The land occupied by the Ramada Inn has been owned by the city of Xenia since the 1974 tornado. According to the article, city officials said that AK Group Hotels, Inc., the operator of the Ramada Inn, has been operating under a month-to-month lease since 2017.

In August, the city of Xenia reportedly reached an agreement with Ramada Inn operators that allowed them to operate until Oct. 31 in order to liquidate the business. The land will be incorporated into the Xenia Towne Square revitalization project.

Hamvention management asks hams to share this information so that anyone with reservations at the Ramada Inn Xenia will be aware of it.

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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.

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Our winners are:

Technical Achievement: WX6SWW – Tamitha Mulligan Skov is well known as the “Space Weather Woman”. Folks that have seen her space weather forecasting show will freely admit that she is full of energy and excited about her work. She is a real space pioneer.

Special Achievement: W3WL – Wesley Lamboley was nominated by his peers for his lifetime, high energy support for the science and art of amateur radio. Not only has Wesley supported youth coaching, membership recruiting and technical problem assistance, he always does it with a smile and great humor.

Amateur of the Year: WP3R – Angel M. Vazquez is known for being one of the principal support engineers for what was one of the greatest antennas in the world – the National Science Foundation’s Arecibo parabolic dish antenna. Angel’s award stems from his unswerving and diligent support of amateur radio throughout the entire territory of Puerto Rico and extends worldwide.

Club of the Year: K4HTA – The Vienna Wireless society  As always, it is very difficult to choose the club of the year as we receive many deserving club nominations from around the world. The Vienna Wireless society was chosen this year for its 58 years of service to the amateur radio community. K4HTA with its 280 members focus on youth education, public service and promoting the overall growth of radio through the DC area and around the world.

The following are short biographies of our 2021 award selections. Please join us in congratulating all of them for their lifetime achievements supporting our great radio amateur community.

Special Achievement Award: Wes Lamboley W3WL

Wes spent 40 years in the Aerospace Industry. He was a technical writer, Electrical and Systems Engineer, manager and wound up in England as an Engineering Liaison for Boeing on a jointly developed tactical radar-guided missile with the Marconi/British Aerospace Corporation. His bottom line has always been that “I love my job, and never worked a day of my life,” adding that at times that was a bit of a stretch.

He truly enjoyed his career, but says, unequivocally, that “I owe most of my success to ham radio.”
Wes was introduced to Ham Radio in 1955, one of his buddies invited him to attend Field Day, and the rest is history. Not only did he get hooked on ham radio, but it provided the spark for a career in electronics. “Many Elmers helped me and I try to pay it forward as best I can, especially for young people.”

Wes also enjoys working with various civic groups and ham radio clubs, getting involved and helping them to be successful.

Wes views ham radio as a catalyst for an adventure! It seems that most aspects of life can be made more interesting by adding a bit of ham radio to the activity. A good example may be the five SWODXA “DXpedition of the Year” plaques hanging in his shack. The real adventure is going to far-off places, but once we are there and enjoying the cultures and landscapes, we get to play radio too!

Technical Achievement Award: Dr. Tamitha Mulligan Skov WX6SWW

Tamitha Skov is a credentialed Space Weather forecaster. Her forecasting work as the “Space Weather Woman” is widely known on social media such as You Tube, Twitter, and Facebook. She has been featured in Popular Science Magazine, MIT Technology Review, and on television shows for The Weather Channel and The History Channel. Her weekly space weather video podcast episodes are frequently featured on QRZ.com and she makes regular appearances on other amateur radio-related shows such as Ham Nation on Ham Radio Crash Course (formerly on TWiT.TV) and Space News on TMRO.TV.

She has held a technician’s class license since 2018, call sign WX6SWW, and she specifically became an amateur radio operator to better understand the needs and serve the amateur radio community. Tamitha has taught at Contest University multiple times and has given invited talks for the ARRL, Hamvention, and for many amateur radio clubs across the world.

Outside of her professional position as a research scientist for The Aerospace Corporation, she is currently teaching the art of Space Weather forecasting to meteorologists at Millersville University, and working with the ARRL and HamSCI.org to help create new official education materials for new hams and the ARRL community. She is always seeking new ways to bring an awareness of Space Weather and its effects into the mainstream and hopes to herald in a new era of TV weather broadcasting before the end of Solar Cycle 25.

Club of the Year Award:  The  Vienna Wireless Society K4HTA

The Vienna Wireless Society was founded 58 years ago by amateur radio operators in the Town of Vienna, Virginia. An ARRL affiliated club, it is now the largest and most active Amateur Radio Club in the Washington, DC area. Our priorities are fostering a fun and inclusive environment, building comradery, and focusing on the key areas of: Service, Education, and Communication.

Our Service work includes providing communications for numerous organizations, including the Marine Corps Marathon, as well as many local events. We are also proud of the services we offer to the amateur radio community. Our antenna installation team installs, removes and replaces over one antenna per month. We have an Elmer team which encourages and provides equipment to new hams. The club has an estate committee that supports and helps the families of SKs, a sad but important service.

In the area of Education, we offer licensing classes, workshops, and four educational programs a month at our meetings. These efforts help us reach out to youth, one of our major areas of focus. We record and archive these programs for use by the community at large. They cover a wide range of topics, from volcanoes to HF propagation to Smith Charts. We also offer workshops at our own regional hamfest, called Winterfest, which now hosts the Virginia Section Convention of the ARRL.

Communications is a major focus for us. Our two repeaters support a number of communications efforts, including local EMCOMM networks, and Presidential Inauguration security. We host five nets each week, including our latest which is about having fun with “wild and wacky” digital modes. We enjoy working together as a club in contests like the NAQP and Field Day, where we have finished in the top five in our category for several years.

We love to have fun with amateur radio, and we hope we are helping amateur radio and the community at large at the same time.

Amateur of the Year:  Angel M. Vazquez WP3R

Angel M. Vazquez was born in Arecibo, PR but grew up in Brooklyn, NY from the age of 2-22.
Graduated from CUNY, Brooklyn campus. Worked at WNYC as a radio engineer before moving back to Arecibo and taking a job at the Arecibo Observatory in 1977. He worked in telescope operations then headed the IT support team, eventually accepted position as Head of Telescope Operations and Puerto Rico Coordination Zone Spectrum Manger. (Current).

He became a radio amateur novice class operator in 1993 WP4MBP. Previous calls held include NP3FU (General) KP3AP (Advanced + Extra). In 1997 he acquired vanity call WP3R.
Angel led the MoonBounce effort from the Arecibo Observatory in April 2010 and multiple special events from the observatory using the KP4AO club call of which he is the president and trustee.
He is involved in and enjoys DX (5BDXCC) and contesting. In 1998 along with longtime friend, Dr. Jim Breakall WA3FET constructed a contest station on a hill owned by Jim just outside the Arecibo Observatory that was active and which won numerous ARRL and CQWW events using his WP3R call including a 10-year ARRL SS streak (KE3Q), until being destroyed by hurricane Maria in 2017.

Angel provided emergency communications every day for 8 weeks for hundreds of families after hurricane Maria leveled the power and communications grids. With the help of the WWROF, generators were provided to needy ham families in Puerto Rico. These efforts earned him Amateur of the Year in Puerto Rico in 2018 and the YASME Excellence Award in 2019.

Has been a VE since 1997 and started the first Virtual/online Bi-Lingual testing program as part of the GLAARG (Greater Los Angeles Amateur Radio Group) VEC.

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Several transceivers highlight the major prizes including an IC-7600 and ID 5100A from ICOM America, three TS-590G’s from Kenwood USA, a  FTDX 1220 and a FT 450D from Yaesu USA and a DX-SR9T from Alinco. The biggest prize in size is a US Tower HDX-555 55 foot crank up tower.

Holmes said that some of the hourly prizes may also be substantial and represent a broad spectrum of items of interest to hams.  Drawings are held hourly during Hamvention and winning numbers are posted at the Prize Booth in the Main Arena and on monitors throughout the complex.

Attendees can deposit their prize stubs at the Prize Booth. On Friday and Saturday only, attendees may also drop off prize stubs at the DARA Boy Scout Venturing Crew booth just inside the EAST HALL entrance. Tickets deposited at the East Hall booth by 15 minutes before the hour will be deposited in the main prize drum in time for the next hourly drawing. That service will not be available on Sunday.

For a list of major prizes and donors go to Prizes

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