Inducted: May 1997
Silent Key: November 9, 2020
John Devoldere ON4UN was licensed in 1961, at the age of 20. He built much of his station gear and got into contesting, winning the UBA CW Contest in 1962. At about the same time, he got interested in low-band operating. He worked 364 DXCC entities on 80 meters, lacking only North Korea. Belgium didn’t gain access to160 meters until 1987, and a few years later erected a full-size quarter-wave vertical for top band (160 meters). By 2018, he had 325 DXCC entities on 160 meters.
Devoldere built a competitive multi-single contest station and operated in some 80 international contests — including the ARRL International DX, the CQ World Wide DX, Stew Perry Topband Challenge, and others. The walls in his ham shack hold more than 50 first-place contest plaques.
Devoldere may be best known as the author of the popular book ON4UN’s Low-Band DXing, published by ARRL, as well as other books, including Ethics and Operating Procedures for the Radio Amateur, which he co-authored with Mark Demeuleneere, ON4WW.