[Ham-News] Dayton Hamvention 2002 Award Winners

[Tim Miller]

Dayton, OH -- Dayton Hamvention 2002 is proud to announce our Year
2002 Award Winners.

Amateur of the Year

Alanson "Hap" Holly, KC9RP, of Des Plaines, IL has been chosen to
receive Dayton Hamvention's Amateur of the Year award for 2002. Mr.
Holly (licensed since 1965) began ham radio informational programming
in 1984, which lead him to become founder and moderator (and guiding
light) of a weekly amateur radio audio feature magazine known as the
RAIN Report - The Radio Amateur Information Network. Mr. Holly, who
incidentally is blind, produces this weekly program from his ham
shack in suburban Chicago. He provides timely interviews,
commentaries from other hams, excerpts from many of Hamvention's
forums and many other items of interest to the amateur radio
community. His RAIN programming can be heard on hundreds of amateur
repeaters across the nation, and also by telephone. Mr. Holly is an
inspiration to licensed radio amateurs, non-hams, and the visually
impaired and sighted individuals worldwide.  The Dayton Hamvention
is proud to honor Alanson "Hap" Holly, KC9RP, as its Amateur of the
Year for 2002.

Special Achievement

Dr. Owen Garriott, W5LFL, of Huntsville, AL and Dr. Tony England,
W0ORE, of Dexter, MI have been chosen to share Dayton Hamvention's
Special Achievement award for 2002. These two gentlemen pioneered ham
radio operations in space by spearheading a successful campaign to
incorporate an amateur radio station aboard NASA's space shuttles.
Drs. Garriott and England lent their knowledge, experience and
influence to build and then operate equipment that allowed hams
everywhere to share the excitement of space flight. Their pioneering
advancements lead to the development of SAREX. Dayton Hamvention
congratulates Dr. Owen Garriott, W5LFL, and Dr. Tony England, W0ORE
for their Special Achievement.

Technical Excellence

Mr. Alan Waller, K3TKJ, of Laurel, DE has been chosen to receive
Dayton Hamvention's Technical Excellence award for 2002. Mr. Waller,
first licensed in 1961, combined his decades-long love for Amateur
Radio and a burgeoning interest in the then-new Internet (1993) to
design and manage the www.qsl.net and www.qth.net web sites. Mr.
Waller's web sites have served the interests of tens of thousands of
Hams worldwide by providing technical references, email and web page
hosting services, and links to thousands of other sites. In the true
spirit of the Amateur Radio Operator, Mr. Waller's initial work
utilized "leading edge" experimentation to see "what can we do with
this" and has developed into a mature, reliable mode of
communication. Hamvention congratulates Alan Waller, K3TKJ, for his
Technical Excellence.

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Amateur Radio Newsline(tm) will take an in-depth look at the ham
radio careers of those chosen for these prestigous honors in Newscast
1282 scheduled for release this Friday, March 8, 2002.