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Hamvention Award Winners

By 03/19/2022Awards

Michael Kalter, W8CI, Chairman of the Hamvention Awards Committee announced the following Hamvention award winners:
Club of the Year: The Highland Amateur Radio Association
Special Achievement: Kerry Banke N6IZW
Technical Achievement: Adam Farson, VA7OJ/AB40J
Amateur of the Year Jim Simpson KF8J

The Highland Amateur Radio Association
The Highland Amateur Radio Association (HARA), an ARRL Special Service Club located in Hillsboro, OH was formed in 1977 and serves a small rural population in Highland County. As a result of ongoing licensing classes and elmering sessions, the club reached an all-time high membership in 2021 with 143 members. Since 2015 membership has grown by 86% and the membership is comprised of Hams from 10 surrounding counties in southwest Ohio and 2 states. The club maintains 5 repeaters within Highland County, of which 2 are linked to provide a broader footprint. The club hosts both a weekly 2m and 10m net with an average attendance of 28. There are bi-monthly programs as well as a monthly gathering to discuss the hobby, the “Brunch Bunch”. Much of the club’s success can be attributed to the passion it has in sharing the hobby at every opportunity.

The club has an excellent relationship with the local newspaper and leverages that relationship to make the community aware of their events and of the value and importance of Amateur Radio. HARA is active in the community, setting out and removing flags for Memorial Day at the local cemetery and also providing communications support for the annual Hillsboro Christmas Parade. Members are engaged with the local EMA officials and local NWS, ready to assist in any emergency. Outside of club business meetings, over 100 members participated in Field Day Activities, Ohio State Parks on the Air along with running a Special Event Station from the world’s largest horseshoe crab (located in Hillsboro, OH). The club also launched their own Laurel VE team to aid in their ongoing efforts to promote the hobby and bring new Hams aboard. HARA is a very passionate club and is dedicated to the promotion of Amateur Radio. HARA is also home to the 2021 ARRL Philip McGann Silver Antenna Award recipient.

Respectfully submitted by Patrick Hagen – N8BAP. President – Highland Amateur Radio Association (HARA)

Special Achievement: Kerry Banke N6IZW
Kerry Banke, N6IZW, is an advanced class radio amateur, first licensed in 1961. Banke, now retired, spent most of his career in the research and development of electronics systems as a microwave RF electrical engineer. This included 14 years as Qualcomm engineer, developing innovative microwave wireless technologies. Kerry’s electronic interests span DC to light with particular interest and expertise in microwaves. His ham radio operations have included transmissions on 136KHz through to Laser. Since 1982 he has served as host of the San Diego Microwave Group’s monthly meeting, sharing his expertise with other hams of like interest.

Banke’s exceptional support to Human Spaceflight Amateur Radio started in 1994 where he served as a school technical mentor and certified ground station for the Shuttle Amateur Radio Experiment (SAREX) program. When NASA transitioned from the Shuttle to the International Space Station (ISS), Kerry became an exemplary member of the Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) hardware team. For seven years, working from his home and electronics lab garage in La Mesa, California, Banke led the circuit design, breadboarding, flight circuit board layout, assembly and testing of the ARISS developed Multi-Voltage Power Supply (MVPS). This compact, but powerful, power supply innovation serves as the backbone of the ARISS next-generation on-orbit radio system, also called the Interoperable Radio system or IORS. Banke’s innovations also included specially designed test equipment needed to perform a comprehensive battery of tests in his electronics lab and at NASA to flight certify the radio system. A total of 11 next-gen radio units are needed for ARISS ops.

Kerry’s stellar contributions to the recently launched ARISS hardware system has significantly enhanced current ham operations on ISS. Additionally, they enable future radio expansion and experimentation that will permit exciting, new educational and operational capabilities for youth and hams. Banke’s impact on ham radio and youth STEM education is awe inspiring. Each year, hundreds of thousands of ISS ham QSOS are performed via the voice repeater and APRS digipeater and hundreds of thousands of youth are inspired and engaged through ARISS ham radio connections with astronauts on-board ISS.

Technical Achievement:Adam Farson, VA7OJ/AB40J
Adam Farson VA7OJ/AB4OJ has dedicated his professional life’s work to RF and telecommunications engineering issues and innovation. He has been a ham since he was a teenager.
Adam is best known to the amateur radio community for his development of multiple sources of technical support for Icom radios. He started an Icom technical support net on 20 meters in the 1980s and came to know several senior Icom Japan engineers due to his work, travel and living in Japan. Adam actively helped other hams solve challenging technical and logistical issues, as each week’s net brought a new set of problems to solve.

Adam has always had a keen eye for emerging trends and started one of the most widely cited internet resources on HF radios, where for three decades he has maintained a website which has become a repository for highly technical information on Icom and other HF transceivers and amplifiers.
He independently performs measurements on nearly all new radios, including Noise-Power Ratio, a measure he developed. His work includes producing the only data radio hobbyists have which clearly delineates how modern SDR rigs perform across the spectrum of band noise levels. Adam has written multiple articles for technical and amateur radio journals. Recently he penned a multi-part series on modern HF solid-state amplifier design principles.

Amateur of the Year: Jim Simpson KF8J
Jim Simpson, KF8J was first licensed as a teen in 1966, his elmer was Don Hinton, W8RTL, a very active ham at the time that gave him his first DX contact in Italy. Jim was mostly speechless but got over that quickly. He built his first tower in same year, 40 ft. His first ham call was WN8UZJ and worked 39 states including Hawaii in his first year while still living with his parents, sister and brother. His first shack was in the back corner of his dad’s garage. He built all his equipment from HealthKit’s. He upgraded to General in the late 70’s and received the call, WB8QZZ which he held until 2014.

He built two towers at his current location in Xenia, Ohio 40 years ago in 1980, a 100 ft Rohn 25 guyed tower and a 55 ft free standing tower for satellite communications and local tv reception. He uses a 4 element SteppIr beam and 10-80 long wire inverted V, plus several other ancillary antennas up and down the 100 ft tower. Jim operates 10 thru 80 meters, mostly voice, some digital plus 2 and 440.

Jim attended his first Hamvention in 1972. He was a member of the committee for 1973-74, was the Assistant Prize Chair for 1975-76 becoming the Prize Chair in 1977 and remained so for 6 years. Jim was first to use computers in Hamvention and the DARA Club to streamline recording data.

In 1974 a devasting and lethal tornado devastated the town of Xenia, Ohio. Jim saw a way to help serve the community and as a young man, in 1975, founded The Xenia Weather Radio Network. He remains very active in this organization

Jim was appointed Second assistant to the Hamvention General Chair in 1983. In 1984 and 1985 he was appointed to Assistant General Chair. He was appointed to be the Hamvention Chairman, DARA Board for the 1986 and 1987 Hamventions. Jim has served on the Hamvention committee continuously since 1973.

First to live stream video forums and other activities during Hamvention
First to live stream video at other domestic and foreign Hamfests DARA attended
First to acquire video and stills of Hamvention and other Hamfests using UAV’s.
Hamvention Senior Advisor for many previous and current chairs.

Over many years he taught and elmered many local hams and has hundreds of very close ham radio friends. He has assisted in radio tower and antenna construction projects in his 56-year ham radio history. Jim was very key in forming the 4-H Amateur Radio Club in Xenia. They built and outfitted a 55 ft Rohan 55 tower, installed 4 antennas, 1 for VHF-UHF, 1 for 10-80 inverted V long wire, 1 for 40-80-160, inverted V long wire and a 6BA, JK Beam for 6 thru 40 meters, pulling all cables through the attic of The Greene County Extension Office. He built a patch panel for antenna distribution, setup 3 full HF stations and a VHF-UHF station. He also installed cable and modem for High-Speed internet and Wi-Fi for logging and search access in the 4H radio room. He is still very involved in this project.

Jim’s contributions include the many offices and committees he led for both DARA and Hamvention. He was a leader in the reorganization of the Hamvention Committee and paid contractors reverting to an all volunteer committee. This move was key to the survival of Hamvention. Jim brings a high level of energy and team spirit wherever he is, especially around Amateur Radio. He is a true ambassador of Amateur Radio throughout the world and is ready to help on any project or with any Ham.