Inducted May 2005
Charles K. “Rusty” Epps grew up in Columbus, Georgia and, at age 14, was first licensed as KN4BVD in 1958. He obtained his General Class license the following year and became an Amateur Extra Class in 1967. He moved to California full time in 1968 and became W6OAT in 1974.
Rusty has always considered himself to be both a DXer and a contester. He created the Georgia QSO Party and did all the initial log checking while still in high school. After moving to California, he became a founding member of the Northern California Contest Club and has served variously as its President, Secretary and as a Director. NCCC has named him its “Contester of the Year”.
Rusty was the primary instigator persuading NCCC to assume administration of the very popular California QSO Party and personally performed all the log checking in the early years of CQP. He was a co-creator of the North American Sprint contest and also served as administrator of that contest for fourteen years. Rusty drafted the rules for the first World Radiosport Team Championship (WRTC) held in Seattle in 1990 and was Chief Judge for that competition. He has been involved with every subsequent WRTC and serves on the committee that sanctions future WRTC events.