06/07/2026
Bill Kennedy's Field Day Legacy
Bill Kennedy was a core member of the annual "Alien Trek" Field Day expeditions to Roswell, New Mexico, where the group operated on Boy Scout Mountain — one of the alleged UFO crash sites. The trips were organized by Mike Koss (W9SU), and the crew initially operated under the club call W9VW before later securing the memorable call W9UFO.
The group ranged from just three people — Bill, Mike Koss, and Brian Smith — to as many as eight. Competing in Class 2A, they made the most of limited resources and consistently scored well. One memorable year, just the three of them logged 1,111 QSOs. In 2001, after wrapping up Field Day in Roswell and visiting the International UFO Museum, the group ventured on to Area 51 in Nevada, spending a night scanning the skies above the base.
After Mike Koss's passing in 2011, Bill Kennedy and Brian Smith found their way to Field Day with the Indianapolis Radio Club (W9JP), where they helped build a coalition of six or seven clubs operating together under the IRC banner. That collaboration ran through 2018. In 2019, the two co-founded Indy United, where Bill has served as GOTA Coach nearly every year and has been instrumental in leading "POTA for GOTA." The club simply wouldn't be what it is without him.
Beyond Field Day, Bill's contributions extend further. He was an operator on W87PAX, the Pan American Games Special Event station, which logged more QSOs than any special event station before it. He has also been one of the driving forces behind W9IMS.
