2003 Hamvention® Award Winners

Hamvention 2003 Award Winners

Amateur of the Year

Larry "Tree" Tyree, N6TR, of Boring, Oregon has been chosen to receive Dayton Hamvention's Amateur of the Year award for 2003. Mr. Tyree is the creator, organizer, and promoter of the successful "Kids' Day", now adopted by the American Radio Relay League. Kids' Day is not a contest, but is designed to give young people a chance to experience Amateur Radio first hand, hopefully inspiring them to become future Hams. Mr. Tyree also created the very popular contest logging software called "TR-LOG". Mr. Tyree has been a Ham since 1967, lives in Oregon with his wife and three daughters. Hamvention is proud to honor Larry "Tree" Tyre, N6TR as its Amateur of the Year for 2003!

Special Achievement

Jonathan Taylor, K1RFD, of Ridgefield, Connecticut has been chosen to receive Dayton Hamvention's Special Achievement award for 2003. Mr. Taylor is the writer and developer of the Internet linking program called EchoLink, and the repeater-control program called EchoStation. EchoLink allows Amateur stations to connect with each other over the Internet, to expand the coverage of repeaters and simplex stations and to provide licensed hams access from their PCs. EchoLink has given many hams both young and old whose license restricts them from using the HF bands the ability to talk and make friends all around the world via the Internet. Mr. Taylor provides EchoLink without charging any fees for its use. Hamvention congratulates Jonathan Taylor, K1RFD for his Special Achievement!

Technical Excellence

Steve Dimse, K4HG, of Cudjoe Key, Florida has been chosen to receive Dayton Hamvention's Technical Excellence award for 2003. Mr. Dimse invented, developed, and personally funded and maintains the Global APRS Internet network that links 20,000 plus worldwide APRS operators. This is a tremendous value in supporting emergency services, Amateur Radio Vehicle Tracking, Search and Rescue, Weather and storm tracking. Steve also wrote the global database software called FINDU, which can capture and integrate data for viewing by anyone. As the popularity of the APRS Weather grew, non-hams began to be attracted to the technology and develop and interest in Amateur Radio. Since non-hams could participate on the APRS-IS side, Steve helped form CWS, the Citizens Weather Service. Over a million live weather observations from the combination of APRS and CWS have been forwarded to the National Weather Service. Hamvention congratulates Steve Dimse, K4HG for his Technical Excellence!

Hamvention periodically recognizes Silent Keys' contributions to amateur radio. For 2003, we salute those who have gone on, but have not been forgotten.

Silent Key Award Winners:

Joseph Carr, K4IPV, of Falls Church, VA became a Silent Key on 11/25/2000. Joe authored over 85 books and nearly 700 articles covering electronics and technology. Mr. Carr contributed monthly columns and articles to many popular Amateur Radio magazines.
Al Gross, W8PAL, of Sun City, AZ became a Silent Key on 12/21/2000. Al brought the world such indispensable wireless communications concepts and devices as the walkie-talkie, pager and cordless telephone.
Bill Orr, W6SAI, of Menlo Park, CA became a Silent Key 1/24/2001. Orr was best know for his voluminous publications for radio amateurs, including “The Radio Handbook”, “The Beam Antenna Handbook” and many more.
Oops! Raymond Ortgiesen, WF1B, who wrote RTTY, the leading contest software for digital modes, is alive and well, still active on the bands. Seems our information was incorrect. In the spirit of the error, Hamvention will recognize Ray with a "Non-silent, Silent Key Award". Our apologies, Ray!
Ernie Hudson, KI8O, of Dayton, OH became a Silent Key on 8/2/2002. Ernie was an active member of the Dayton Red Cross and acted as the Montgomery County Emergency Coordinator and Assistant Coordinator for a number of years. Ernie's passion was helping people. His efforts focused on public service and disaster relief. He "elmered" many young people in Amateur Radio. Ernie was a long time member of the Dayton Amateur Radio Association and is sorely missed.
Columbia Astronauts:
Through the Space Amateur Radio Experiment (SAREX) and the Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) programs, amateurs have enjoyed a special relationship with the astronauts corps, many of whom are licensed hams. It is for their dedication, their role in scientific advancement, and their love of their dreams that we award this award to the crew of the STS-107.
Larry Dietrich, WD8KUJ, will be present from the astronaut office and the Johnson Space Center Amateur Radio Club to receive the award for the Columbia crew.

New at Hamvention this year is the Award Winners Reception. It will be held Saturday, May 17 in the HARA Ballarina, Forum Room 4.

Doors open at 6:30 PM. This is a wonderful opportunity to mingle with the 2003 award winners and your fellow hams. Casual attire is encouraged. Hors d'oeuvres will be served, along with a cash bar.

Tickets are $15.00 each, available during show hours until Saturday noon, at Trailer #1 near door 6 (Conference Center Entrance) and in the Inside Exhibits Office.

Page updated May 12, 2003