Fred Maia, W5YI has been licensed for more than 44 years. W5YI was first licensed as W1NTK while in the U.S. Air Force. He is originally from New England but has lived in Texas for more than 25 years. Fred is a graduate of the Air Force Radio Electronics School at Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi, Mississippi and has held the Amateur Extra Class license for more than 25 years.
While stationed in Korea, Fred was a radio operator and maintainer. He is a Life Member of the Society of Wireless Pioneers. SOWP membership is only open to ex-professional CW operators. W5YI holds both DXCC (contacting more than 100 countries) in both SSB ...and the CW only mode. His favorite operating mode is via Morse, but he does not believe that manual CW proficiency at any speed should be a licensing requirement for anyone. He holds many operating awards for his participation in various radio contests and operating events. He believes radiotelegraphy is just another of many radio modes which deserves no particular emphasis. He also feels that the CW requirement runs counter to the FCC's mandate to foster and promote new technologies and to advance the radio art since it precludes many otherwise qualified individuals from experimenting on HF.
He is known best for his radio operator license testing network. His W5YI-VEC Group and National Radio Examiners were the first two organizations selected by the FCC to provide amateur and commercial radio operator examinations to the public on a national basis. Tens of thousands of amateur and commercial radio operators have obtained their FCC licenses through his testing organizations.
Fred is also one of the four members of the VEC's Question Pool Committee who are charged on a continuing basis with developing and revising all of the written examination questions used in U.S. Amateur Radio operator examinations. He also assisted the FCC in developing the Commercial Radio Operator license examination questions when it was privatized in the early 1990's.
An avid writer, W5YI is the co-author of the General Radiotelephone Operator's Manual (a 496 page study guide on various commercial radio licenses) and other books that deal with radio operating. Fred is on the staff of CQ Magazine -- the second largest radio hobby magazine -- where he has written the monthly "Washington Readout" column covering FCC Rules and happenings for nearly 15 years.
He is a many decades member of the American Radio Relay League, the Old Timers Club (OTC - 20 years licensed), the Quarter Century Wireless Association (QCWA - 25 years licensed) and the Old Old Timers Club (OOTC - 40 years licensed.) Fred is also a fellow in the Radio Club of America, the Nation's oldest (by invitation only) radio organization.
W5YI is one of the founders of No Code International which looks toward eliminating the international Morse code proficiency requirement and has previously served as its Executive Director.