Inducted: May 1999
Frank Donovan W3LPL began his contesting career as a twelve-year-old at the Providence Radio Assn. 1959 Field Day, W1OP/1, on Neutaconkanut Hill two miles from his home in Providence, Rhode Island. Soon afterward, he slowly built his own small contest station on 1/10th acre in a densely populated urban neighborhood.
While in high school at age 17, he finished first place USA in the 1964 ARRL CW DX Contest low power category. In 1968 he was the leader of the W1OP/1 Field Day that finished first place in the 4A category from a former World War II FCC Radio Intelligence Division direction finding and signals intelligence collection site in Scituate, RI. Immediately after college, he was commissioned in the US Air Force as a 2nd lieutenant where he worked as an engineer under PVRC member W3GN and as a colleague of one of PVRC’s great multi-multi station builders, W4BVV.
Donovan and his teams finished first place U.S.A. in more than 3/4 of the CQ Worldwide and ARRL DX Contest categories they’ve entered since 1964. Frank finished first place USA single operator in four CQ Worldwide CW and four ARRL CW DX contests from 1973 to 1978. His first multi-multi experience was as a member of the world high scoring 1974 PJ9JT CQWW CW team.
Frank is a recognized expert on propagation and antennas.
