Subj : Newsline Part 1 To : All From : Daryl Stout Date : Fri May 19 2017 08:58 am Amateur Radio Newsline Report 2064 for Friday, May 19, 2017 Amateur Radio Newsline Report Number 2064, with a release date of Friday, May 19, 2017 to follow in 5-4-3-2-1. The following is a QST. Germany gets a new band on a trial basis. A former amateur with a long combative history becomes a Silent Key -- and we meet two hams honored at Hamvention. All this and more, as Amateur Radio Newsline Report 2064, comes your way right now. ** BILLBOARD CART ** AT HAMVENTION, HAMS WHO MADE A DIFFERENCE DON/ANCHOR: We begin with - what else? - Hamvention, which gets underway as this report goes to production. One of the highlights of this annual event is the recognition of amateurs who've made a difference for others in our hobby. The honorees this year have done just that. Let's hear more about them from Amateur Radio Newsline's Neil Rapp, WB9VPG. NEIL: The celebration of ham radio that is the Dayton Hamvention is underway as we go to broadcast. And, part of the celebration is recognizing the Hamvention award winners. Two of the winners accepted the invitation to be featured on a recent episode of Ham Talk Live! This year's Amateur of the Year is Frank Bauer, KA3HDO. Frank is the international chairman of the Amateur Radio on the International Space Station project. He worked for NASA and other space related companies for 4 decades. Frank has worked on several projects tying ham radio with space. And, his current one involves maintaining a ham radio presence on the ISS. FRANK: It is hard to believe that two weeks after the first crew came on board, we inaugurated the amateur radio station. And, we have been operational ever since. And so, that was back in November of 2000. Since then, we've done over a thousand contacts. We're almost up to 1100 contacts at this point. And what the team has accomplished has been phenomenal, being able to allow hams around the world to talk to the astronauts on orbit. When we get a crew member that [is] interested in talking to hams on the ground, and all of the students, and getting students excited about amateur radio. That's a very important thing, not only excited, but actually getting licensed. NEIL: Bauer also reflected on the connection between space and ham radio. FRANK: This is that melding of amateur radio into other activities, scientific activities and engineering activities, where this hobby is just phenomenal. And, I'll say I'm forever grateful for the fact that I got involved in amateur radio because it has helped my career, and it has helped everyone on earth from that perspective. NEIL: Ram Mohan, VU2MYH is this year's Special Achievement Award winner. Ram is the Executive Vice Chairman & Director of the National Institute of Amateur Radio in Hyderabad, India. Ram's efforts to bring youth into amateur radio in India has been exemplary. RAM: Evidence of this activity in India is still on the lower side, I would say. We are just trying to introduce and create awareness on the activities for the youth to get involved, and join, have fun, and interacting with people all over the world, get to learn things about wireless communications, as they practice the art of amateur radio. And interestingly, this grown into leaps and bounds. A lot of young people getting involved into the activity. They're all excited to get into the world of amateur radio. Do-it-yourself concept helps in building a skill for them. And a lot of technical institutes are coming forward and encourage the students to get involved in amateur radio. And it is our effort to get the message across to all the young people who want to get involved in the amateur radio activity. NEIL: Ram has also been involved in communications efforts for several natural disasters, such as the recent Nepal earthquake. RAM: In India, we have several kinds of natural calamities hitting the region, really pretty bad ones. The ones that happened Gujaratin 2001. The earthquake took a toll on a lot of people, and there was a major disaster and hams could provide instant communications at that point in time. The super cyclone of 1999 was a major disaster here in India, and the tsunami of 2004. NEIL: Ram is grateful for the recognition from the Dayton Amateur Radio Association. RAM: We are very fortunate that the award comes back to our organization again after so many years. NEIL: Another winner of the prestigious awards is Rob Brownstein, K6RB, who won the technical achievement award for his work with CW Ops. And the Clark County Amateur Radio Club, W7AIA, which serves Southwest Washington and Northwest Oregon, received the Club of the Year award for their efforts with youth, licensing, and visual situation reporting. For more information about this year's award winners, go check out the official Hamvention program at Hamvention.org, or tune into the entire broadcast on hamtalklive.com. Reporting for Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Neil Rapp, WB9VPG. Posted by VPost v1.7.081019 .