Amateur Radio Newsline International Newsmaker Award for 2022

Amateur Radio Newsline International Newsmaker Award for 2021

A true example of international cooperation, Amateur Radio on the International Space Station has orbited the earth bringing space a little closer to students, teachers and others through ham radio since its creation in 1996. Astronauts and cosmonauts with amateur radio licenses have served as goodwill ambassadors more than 250 miles above the earth by engaging in dialogue through the use of amateur radio.

Those making contact have benefited from a team effort that often involves the commitment of ground stations around the world.

This unique opportunity has attracted coverage in the amateur news media as well as on general news media networks and in publications around the world. We are proud of this year's winner for raising amateur radio and all its possibilities to new heights. One could say they took it "Sky-High."

Amateur Radio Newsline International Newsmaker Award for 2020

The winner of Newsline's second annual International Newsmaker of the Year Award is the Get on the Air to Care project, conceived of by Paul Devlin G1SMP and operated jointly by the UK's National Health Service and the Radio Society of Great Britain. Created in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the campaign has decreased social isolation in the UK and around the world by encouraging amateurs to Get On The Air 2 Care - with inactive hams returning and those who always wanted to, becoming newly licenced amateurs. It also gave rise to this season's Get On the Air 4 Christmas initiative. Most importantly, though, #GOTA2C has accomplished something amateurs work so hard to achieve: the campaign has placed amateur radio front and centre in such mainstream media channels as the BBC, ITV Wales and major newspapers, raising amateur radio's profile and attracting new licence-holders even in this era of remote-testing.

Congratulations to Paul Devlin G1SMP, who conceived of the idea as part of the NHS England Emergency Care Improvement Support Team and to the Radio Society of Great Britain and the National Health Service who have implemented it. You'll be hearing more from Paul Devlin next week when Newsline chats with him.

Meanwhile, the RSGB and the NHS have added yet another element to their campaign: an NHS Charity auction beginning December 9th and ending December 19th at the start of the Get on the Air for Christmas campaign. One item for auction should surely help amateurs get on the air to care, even after the holidays. It is a Morse Code key handcrafted and donated by Roy Bailey, G0VFS, of Trowbridge and District Amateur Radio Club. Having based his design on the noted semi-automatic Vibroplex, he has dubbed his creation the Virus-PerpleXed Bug and an engraved decal bears its name. If you wish to participate visit the Society's website for details.

Amateur Radio Newsline International Newsmaker Award for 2019

Congratulations to the West Bengal Amateur Radio Club of Kolkata India for being the International Newsmaker for 2019

What began 26 years ago in West Bengal, India as the result of one ham radio operator's commitment to community service and safety has blossomed into a powerhouse radio team of 285. The West Bengal Radio Club helps with critical communications during cyclones and earthquakes, reunites despairing families with missing members, transmits election results from rural polling places and teaches farmers who cannot afford lightning arresters to build their own life-saving devices. Each January they also serve as a safety net for the tens of thousands of Hindu pilgrims who travel to the Bay of Bengal and the River Ganges for the holy mela festival. Most recently they helped put a stop to signal jamming that was blocking deep-sea fishermen's access to essential broadcasts of cyclone warnings. Remarkably, the club accomplishes most of this operating simplex. Ambarish Nag Biswas VU2JFA said the club's most urgent need is for a repeater. They have no money, no budget and oftentimes members borrow equipment from the National Institute of Amateur Radio, a large nonprofit club in Hyderabad. We called Ambarish Nag Biswas, the club's founder and secretary, to tell him the club is this year's International Newsmaker Award recipient and here's what he had to say: AMBARISH NAG BISWAS: "We are all so very much happy to say that we will do from the land of Jagadish Chandra Bose, we promise to we will do something for mankind using our radio hobby. Thank you." Congratulations to the West Bengal Radio Club from all of us at ARN.

We heard back from the West Bengal club and they provided us with photos celebrating their achievement: