 'Joe' Ames

Joe Ames is the national chairman of the newly organized non-profit Radio Relay International, which is dedicated to modern, long-haul radiogram messaging in the Amateur Radio service. RRI honors traditional hf methods, especially cw as practiced by the transcontinental corps and "ironman" operators still active today. Likewise, RRI sponsors the "rf only" Digital Traffic Network active in the U.S. and Canada, UK, Europe, Oceania and the Asia-Pacific region.

Joe volunteers his time for several organizations, notably the Boy Scouts of America where he serves as a pack committeeman in the Chester County Council and works to integrate personal radio in the Scouting program at all levels from Cubs to Scouters. Joe is active with ARES(R)/RACES units in Delaware and Chester counties and serves as net manager of the Pennsylvania Eastern Area RACES Net. As a traffic handler, he is Sunday net control of the EPA Emergency Phone and Traffic Net (6pm on 3917) and operates the Digital Traffic Network's 3RD District HF Hub, which includes a packet gateway on 145.010MHz.

A member of QCWA, Joe is a life member of the ARRL(R) and the Brass Pounders League. In 2016 he was unanimously re-elected as section manager for EPA and formerly held OBS, OES, ORS, VE/VI and AEC appointments dating back to 1979. This was before the ARRL's executive committee vacated his service for reasons under appeal in the Third District federal court at Philadelphia. Joe was EPA assistant section manager under Bob Familgio K3RF and Eric Olena WB3FPL and Section Traffic Manager under Karl Pfeil, W3VA (SK) of Tamaqua, Penna. In years gone by, he served as president of the Carbon Co. ARC and was RACES Radio Officer for Carbon County, Pa during the Three Mile Island incident. In 2015, Joe was honored by membership in the A-1 Operator Club (c).

Joe was introduced to radio by his father, Joe Sr, who patiently and lovingly guided and supported him from childhood short-wave listening during the long winters of the early 1970s through the CB heyday and to his first ham radio station. His encouragement started with field trips to W3TKQ at Philadelphia's magnificent Franklin Institute and to months of Novice class instruction by the Tamaqua Area Sideband Radio Association, TASBAR. While Joe Sr was never licensed as an amateur operator, he was considered an honorary ham by all, and he was delighted to share his culinary skills on certain rare occassions. Among his other accomplishments, Joe Sr was a master chef trained originally by the U.S. Navy.

An avid outdoorsman, his primary operating interest is emergency, mobile and field-portable communications. Favorite modes include CW, sent on a vintage Vibroplex "Lightning Bug" through a vintage Yaesu FT-101. For reasons unknown, Joe installed a 16' Shakespeare m120 military HF whip with NVIS adapter on his classic 1978 VW Westfalia Campmobile which works FB. Joe is a life member of the National Rifle Association and Gun Owners of America and is an alumus of Gunsite Academy.

Professionally Joe is a "Big 4" financial management consultant with career stints at Price Waterhouse, IBM Global Services and Accenture. He is a graduate school alumnus of the Pennsylvania State University, the University of Pennsylvania, and Villanova University. A native Philadelphian, Joe is a descendant of the Mayflower's Brewsters and the Freeman family of the tragic Revolutionary battle of Freeman's Farm. One branch of his ancestry, a notable Huguenot family of Hudson Valley settlers, traces to the noble Châau de Joux in the Jura mountains of France, complete with tales of battles won and lost, Crusader knights, and "la gaiete de joux."

Joe lives with his wife and sons along the Philadlephia Main Line, near to the site of the infamous Paoli battle and massacre of September 20, 1777.

July 25, 2015