Joseph W. "Bud" Trench, AA3B, of Boyertown, Pennsylvania, has been named Director of the CQ WPX SSB and CW Contests, CQ Editor Rich Moseson, W2VU, announced today. He succeeds Randy Thompson, K5ZD, who has been serving as Interim Director.

Trench has been licensed since 1970 and has more than 1.4 million QSOs in his logbook (which would be very thick if still on paper!). Bud has a passion for contesting, achieving 15 first-place finishes in the CQ World Wide DX CW Contest in the Single-Op Low Power category using call sign V26K, including the current world record. He has been among the top-10 USA scorers consistently since 2005 in the CQ WW WPX CW High Power category and has achieved the top North American score six times in CQ WW WPX RTTY. In addition, he was the Single-Op World Winner of the CQ WW WPX Triathlon plaque in 2014 and competed in WRTC 2018.

Bud is an officer of the Frankford Radio Club and Pennsylvania QSO Party Association, and a member of the First Class CW Operators' Club, CW Operators' Club, Activity Group CW - DL, CWJF Group, A-1 Operator Club and ARRL.

Professionally, Bud is retired from a career at Lockheed Martin, where his responsibilities included leading large organizations developing complex hardware and software systems for the US Government.

Bud is jumping in with both feet, starting immediately to work with Randy on processing the results of last month's WPX SSB weekend and taking the reins for next month's CW weekend.