For the second year in a row, COVID-19 has put a damper on the world’s largest annual celebration of all things Ham radio. But while Dayton Hamvention® has been canceled for 2021, you can still get in the spirit of this much-beloved gathering of amateur operators from around the world (and pretty much the whole DX Engineering crew) by experiencing the fun of Hamvention® on the air. The Hamvention QSO Party 2021 will be held May 22, 1200 UTC to 2400 UTC, the Saturday of what would have been the actual event.
The objective is to work as many stations as possible on 80, 40, 20, 15, and 10 meters SSB and CW during the 12-hour period. The exchange should be the signal report and the first year you attended Hamvention (use “2021” if you’ve never attended). Scoring: Count one point for each unique call worked on each band and mode. W8BI, the club call sign of the Dayton Amateur Radio Association, will be a bonus station worth 10 points per band and mode.
Winners Announced
Michael Kalter, W8CI, and Frank Beafore, WS8B, co-chairs of the Hamvention Awards Committee, recently announced the 2021 Hamvention Award Winners:
- Technical Achievement: “Space Weather Woman” Tamitha Mulligan Skov, WX6SWW. Watch DX Engineering CEO, Tim Duffy, K3LR, interview Skov in this 2017 video from DX Engineering’s YouTube channel.
- Special Achievement: Wesley Lamboley, W3WL, who was “nominated by his peers for his lifetime, high energy support for the science and art of amateur radio,” including youth coaching, membership recruitment, and technical problem assistance.
- Amateur of the Year: Angel M. Vazquez, WP3R. Angel is best known for his 40 years of work at the Arecibo Observatory, where he served in various positions, including senior telescope operator, spectrum manager, PC systems administrator, RFI manager, and head of telescope operations. “Angel’s award stems from his unswerving and diligent support of amateur radio throughout the entire territory of Puerto Rico and…worldwide,” the committee wrote. Watch K3LR interview WP3R about the observatory’s massive decommissioned radio telescope, what led to its collapse in December 2020, and the important work that took place at Arecibo (the site of a historic moonbounce operation) while it was in its glory.
- Club of the Year: The Virginia-based Vienna Wireless Society, K4HTA. “The Vienna Wireless society was chosen this year for its 58 years of service to the amateur radio community,” according to the selection committee, which cited the society’s 280 members’ focus on youth education, public service and “promoting the overall growth of radio through the DC area and around the world.”
Read complete biographies of all the winners here.
