Former ARRL staffer Bart Jahnke, W9JJ, is the League’s new ARRL Contest Branch manager. Jahnke returned to ARRL Headquarters on January 4 after a decade away, which he spent working in the customer service, manufacturing sales and support, and information technology fields in the Midwest and on the East Coast. He succeeds Matt Wilhelm, W1MSW, who resigned last year. 

“It is great to be back at ARRL and to see the faces of many friends still here — and still dedicated to serving Amateur Radio — as well as new faces, new friends, to join with in the journey,” said Jahnke, who previously spent nearly 20 years at Headquarters. “Of the many bustling activity areas at ARRL Headquarters, the Contest Branch remains right up there in terms of high demand. With continued strong activity comes our obligation to produce and release results as rapidly as possible.”

Jahnke said that as he gets up to speed in his new role, he hopes — with the help of Headquarters staff and volunteer data processers and log checkers outside Headquarters — to make things happen more rapidly and efficiently, processing and publishing contest results without compromising the integrity of the current system.

“We need to continue to work smarter, not harder, to serve the contest community,” he said.

Many may recall Jahnke from his former role as ARRL Volunteer Examiner Coordinator (VEC) Manager, a position in which he served from 1989 until 2005. Jahnke initially joined the ARRL Headquarters staff in 1985, starting out as editor of the ARRL Repeater Directory. 

Jahnke said that, while his primary interest during his 36 years in ham radio has been with volunteer activities and “weak-signal” VHF, UHF, and microwave contesting, meteor scatter and EME work, he has also enjoyed casually operating in HF contests. He concedes, however, that it may be time to “add some forte to my low-bands!”