Dayton 2012 Award Winners Announced

VU2MY
(Photo courtesy DARA)

The Dayton Amateur Radio Association has named S. Suri, VU2MY, as the 2012 winner of the Dayton Hamvention ® Radio Amateur of the Year award. Suri, of Hyderabad, India, is the founder, chairman and chief executive officer of India's National Institute of Amateur Radio and has been responsible for amateur radio's role in responding to many natural disasters, most notably the 2004 tsunami that struck countries around the Indian Ocean. Suri is only the second non-US amateur to receive this honor from the association. The first was DXer and DXpeditioner Martti Laine, OH2BH, in 2000.

W1ZR
(Photo courtesy DARA)

This year's Technical Achievement award goes to the ARRL's Joel Hallas, W1ZR, of Westport, Connecticut. Hallas is a prolific author best known for his "The Doctor is In" column in QST.

WZ2V
(Photo courtesy DARA)

Dayton's 2012 Special Achievement award goes to Steven Betza, WZ2V, of Endicott, New York. He was recognized for his efforts to promote electronics engineering programs in college and high school, most notably his "Blue Horizon" project which set the world record for the highest amateur balloon flight and resulted in the licensing of 38 new hams.

Finally, this year's club award goes to Germany's national amateur radio association, the Deutscher Amateur Radio Club (DARC). All of the awards will be presented at the Dayton Hamvention® later this month.