Dhruv Rebba, KC9ZJX, Named 2019 Amateur Radio Newsline Young Ham of the Year

2019 Newsline Young Ham of the Year Dhruv Rebba,
KC9ZJX, operating from Curacao as PJ2Y as a member of
the 2018 Dave Kalter Memorial Youth DX Adventure team.
(Photo courtesy KC9ZJX)

Dhruv Rebba, KC9ZJX, of Normal, Illinois, has been selected as the 2019 Bill Pasternak WA6ITF Memorial Amateur Radio Newsline Young Ham of the Year. Dhruv, 15, is the son of Hari Rebba, VU2SPZ, and Shailaja Panyam. He is entering his sophomore year at the Normal Community High School this fall. 

 

Dhruv is a member of the Central Illinois Radio Club. He earned his Technician Class license in 2013 when he was only 9 years old and followed it up a year later by passing the test for a General Class license. Dhruv says his interest in amateur radio was sparked by a 2013 visit to the Dayton Hamvention(R) with his father, a long-time amateur radio operator from India who settled in the U.S.  

"He was going to the Hamvention and so I wanted to tag along," Dhruv recalls. "There I got to see all the cool stuff like the Morse-Code keyers and all the radios and everything and I decided to start studying for my Technician class."  

 

After getting his license, Dhruv became involved in Field Day and public service events with the Central Illinois Radio Club, including the "We Care Twin Cities Marathon" and the "Hop on for Hope Bike Ride/Walk." Dhruv says he found a way to combine his interest in space and engineering with his new hobby. He joined AMSAT (Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation) and pursued his dream of a school contact with an astronaut aboard the International Space Station.

   

In October 2017, he served as the lead control operator for an Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact with students at his school - the Chiddix Junior High School in Normal, IL - with astronaut Joe Acaba, KE5DAR.   In late July of this year, Dhruv helped to facilitate another ARISS contact with international Scouts attending the World Jamboree in West Virginia and monitored the contact from his home.    

 

ARISS presentations at Dayton and Huntsville, his selection as an ARISS mentor and networking with those putting together the ARISS contact for the World Jamboree led to his role in the July 2019 contact.   In 2018, Dhruv was selected for the Dave Kalter Memorial Youth DX Adventure. He traveled to Curacao Island in July 2018 where the PJ2Y team made a record 6,262 contacts with 135 countries over five days. Dhruv says he enjoyed operating his favorite mode, SSB.   Dhruv has earned many accolades for his amateur radio pursuits including the "Young Ham Lends A Hand" award at the 2019 Dayton Hamvention Youth Forum; "Presidential Award" from AMSAT; and the "Young Achievers Award" from the Radio Club of America.  

 

 He also has traveled to India to promote amateur radio awareness and spoke at the ZPH School, NP Kunta, India in January 2018. He discussed the importance of wireless communications and their role during disasters.   Dhruv started the "Universal Help Foundation" to help underprivileged students on a global scale. Among his first projects was a digital project at a girls' high school in NP Kunta, India this past January.   Dhruv also has an interest in robotics and has worked as a mentor helping elementary school students build robots. This past April, Dhruv's "MetalCow Robotics" team finished fourth overall in the international competition sponsored by NASA in Detroit.  

 

Dhruv says a visit to the AMSAT booth at the 2019 Dayton Hamvention prompted him to sign on for the "Amateur Radio Exploration on the Moon" project.   "We're designing an amateur radio system to be on the Gateway Space Station and the Moon," he says.   Dhruv will be recognized during the Huntsville Hamfest on Aug. 17 in the Von Braun Center, Huntsville AL.    

 

The Young Ham of the Year was inaugurated by William Pasternak, WA6ITF, in 1986. Upon his passing in 2015, Bill's name was added to the award as a memorial to his commitment to recognizing the accomplishments of young people to the amateur radio service.   Amateur Radio Newsline, CQ Magazine and Yaesu USA are primary sponsors of the award, along with Heil Sound Ltd. and Radiowavz Antenna Company.

HAL Communications Co-Founder Bill Henry, K9GWT, SK

Bill Henry, K9GWT

A major player in early amateur radio digital communications hardware and software - and a longtime friend of CQ - has become a Silent Key. George W. "Bill" Henry, K9GWT, passed away in mid-July at age 78.

Henry was co-founder of HAL Devices in the mid-1960s and eventually became president of HAL Comunications Corp. The company's first major success was a RTTY demodulator, followed by a long line of digital devices and software, including CLOVER. Henry sold HAL to Australia-based Barrett Communications in 2012.

A lifelong resident of Illinois, Bill graduated from the University of Illinois at Champaign/Urbana with a master's degree in electrical engineering. In addition to amateur radio, Bill played the clarinet, enjoyed model railroading and held a private pilot's license.

Bill lived in Monticello, Illinois, and is survived by his wife, Linda; one daughter, three step-daughters, 10 grandchildren and one great-granddaughter, as well as his sister, Diana.

First-Ever Lunar Repeater QSO Reported

Amateur radio science and technology blogger Daniel Estévez, EA4GPZ/M0HXM, is reporting that DK5LA in Germany contacted BY2HIT at the Harbin Institute of Technology in China on July 1 using the GMSK-to-JT4G repeater aboard the lunar-orbiting LO-94 (DSLWP-B) satellite. It is the first-ever amateur contact made through a lunar-orbiting satellite transponder.

A solar eclipse as seen from the Moon ... the black dot on the image of the
Earth is the Moon's shadow as it crosses the planet.
(Photo by Lunar-OSCAR 94, also known as DSLWP-B)

The Chinese LO-94 satellite also took photos of the Moon's shadow as it crossed the Earth during the July 2 total solar eclipse (seen in the Southern Hemisphere). One image is posted here. The black splotch on the Earth is the Moon's shadow as it crosses during the eclipse.

First-Ever Transatlantic 2-Meter QSO Reported

The Monteverde Contest Group, best-
known for its D4C contest superstation,
used call sign D41CV to make the first-
ever terrestrial transatlantic contact on
144 MHz.

Speaking of first-evers, the Monteverde Contest Team in the Cape Verde Islands has achieved a long-sought goal of making a transatlantic contact on the 2-meter band. According to Newsline, D41CV used 500 watts and six stacked dipole antennas to make an FT8 contact with FG8OJ in Guadeloupe on June 16, at a distance of nearly 2398 miles. FG8OJ was running 100 watts to a 14-element Yagi. The group in Cape Verde – best known for its D4C contest superstation – followed up with another FT8 contact with WP4G in Puerto Rico, at a distance of 2700 miles, then made additional contacts with Martinique and another station on Guadeloupe.

The ARRL Letter reports that the contacts will not qualify for the Irish Radio Transmitters Society's Brendan Trophies because they require transatlantic 2-meter contacts to be between Europe and the Americas. It was noted, however, that the distances covered by these contacts were greater than the distance between Ireland and Newfoundland, the shortest path that would qualify for the award.

ARISS-Russia Receives New Ham Gear for Space Station

Kenwood has donated two TM-D710GA transceivers to the Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) program, to update equipment both on the station and in thee training facility in Russia.

The ARRL reported that Kenwood's software manager presented the two radios to Sergey Samburov, RV3DR, at the ARISS-International meeting held in Montreal in late June. The radios have undergone more than a year of NASA qualification testing. One will replace equipment that has been in use on the station for years, while the other will remain on Earth as a backup and for crew training.