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Nominations were received for all three categories and the awards committee has
determined that there was at least one qualified nominee
within each category.
The 2000 Hudson Division Ham of the Year is Phil Lewis, N2MUN. A resident
of Lyndenhurst, NY, Phil is current president of the Great South Bay Amateur
Radio Club and the New York City/Long Island ARRL Section Affiliated Club
Coordinator. He has been instrumental in introducing a large number of
people to amateur radio through his efforts as chairperson of Ham Radio
University 2000 and has taken on the mantle of chair for HRU 2001 this coming
January. Always willing to lend a hand to any ham be it with HF, VHF/UHF
or antenna questions, Phil epitomizes the spirit of what it means to be Ham of
the Year.
Other nominees for this award were Joe Fairclough, WB2JKJ; George Tranos, N2GA
and Alessandro Sicilia, N2TWN.
A hearty congratulations to all for being nominated for this prestigious award.
The 2000 Hudson Division Grand Ole Ham award is conferred upon John Burgio,
W2JB. John has been an active amateur for over 60 years since obtaining a class
B license in 1936. He holds an EE from Lehigh University and worked for
the FCC in the 40's, inspecting ship radios and transmitters. He also
taught electricity at Temple University during World War II. John has a
letter of commendation from Senator Barry Goldwater, K7UGA (SK) for his work in
helping free two US vessels held for ransom in a foreign port. John also
holds the 4U1UN award for helping to put the UN station on the air. He is a
past-president of the North Jersey DX Association and was an integral part of
their incoming W-2 QSL Bureau operations for 25 years. In addition to his
numerous DX achievements, as a member of the West Essex ARC John currently uses
his experience and technical knowledge to help new hams get started on the right
foot. Many of those hams have gone on to assist new hams themselves and further
the traditions, which make amateur radio as special as it is.
In addition to W2JB, the committee received nominations for Andy Bodony, K2LE;
Howard Liebman, W2QUV; Stanley Sears, W2PQG and Tony Colaguori, W2GUM.
Congratulations to a fine group of candidates.
The 2000 Hudson Division Technical Achievement award is bestowed on Bob Wilson,
N2DVQ. Bob is the Engineering Director for the Westchester Emergency
Communications Association. He has held this position since 1989. Bob
evaluated the existing repeater system and determined that a complete redesign
was necessary because the system was to be moved to a new location. The
resultant design encompassed 3 voice repeaters at 147 MHz 224 MHz, and 447
MHz.and 2 packet repeaters. The system, on the whole, is designed for HT
coverage throughout Westchester County. Bob worked with the facility owner to
prove the need for the multiple antenna design. In fact, the facility
owner used the design as a prototype for commercial systems at the site.
Bob brought many innovations to the system including a voter to select the
remote with the best, received signal. He designed, built, and installed a
feature that provides unique "beep" tones to identify the remote
receiver used for a particular user's transmission. Bob has been dedicated
to maintaining the system for over eleven years keeping it operating
continuously with only minor outages. In order to achieve this degree of
reliability, Bob included a complete backup repeater for the two meter repeater.
The standby repeater is easily placed in service using the audio and control
patch panel built into the system. Because of this reliability, the system
is used by the Westchester County ARES/RACES organization as the area emergency
repeater. When the mayor of Rye Brook asked WECA to provide repeater links
for contacting the NASA Space shuttle from Blind Brook High School, Bob and his
team developed a technical proposal for augmenting the system. This
proposal was accepted by the New York Power Authority. The authority
donated the funds to add the necessary auxiliary equipment. That equipment
is now a permanent part of the system. It allows the system to link to any
area repeater as a commanded by a control operator. This innovation has
been used several times to link to repeaters in other areas during an emergency.
For several years, Bob served as the Technical Coordinator for the Eastern New
York Section. Bob enjoys designing and building radio equipment of all
types. Recently, he built several six meter antennas and a six meter
kilowatt amplifier for use in VHF contesting. Bob spends much of his hobby time
in service to other hams. His unselfish efforts have added to the
enjoyment of many; the ability of emergency communications group to perform
their services; and attraction of new hams to greater participation in advanced
aspects of the hobby.
This year, the committee received no additional nominees for this award.
The awards were presented at the 2000 Hudson Division Awards Dinner on
Friday, September 15th, 2000.
I extend my thanks to Joyce Birmingham, KA2ANF; Tom Carrubba, KA2D and Bob
Raffaele, W2XM for their service on the awards committee for 2000.
For the 2000 Hudson Division Awards Committee,
J.P. Kleinhaus, W2XX Vice-Director, ARRL Hudson Division
send questions or comments to W2XX