2019 Hamvention Award Winners Announced

The Dayton Amateur Radio Association has announced the winners of the 2019 Hamvention® Awards, considered among the most prestigious recognitions in amateur radio.
 

Nathaniel Frissell, W2NAF, Dayton's 2019 Amateur of the Year
(Photo courtesy W2NAF)

This year's Amateur of the Year is HamSCI founder and coordinator Nathaniel Frissell, W2NAF. HamSCI – Ham Radio Science Citizen Investigation – is a program designed to build long-term relationships between amateur radio operators, acting as citizen scientists, and professional researchers in the fields of propagation and space science. The hams can provide hundreds or thousands of data collection points while the scientists can use that data to learn more about phenomena related to radio wave propagation. Frissell also organized the 2017 Solar Eclipse QSO Party.

Dayton's Technical Achievement award this year goes to telegraph key designer and manufacturer Piero Begali, I2RTF. The Special

Technical Achiemevent
Award Winner Piero Begali,
I2RTF (I2RTF photo)

Special Achievement Award
winner Chris Janssen,
DL1MGB/KO2WW
(DL1MGB photo)

Achievement award will recognize the efforts of Chris Janssen, DL1MGB/KO2WW, for his work as president of the 2018 World Radiosport Team Championship (WRTC2018) in Germany. And the 2019 Club of the Year is New Hampshire's Nashua Area Radio Society, a club of more than 200 members with a prime focus on mentoring and youth outreach to bring more people into amateur radio and help them get on the air.

The Nashua Area Radio Society is this year's Dayton
Hamvention Club of the Year (NARS photo)

The awards will be presented at a special banquet during this year's Dayton Hamvention on May 18.

Nominations Open for 2019 Young Ham of the Year Award

Nominations are open for the 2019 Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF, Memorial Newsline Young Ham of the Year Award (YHOTY). CQ is a proud corporate sponsor of this award. Nominees must be age 18 or younger and live in the United States or Canada. They must be making a significant contribution to amateur radio and/or using amateur radio to make a significant contribution to their communities (e.g., simply being licensed at age 2 won't cut it). 

This year, for the first time, only e-mailed nominations will be accepted. The nomination deadline is May 31, 2019. For complete information and nominating forms, visit <https://www.arnewsline.org/2019yhotyform>.

WWV Funding Restored, Centennial Preparations Continue

The WWV/WWVB transmitter site in Colorado will host
special event station WW0WWV as part of the WWV
centennial celebrations this fall. (NIST photo)

Congress has restored full funding for WWV, WWVB and WWVH, despite a budget proposal from the National Institute of Standards and Technology to shut down the three standard time and frequency radio stations. The Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2019 included some $725 million for NIST's Scientific and Technical Research and Services (STRS), the budget category that includes the stations' funding, according to NIST Public Affairs Director Gail Porter. The conference report accompanying the budget bill notes that "(t)he agreement rejects the proposed terminations and reductions for all STRS programs" and includes "not less than fiscal year 2018 funding" for several services, including "Time and Fundamental Measurement Dissemination."
 

With the shutdown threat ended, preparations continue for marking WWV's centennial this fall. According to the ARRL Letter, the Northern Colorado Amateur Radio Club will be operating a special event station from the WWV transmitter site from September 28 through October 2, using the callsign WW0WWV.

WWV and WWVH are also making timeslots available from April 20 to May 3 for the Department of Defense to request reception reports of communication during its "Northcom Vital Connection Wisconsin" exercise. The announcements will be broadcast at 10 minutes after each hour on WWV and 50 minutes after the hour on WWVH. It will reportedly serve as a pilot for future broadcasts of similar exercises. (Tnx WA2KBZ)