Subj : Amateur Radio Newsline (A
To : All
From : Daryl Stout
Date : Fri Aug 02 2019 02:07 pm
Amateur Radio Newsline Report 2179, for Friday, August 2nd, 2019
Amateur Radio Newsline Report Number 2179, with a release date of
Friday, August 2nd, 2019, to follow in 5-4-3-2-1.
The following is a QST. A tragic tower accident in New Hampshire. A
tribute to Holocaust refugees - and get ready to meet the Bill
Pasternak WA6ITF Young Ham of the Year. All this and more, as Amateur
Radio Newsline Number 2179, comes your way right now.
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BILLBOARD CART
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TOP STORY: DHRUV REBBA KC9ZJX NAMED NEWSLINE'S 2019 YOUNG HAM OF THE YEAR
PAUL/ANCHOR: Our top story this week is Amateur Radio Newsline's own
announcement that we have a winner of the 2019 Bill Pasternak WA6ITF
Memorial Young Ham of the Year award. Newsline's Mark Abramowicz
(Abram-o-vich), NT3V, has the story...
The reaction from Dhruv Rebba, KC9ZJX, of Normal, IL to his official
notification he had been chosen Newsline's Young Ham of the Year.
Rebba, who's 15, and going into his sophomore year at the Normal
Community High School in the fall, found his way into amateur radio
through his father, Hari Rebba, VU2SPZ.
"I first got interested in amateur radio when I was 9-years-old in like
fourth grade," Rebba recalls. "So I went to the (Dayton) Hamvention with
my dad. So, my dad's been a ham for a really long time, like 25 - 30
years.
"So, he was going to the Hamvention with one of his friends from India.
So I wanted to tag along. So, we went to the Hamvention, and there I got
to see all the cool stuff like the keyers, the Morse Code keyers, and
like all the radios and everything ,and I got like really interested,
and I started studying for my Technician class."
Dhruv got his Technician license at 9, and followed it up by earning his
General license at 10.
He immersed himself in public service activities with the Central Illinois
Radio Club for a couple of years, and also decided to combine his new
hobby with his interest in space.
Dhruv says he applied for a contact through the Amateur Radio on the
International Space Station or ARISS program. It took a couple of
applications, before he was successful in convincing everyone he could
pull it off.
He recalls the big day at the Chiddix Junior High School in Normal, IL
in October 2017.
"So I was the control operator at the ARISS contact," Dhruv says. "So, I
made the original contact. So I called for the ISS, and I made the
contact with astronaut Joe Acaba (KE5DAR). And, then I gave it to other
students to ask questions."
Dhruv became active in AMSAT forums and, as a result, ended up as a
special ambassador, and helped the Boy Scouts to carry out their ARISS
contact near the end of July during the World Jamboree in West Virginia.
Another big adventure in Dhruv's young life came when he was selected to
join the Dave Kalter Memorial Youth DX Adventure on Curacao Island, in
July, 2018, where he was a member of the PJ2Y team.
"We were there for five days, and we did phone, Morse code - CW - and we
also did digital," Rebba says.
Mark Abramowicz NT3V: "What was your favorite mode to operate from
Curacao?"
"I mainly did phone, and I also did digital," Rebba says.
The PJ2Y team made a record 6,262 contacts with 135 countries over five
days.
Dhruv has maintained close cultural and family ties with India, where he
has traveled, and spoken about the importance of wireless communications,
especially in times of disaster. He's also started a foundation to help
underprivileged students, and chose India as the location of his first
effort - a digital project at a girls' high school in NP Kunta, India
this past January.
No stranger to speaking in public, Dhruv has appeared at the youth forums
at Dayton, and at last fall's AMSAT forum from Huntsville. He's received
AMSAT's Presidential Award, and was presented a special plaque from the
International Space Station Crew, for what they described as his
"exceptional outreach performed professionally by a young person of skill
and poise."
Dhruv is also into robotics, and serves as a mentor for elementary school
students in Normal. He also takes part in robotics competitions with a
team that most recently finished in fourth place overall at an event in
Detroit, sponsored by NASA.
Speaking of NASA, Dhruv says he has high hopes of one day pursuing a
career in aerospace engineering, or doing something in the space industry.
In the meantime, Dhruv isn't waiting for college. He's already shooting
for the moon.
"When I was at the AMSAT booth at the (Dayton) Hamvention earlier this
year, I got involved with the AREX - the Amateur Radio Exploration on
the Moon program with AMSAT," Dhruv says. "So, what we're doing is,
we're designing an amateur radio system to be on the Gateway Space
Station, and the moon."
For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Mark Abramowicz, NT3V, from
Philadelphia.
PAUL/ANCHOR: Dhruv will be recognized by the Amateur Radio Newsline team
for his achievement at the Huntsville Hamfest on Saturday, Aug. 17, in
Huntsville, Alabama.
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