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2015 Hamvention Award Winners

By 03/06/2015March 6th, 2021Awards

Amateur of the Year – Tim Duffy, K3LR, of West Middlesex, PA, has a long history of giving back to Amateur Radio. He is founder, promoter and chairman of the successful Contest University (CTU) which has helped to teach radio sport contest operating with excellent volunteer professors. The first CTU was held in Dayton in 2007. Since then more 3,700 radio radio sport enthusiasts have attended 25 CTU’s held in eight different countries under his watchful guidance.

Since 1984 K3LR has moderated the Dayton Hamvention antenna forum, coordinating the presentation of more than 100 papers about antennas. He is also involved in scheduling many contesting activities during Hamvention including the Contest Super Suite, the Contest Dinner and recently the annual Top Band Dinner.

Duffy serves as an officer of several radio clubs and was recently elected to the position of ARRL Section Manager for Western Pennsylvania. He became a ham at age 12 in 1972 and lives in Pennsylvania on 11 acres with over 50 antennas.

Special Achievement – The Dayton Hamvention Special Achievement Award recognizes the 14 years of service that Tom Medlin, W5KUB, has provided through W5KUB.com, a worldwide webcast of live ham radio events. From his start as “Helmet Cam” man, he has grown the webcast to cover all aspects of amateur radio from events like the Dayton Hamvention to field day, vendor tours, special technical discussions, and special events such as K6H from the stage of “Last Man Standing” in Hollywood.  The webcast recently added a weekly live amateur radio program which remotely brings in guests from around the world. The W5KUB.com viewer base has reached approximately 50,000 unique operators in about 150 countries.

The webcast benefits viewers who cannot personally attend amateur radio events due to age, health, distance, time, or money.  The W5KUB.com webcast allows viewers to virtually attend and be part of the events, including the opportunity to win prizes during the events.  Through vendor and manufacturer prize donations, W5KUB.com awards these prizes to webcast viewers, valued over $10,000 annually. The webcast’s popularity has grown over the years and has been featured in numerous TV news stories, magazines, and world-wide websites.

Medlin was originally licensed in 1964 and later earned his Amateur Radio Extra Class license, and FCC Radio Telephone license with radar endorsement (First Class).  Using his degree in electronic engineering, he devoted 34 years to FedEx, managing international telecommunications until his 2013 retirement.  He is a senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers.

Tom operates across the spectrum: 160 meters to 2.4 GHz, works voice, CW, amateur TV, digital modes, space communications, and he builds and designs much of his equipment. He resides in Collierville, TN.

Technical Excellence – Rev. George Dobbs, G3RJV,  has helped many amateur radio operators build their own equipment. Currently G3RJV writes a monthly practical construction column, “Continuing the Practical Way” for the Practical Wireless magazine and the QRP Column for the Radio Society of Great Britian, (RSGB) magazine Radio Communication.  He authored the book “QRP Basics” and jointly compiled the “International QRP Collection” for the RSGB.

Rev. Dobbs was licensed in 1962 and from the beginning used almost all home built equipment for his amateur radio operating.  At the end of the 1960’s, after 5 years of student life and very little amateur radio activity, George decided to return to the hobby.  To do this he had to progress from his former valve (tube) technology to solid-state circuitry.  His inspiration was the series of articles by Doug DeMaw (then W1CER) in the QST.  From these articles came his first simple QRP transmitters, and then 30 years of QRP construction!

In 1972 he founded the G-QRP Club, which began with 32 members and is now the largest QRP Club in the world.  He has edited the club’s journal SPRAT since 1972.  In the 1980’s he wrote many articles on building QRP equipment for the Short Wave Magazine.  This was followed by a whole series of QRP projects in the Practical Wireless magazine throughout the 1980’s and 90’s. George is a retired Church of England (Episcopalian) priest living in the northwest of England.  George and his wife Jo-Anna (GØOWH) own a wooden lodge in Wales, which they use as a base for exploring Celtic sites.

Club of the Year – The Orlando Amateur Radio Club, (OARC) with the club call of W4PLB, is the largest and oldest amateur radio club in Central Florida with consistently over 300 members. It is an American Radio Relay League, (ARRL) Special Service Club, and offers many outlets for amateur radio enjoyment and growth. The members of the Orlando Amateur Radio Club take great pride in planning for the future of amateur radio and preserving the history of technology. They do this by recruiting, training and helping committed hams to carry on the tradition of amateur radio. They actively support Orange County ARES and Skywarn as well as several community service agencies. They continually provide conduct training and testing for all ages. To keep members informed, a monthly e-newsletter includes meeting information, items of interest and important announcements.

Annual events include the Orlando HamCation® which is sponsored and financially supported by the OARC, whose members contribute their time and effort in promoting a high quality hamfest. Other Central Florida clubs generously give their assistance in the operation and planning of HamCation®. Second only to Dayton, this is the largest hamfest in the southeastern United States.