2023

Neil Rapp WB9VPG – In recognition of his many contributions to amateur radio in recruiting, training, and mentoring young operators over the years. The initial school radio club sponsorship, followed by managing the Region 2 YOTA Camps, providing administrative assistance for the camps through non-profit organization, and managing the Hamvention’s Ham Radio 2.0 showcase have all made a big impact. Recruiting young operators is key to the survival of amateur radio and his tireless efforts are appreciated.

 

 

2022

CW Operators Club (CWops) in recognition of technical, operating, and organizational achievements in and contributions to amateur radio.  It recognizes the contributions to amateur radio by CWops in support of training and on-the-air activities that promote Morse/CW operation, leading to more interest in and sustained CW activity around the world. The idea for a mentoring group was created after founding members contacted participants in the 2010 ARRL CW Rookie Roundup.  Those who responded all mentioned the lack of mentoring to help them learn and become proficient with CW.  This quickly evolved into the CW Academy and then to the CW Operators Club, widely known as CWops.

Dan Marler, K7REX – When the COVID pandemic led to cessation of in-person meetings, training sessions and gatherings, Dan converted a small limited-membership Zoom platform to the open presentation forum known as RATPAC.  In the subsequent two years, RATPAC has hosted over two hundred online presentations that have been viewed by thousands of radio amateurs.  Among the wide-ranging topics, half focus on public-service communications, while the rest address technical, operating, scientific and general-interest topics offered by a host of presenters.  The recordings of these sessions are available for public viewing and constitute a valuable resource for the amateur radio community.

Gordon Gibby, KX4Z – As a retired emergency-room physician and high school science teacher Gordon demonstrates how amateur radio can benefit our communities in a wide variety of ways.  As an ARES leader in Northern Florida, Gordon promotes and teaches all aspects of preparedness for disasters, from planning and exercises to building and repairing communication hardware to understanding official responders’ needs, methods and organization.  He advocates cognizance of the amateur’s role and its limits, building trust and relationships, and constantly improving our individual skills.  He is known around the country for his informative and carefully thought out responses to the many questions from other amateurs seeking to improve their local disaster-response capabilities

Parks On The Air (POTA) Team – Since the program’s inception, it has grown enormously and now has more than 6500 “activators” who operate from the parks and more than 20,000 “hunters” who work them. The core team consists of W3AAX, WR5B, N3VEM, AB0O, PA0KGB, N0AW, W8MSC, W8TAM,  W3SPC Next to DXCC and IOTA, POTA has become one of the most active worldwide operating award programs. Even more important, though, is that more hams are OTA (on the air), especially hams with modest stations or who cannot get OTA from home for whatever reason. POTA is making it possible for them to have a great deal of fun, be active on HF/VHF/satellites, and learn about radio.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jan Stadman, DJ5AN/PA1TT – In recognition of his efforts organizing ham radio events. For many years Jan organized the Dutch HF Convention and the annual European DX Foundation meeting in Bad Bentheim Germany. Jan also runs the EUDXF booth at Ham Radio in Friedrichshafen. Together with other DX associations he invented and shaped the “DX Plaza” that is now the central meeting point for DX-ers present in Friedrichshafen. In 2017 Jan joined the organizing committee of the Dutch German Radio Amateur Meeting DNAT and took over as committee chair in 2020, just before COVID. The pandemic didn’t stop him and even with the restrictions that were in place he was able to organize several events.

 

2021

Steve Babcock VE6WZ – for his contribution to the art of lowband antennas and remote operating. Steve has made available to the amateur community countless hours of instructional videos for free on his YouTube channel.

 

 

 

 

2020

James Sarté, K2QI and Adrian Ciuperca, KO8SCA – for their efforts in combining the latest state of the art technology, diplomatic skills, persistence, and leadership.

Additional help with gathering equipment and logistical support was provided by RA9USU, NT2Y, NT2X, K2LE, and N2UN (SK) culminating in reactivation of the United Nations Club Station 4U1UN.

Joe Eisenberg, K0NEB – for his contributions to amateur radio through his kit-building seminars, as seen at the Dayton Hamvention and other ham gatherings.  He is also editor of the Kit-Building column for CQ magazine.  Joe exemplifies the “give back” and “self-teaching” spirit of ham radio, especially in training youngsters.

 

 

Brett and Helena Ruiz, PJ2BR and PJ2ZZ – Brett and Helena have been active leaders of VERONA for more than twenty years, including technical activities, disaster preparedness and relief, as well as training potential licensees. They act as liaisons to government and international organizations, as well as contributing to important events such as GAREC and IARU assemblies and meetings. Brett is also active in pursuing long-distance VHF propagation and digital communications.

Jim Brown K9YC – Amateurs worldwide have benefited from his extensive contributions to amateur radio regarding ferrite materials and their use in combating RF interference, feed line applications, and transformers. His efforts to improve transmitter performance and operating practices are also greatly appreciated, as are the extensive set of personal publications available to the public and performing reviews of technical material for amateur radio publishers.

 

Bob Wilson N6TV – Yasme recognizes Bob’s technical support to literally hundreds of hams through various radio manufacturer’s user groups, to logging software communities, and the detailed assistance he provides to Reverse Beacon Network hosts, keeping their equipment configured and running. Bob also provides invaluable support to traveling hams worldwide when they most need help. Along with being technically talented he is exceptionally selfless in using that talent to help others, quick to encourage others in many areas.

Jari Perkiömäki OH6BG – Jari has supported the online VOACAP software and website www.voacap.com for almost 20 years, without compensation, making world-class HF propagation prediction and modeling services available to any radio amateur. He believes in team work, acknowledging the contributions and ideas from all of the ham community for further development of the service, but especially from James Watson M0DNS/HZ1JW and Juho Juopperi OH8GLV. He estimates that today VOACAP Online serves thousands of users, with visits from more than 100 countries every month, including integration with the DX Summit and Club Log services. He is part of the Radio Arcala, OH8X team and acts as a propagation specialist, assisting the WRTC community, RSGB and others.

 

2019

Angel Vazquez, WP3R – for his work in disaster relief, and as an outstanding ambassador for amateur radio.

Nikola Percin, 9A5W – for his outstanding work in advancing amateur radio in Croatia and the surrounding region.  He is a co-founder of 9A1A.  Nikola started efforts to recruit young amateurs and established youth programs in coordination with local universities.

2018

Brian Machesney, K1LI and Michelle Guenard – in recognition of their extraordinary efforts on behalf of Commonwealth of Dominica communities in the wake of the 2017 hurricane season. Their efforts included fund-raising, delivery of communications supplies, on-site support, and application of amateur radio technologies to support the relief efforts, which continue today.

Fred Kleber, K9VV – in recognition of Fred’s leadership and technical skills that support the Virgin Island’s emergency communications capabilities. Fred has been a key player long before hurricanes Irma and Maria devastated the islands. He is hard at work today re-building and extending the inter-island communication systems even after his own station suffered extensive damage.

Zorro Miyazawa, JH1AJT — for his extensive promotion of amateur radio in developing counties. Governments and telecommunications administrators in Bangladesh (S2), Bhutan (A5), Cambodia (XU), Eritrea (E3), and Myanmar (XZ) have benefited from Zorro’s patient and skillful efforts, supporting his own government and his fellow amateurs in Japan and around the world.

Stu Phillips,K6TU — for contributions to amateur radio through his Propagation and DX Strategy website, www.k6tu.net. In particular, his innovative tools for accessing and generating terrain profile data make it much easier to use the High Frequency Terrain Analysis (HFTA) program developed by Dean Straw, N6BV, another Excellence Award recipient in 2012. The tools are free for amateurs to use, requiring only that they register on the site.

Randy Wright, W6CUA — in recognition of his long service to the Yasme Foundation as our Awards Manager. His steady efforts and exacting attention to detail and customer service are greatly appreciated.

2017

Dayton Amateur Radio Association (DARA)–to pick up the world’s largest amateur radio event on a few months notice and move it to a completely different facility is a daunting task. That it went so smoothly was a testament to the extraordinary efforts of the 600 volunteers and event leadership.
Paul Verhage KD4STH and Bill Brown WB8ELK – for their leadership and continued technical innovation in amateur radio high-altitude ballooning (ARHAB – en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-altitude_balloon). While not the traditional means of introduction, ARHAB is exposing hundreds of students to amateur radio through an interest in science experimentation. Both have written extensively about ARHAB and have contributed material to the ARRL Handbook.

Nathaniel Frissell W2NAF and Magda Moses KM4EGE – for creating and leading the HamSCI (Ham Radio Science Citizen Investigation) organization that sponsored the Solar Eclipse QSO Party (SEQP). The SEQP was the largest amateur radio experiment ever devised and generated the world’s most extensive set of HF propagation observations during an eclipse. Beyond the SEQP, HamSCI is attracting the interest of professional/academic researchers such as from numerous universities, the Arecibo Radio Observatory in Puerto Rico, MIT’s Haystack Observatory, and HAARP facility in Alaska.

        
The WSJT Development Team – initially the work of Joe Taylor, K1JT, the WSJT software is now maintained and extended by a team of developers led by Bill Somerville, G4WJS; Steve Franke, K9AN; Greg Beam, KI7MT; Michael Black, W9MDB; Edson Pereira, PY2SDR; and Nico Palermo, IV3NWV; along with Joe Taylor. Their latest digital mode, FT8, combines the extraordinary low-SNR performance of JT9 and JT65 with a much faster decoding and exchange process.

Dale Hughes, VK1DSH – for his excellent work as Chairman of the Amateur Working Group in ITU-R Working Party 5A and as Chairman of the sub Working Group dealing with a worldwide 60 meter amateur allocation during World Radiocommunication Conference 2015.

2016

Tim Duffy, K3LR – for adaptation and development of Contest University (CTU – www.contestuniversity.com), radiosport education that has reached hundreds of amateurs around the world and has also inspired others to create their own CTU-format training programs in other amateur radio fields.

Carole Perry, WB2MGP – for her many years of contributions to teaching and mentoring youth interested in amateur radio and her efforts in organizing and promoting the interests of young operators, youth-oriented work that becomes more and more important to amateur radio with every passing year.

Tom Rauch, W8JI – for his many contributions to the technical advancement of the amateur service and his willingness to provide education and direction to amateurs through his website (www.w8ji.com) and other communications.

Hani Raad, OD5TE – for his work advancing amateur radio in Lebanon and the Arabic Region as exemplified by his efforts related to the reintroduction of amateur radio examinations in Lebanon.  The success of amateur radio depends on there being active amateurs on the air, demonstrating its value in both technical excellence and public service.

Pekka Ketonen, OH1TV – in recognition of his many technical innovations, particularly as related to antenna design and exemplified by the Opposite Voltage Feed (“OVF”) concept.  In addition, Pekka has made the extra effort to document his many projects in English for wide availability to amateurs worldwide.

2015

The N1MM+ Development Team: Tom Wagner, N1MM; Rick Ellison, N2AMG; Steve London, N2IC; John Bednar, K3CT; Nikolay Safronov, NA3M; Pete Smith, N4ZR; Andreas Hofman, KU7T; Larry Gauthier, K8UT; and Richard Ferch, VE3KI – for their development of N1MM Classic and N1MM+ a sophisticated logging program offered at no cost to contesters around the world, and their major revision to the original program that was a completely volunteer effort of thousands of programmer-hours to rewrite and test more than 250,000 lines of code. (www.n1mm.com).

Mike Mertel, K7IR – for his revolutionary invention of a tunable Yagi antenna that was later made available to the amateur radio community under the brand name SteppIR (www.steppir.com).

Koos Fockens, PAØKDF – for his investigations, measurements and publications regarding noise in the amateur radio bands that played a key role in the global fight against Broadband Over Power Line (BPL) interference.

James Ying, N2IW – for his creation of an on-line scheduling application that was used by many W1AW/portable operations during the 2014 ARRL Centennial and remains available without charge. (http://n2iw.com/w1aw.php)

2014

Kimo Chun, KH7U – for his 20 years of behind-the-scenes support to DXpeditions to Pacific entities, including logistics, organization, equipment, local contacts and planning.

Dick Flagg, AH6NM – for his years of working with the Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) and Shuttle Amateur Radio Experiment (SAREX) groups and in supporting NASA’s Radio Jove project (radiojove.gsfc.nasa.gov), all designed to introduce amateur radio to the public, particularly students of all ages.

Florin Cristian Predescu, YO9CNU and Lisa Leenders, PA2LS – for their work in organizing and promoting Youngsters on the Air (YOTA – http://www.ham-yota.com) and amateur radio youth activities.

2013

Tom Roscoe, K8CX – for his dedication to collecting and publishing current and historical photos and other documents on his Hamgallery website at www.hamgallery.com and for his work with W3 QSL bureau.

Lee Sawkins, VE7CC – for his software that is widely used worldwide to manage and filter DX cluster spotting output and that enables logging programs to integrate with the spotting network for contesting and general-purpose operation around the world.

John Devoldere, ON4UN – for his contributions to the DXing community beginning with 80 Meter DXing, published in 1978, and his book, expanded to Low-Band DXing, which has become the definitive handbook for operating and building antenna systems on the bands at 7 MHz and lower frequencies.

Michael Carroll, N4MC; Eldon Lewis, K7LS; Dean Gibson, AE7Q; and Joseph Speroni, AHØA – for their work in providing convenient access by amateurs to information maintained in FCC databases. The services made freely available by these four individuals greatly enriched and educated U.S. amateurs.

Ken Claerbout, K4ZW – for his work in support of the series of videos produced in association with the Potomac Valley Radio Club, initially focused on contesting and now broadened to include a variety of operating and technical topics.

Ashraf Chaabane, 3V/KF5EYY – for his energetic representation of amateur radio in Northern Africa and globally and for serving as a role model for amateur radio across the entire Arab world.

2012

Roger Balister, G3KMA, and Martin Atherton, G3ZAY – for their many years of dedicated service to the Islands on the Air (IOTA) awards program.

George Fremin, K5TR; Larry “Tree” Tyree, N6TR; Trey Garlough, N5KO; and Scott Neader, KA9FOX – for their contributions to many infrastructure projects that benefit the ham community at large.

Mark Spencer, WA8SME – for his instrumental work in the ARRL Teachers Institute and other training efforts, development of PIC microcontroller projects and books for amateurs, and work with leaders in student and scientific teams applying amateur radio to scientific projects and experiments.

Champ Muangamphun, E21EIC and Pornchai Semjang, HS2JFW – for leadership in the Thai amateur community, especially during the recent flooding, which helped open the door to the new Thai HF licensing and enhanced the stature of amateur radio with the Thai government.

Tomas Hood, NW7US and Carl Luetzelschwab, K9LA – for sustained education of the amateur community regarding propagation, solar and geomagnetic physics.

David Freese, W1HKJ – for creating and maintaining the freeware software package FLDIGI, probably the most widely used digital communication software in ham radio and a frequent gateway for new hams who are more familiar with computer-based communications.

Dean Straw, N6BV – for his contributions to amateur antenna system design and the development of software tools such as HFTA to optimize system design.

Peter Martinez, G3PLX and Pawel Jalocha, SP9VRC – for their individual and distinct contributions to digital communications technology. Peter is recognized for his invention of PSK31, a widely used digital mode that enables many amateurs to successfully communicate on HF with very modest stations. Pawel is recognized for his contributions to the field of digital signal processing as applied to communications systems that are used by amateurs, such as the mode OLIVIA.

Arie Kleingeld, PA3A; Ad Van Ginneken, PA8AD; and Arie Noordzij, PA3AN (SK – July 2022) – for their sustained contributions to the Mercy Ships Project (http://mercyships.org).

2011

Ramón Santoyo V., XE1KK – for his work in advancing Mexican ham radio and representation within the international radio community, his service as IARU Region 2 Secretary and his tireless advocacy of amateur radio in Central America and of radiosport and the World Radiosport Team Championships.

Makoto (Mako) Mori, JE3HHT – for popularizing RTTY by writing the MMTTY software modem and making it available for integration into logging software and for writing MMVARI, which implements other popular digital modes.

Bruce Horn, WA7BNM – for his useful and innovative web sites, including a complete upgrade of his excellent contest calendar website and his support of contesting with a website that enables contesters to convert paper and other forms of contest logs to Cabrillo format.

Rick Meuthing, KN6KB – for developing the new WINMOR sound-card digital mode software now gaining wide use in the worldwide Winlink 2000 system. Many attempts at approaching the performance of the proprietary PACTOR III protocol and hardware failed before WINMOR, attesting to the difficulty of the problem.

Mikael Styrefors, SM2O – for his development of the Remote Radio Interface that connects radios and operators transparently and robustly over the Internet, a key technological element of putting top-grade remote HF stations on the air and in keeping amateur radio available to urban and suburban amateurs as they deal with mounting antenna restrictions.

Alex Shovkoplyas, VE3NEA – for developing DX Atlas, Morse Runner, HAM-CAP, CW Skimmer, Rocky and other innovative software products that are making a remarkable impact on the competitive HF operating environment and that are available to the amateur community at little or no cost.

Pepe Ardid, EA5KB – for making it possible for Latin American DXers, who are in many cases saddled with deficient postal services and QSL bureaus, to confirm contacts with attractive and unique QSL cards, thereby keeping alive one of amateur radio’s most cherished traditions.

2010

Jamie Dupree, NS3T – for his creation of the Radiosport website (no longer in service as of 2016) and his creation of the Radio-Sport.Net World Rankings database used by many contesters around the world, a predecessor to the WRTC ranking system.

Bob Bruninga, WB4APR – for the invention of APRS and the continuing enhancement of its capabilities, including the messaging ability of the system to allow sending information in support of emergency communications and other activities.

George Wallner, AA7JV and Tomi Pekarik HA7RY (shared) – for their unique and refreshing approach to DXpeditioning, proving that a small group can exchange time for equipment and mega-funds and come out ahead. By focusing on fewer bands for a longer period, they have been able to log more unique calls from smaller stations.

Don Hill, AA5AU – for his leadership in RTTY contesting, with RTTY/Digital contesting growing at the fastest rate of any contest activity due to his efforts. Don’s website (www.aa5au.com) is the first stop for all RTTY contesters and he is well-known as the “RTTY Elmer” in digital contesting circles.

Nodir Tursoon-Zadeh, EY8MM – for his technical and operational skills, especially on Topband and 6 meters, and his work to establish a QSL bureau for Tajikistan and his service as the Vice President of the Amateur Radio Society of Tajikistan.

Rich Strand, KL7RA (SK) – for the highly successful W1AW/KL7 and KL5O operations, both of which highlighted a resurgence in Alaskan contesting and DX activity, and his work to promote operating standards and educate the new contest and DX operators about good operating practices.

2009

No awards were made in 2009.

2008

Joseph L. Arcure, Jr., W3HNK – for his long service to DXers as a QSL manager and his efforts on behalf of DXers everywhere to promote international goodwill by facilitating cultural exchanges between operators.

Sheldon C. Shallon, W6EL (SK) – for his work with propagation prediction software (W6ELprop) that has done much to advance the technical skills of HF operators in understanding the physical environment of radio.

James Brooks, 9V1YC – f or his DXpedition organization and videography that has made the skills and excitement of DX operating and expeditioning more accessible to hams that haven’t yet tried DXing and to non-hams alike.

Jukka Salomaa, OH2BUA and Antti Kantola, OH5TB (shared) – for conceiving, operating and maintaining DX Summit (www.DXSummit.fi), the first widely-used Web-based spotting network portal that has fundamentally changed the nature of HF operating.