Amateur Radio Newsline International Newsmaker Award for 2023

The Amateur Radio Newsline International Newsmaker of the Year award celebrates a clever and creative innovator in this, its fifth year: She is YL Raisa Skrynnikova, R1BIG/OH7BG. Through social media and various websites she has given the world a window into what it means to struggle and grow as a ham. Raisa began in 2018 to channel her enthusiasm and humor to show how a newly licensed ham learns to put up antennas, enter a contest, activate a SOTA summit and handle some incredible pileups. Her blogs, livestreams and YouTube videos are a source of information and good will. In 2021, Raisa advocated for greater friendship among the world's hams by taking another bold step. Building on the earlier work of two hams, she enlisted help from friends in different countries and assembled an easy-to-use interactive online practice guide offering commonly used QSO phrases in 11 different languages. Her humor and her relentless optimism about ham radio's future have provided a bright spot by using the technology that is guiding the next generation's amateurs. We are proud of this year's International Newsmaker, Raisa R1BIG.

But wait… there’s more…

Amateur Radio Newsline has watched over the past few years how active and helpful one particular group of hams have worked together to change lives of many people for the better. Never have we seen such consistently newsworthy achievements gained by our friends in India that are part of the West Bengal Radio Club of Kolkata. We proudly present a Special Award to this fine group of amateur radio operators and wish them continued success in the incredible work they have done for their community and for families throughout India.