Milestones: AE4FH to YOTA Camp, SP9FIH Wins Cass Award, DF6NM Honored for Inventions

Faith Hannah Lea, AE4FH (center right), with sisters
KM4IPF and KM4TXT at left, at the Dayton Ham-
vention with Old Barney ARC President Steve Molo,
KI4KWR, and South Jersey DX Association President /
CQ DX Editor Bob Schenck, N2OO.
(Photo courtesy N2OO)

This summer's (winter's, actually) Youngsters On the Air camp in South Africa will have only one representative from the Americas, 13-year-old Faith Hannah Lea, AE4FH. Selected to represent the International Amateur Radio Union's (IARU's) Region 2, covering North and South America, at the annual youth camp sponsored by IARU Region 1 (Europe, Africa and the Middle East), the ARRL reports that Lea set up a GoFundMe campaign to cover her expenses. The YOTA program not only promotes amateur radio among young people, but gives them an opportunity to meet and become friends with young hams from other countries and cultures.
 

 Janusz Wegrzyn, SP9FIH, has been honored with the Cass Award for working more individual stations during his operation last year from Palestine than any other single-operator DXpedition in 2017. Operating as E44WE during a two-week visit last May, Janusz worked 10,087 unique stations, which the award sponsors say is a new record. The Cass award is issued annually by ClubLog, DXLab and the Northern California DX Club to encourage DXpedition operators to work as many different stations as possible during their time on the air. The award is named in honor of the late Hugh "Cass" Cassidy, WA6AUD. The sponsors also announced the addition of an "unlimited" award as of this year, which will be presented along with the single-operator plaque to the large-scale DXpedition that contacts the greatest number of unique stations.

Markus Vester, DF6NM
(from DF6NM website)

Outside the world of ham radio, medical technologist Markus Vester, DF6NM, was honored as Inventor of the Year by his employer, Siemens, in Erlangen, Germany. Newsline reports that Vester holds more than 300 patents relating to MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) scanners. Siemens is a major manufacturer of those devices. In a post on the Siemens website, Vester said ham radio has played a major role in his work, noting that, "work and play have never been completely separate aspects of my life. Inspiration tends to flow both ways between the two."