FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 19, 2025
St Charles, MO
YASME FOUNDATION GRANT AND EXCELLENCE AWARD
The Yasme Foundation is pleased to announce the following grant and Excellence Award:
• Supporting grant to establish a Reverse Beacon Network (RBN) node on Tristan da Cunha hosted by Andy Repetto ZD9BV.
* * * * *
The Yasme Excellence Award is presented to individuals and groups who, through their own service, creativity, effort and dedication, have made a significant contribution to amateur radio. The contribution may be in recognition of technical, operating, or organizational achievement, as all three are necessary for amateur radio to grow and prosper.
The Yasme Foundation is pleased to announce the latest recipients of the Yasme Excellence Award:
George Cutsogeorge, W2VJN
In his nearly 80 years as an amateur radio operator, he has made many contributions to the technical advancement of the amateur service through his articles, books and business endeavors.
His passion for ham radio drove him to be constantly working to make improvements in the technology used for his hobby. He shared the knowledge and information that he developed with other hams through many articles in ARRL Magazine, QST, Ham Radio Magazine, National Contest Journal, Frankfort Radio Club newsletters, and others.
He wrote the definitive tome, “Managing Interstation Interference with Coaxial Stubbs and Filters” in 1972, with an update in 2009. Hams all over the world continue to use this publication to configure layouts and multi-op stations for field day, contests and dxpeditions.
In retirement, W2VJN continued to contribute innovations to ham radio through his two companies: INRAD (International Radio), which designed and produced crystal filters for a wide variety of radios, and Top Ten Devices, with Dave Hawes, N3RD, which designed and produced equipment including the A/B station selector, the Op Swapper and the Band Aide band decoder.
Eric Nichols, KL7AJ
Eric has a long history of advancing and promoting radio science. He is probably best known as an early participant in the High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP) conducted in Fairbanks, Alaska.
His work on HAARP has combined with his experience operating in the high latitudes of Alaska to give Eric a unique and practical understanding of ionospheric radio propagation, which he has shared in books and articles. He further translated this understanding to a thorough explanation of receiving antennas, also shared with the amateur community in book form.
Eric is a prolific contributor to QST, QEX and other amateur radio publications. He makes himself readily accessible through correspondence and online presentations.
John Portune, W6NBC
John has been licensed for sixty years and is a prolific writer and designer of antennas and related hardware. Focusing on easy-to-build and non-traditional antennas, such as skeleton slot variations, low-profile and compact mobile and portable VHF antennas, and stealth antennas for those living with deed restrictions, John has developed numerous space-saving yet efficient antenna solutions that Hams can reproduce with reliable results.
John makes himself readily available for club presentations and to answer individual questions from readers. He continues to experiment, build, and write, having averaged roughly three articles per year for the past twenty years in ARRL periodicals alone. John exemplifies the best of amateur radio, technical curiosity, careful experimentation, and a generous willingness to share knowledge with others.
Tomek “Tom” Ciepielowski, SP5CCC
Tom's career as a radio amateur can be summarized as organizer and promoter of amateur radio activities, lobbying for spectrum privileges and publicizing about our rich history.
His major achievements are
• The reactivation of the Polish Radio Amateur magazine as a separate publication and the complete management of its publishing process between 1990 and 1994.
• The reorganization of the SP DX Club and serving as its President (1994-2001).
• Reorganization and transformation into an independent legal entity of the Polish VHF Club and serving as its President (2004-2024).
• Author of numerous publications (articles and books) dedicated to the historical aspects of amateur radio in Poland and worldwide, with particular focus on VHF topics.
• Active participation in the consultation processes at the level of Polish national authorities, aimed at lobbying against the spread of PLC technology (2003-2006).
• Active involvement in consultation processes with Polish Ministries and radiocommunication administration and lobbying against the requirement for type- approval measurements of amateur radio equipment in the context of existing high- frequency electromagnetic field exposure standards (2002-2008).
• A long record of organizational activities within the Polish Amateur Radio Union
(1990-2015), including membership in the PZK Headquarters as a representative of the Regional Branch no. 25 (Warsaw) and running the local youth amateur radio club SP5WWL in the Wołomin Region.
Ward Silver, NØAX, President
The Yasme Foundation
May 19, 2025
St Charles, MO
YASME FOUNDATION GRANT AND EXCELLENCE AWARD
The Yasme Foundation is pleased to announce the following grant and Excellence Award:
• Supporting grant to establish a Reverse Beacon Network (RBN) node on Tristan da Cunha hosted by Andy Repetto ZD9BV.
* * * * *
The Yasme Excellence Award is presented to individuals and groups who, through their own service, creativity, effort and dedication, have made a significant contribution to amateur radio. The contribution may be in recognition of technical, operating, or organizational achievement, as all three are necessary for amateur radio to grow and prosper.
The Yasme Foundation is pleased to announce the latest recipients of the Yasme Excellence Award:
George Cutsogeorge, W2VJN
In his nearly 80 years as an amateur radio operator, he has made many contributions to the technical advancement of the amateur service through his articles, books and business endeavors.
His passion for ham radio drove him to be constantly working to make improvements in the technology used for his hobby. He shared the knowledge and information that he developed with other hams through many articles in ARRL Magazine, QST, Ham Radio Magazine, National Contest Journal, Frankfort Radio Club newsletters, and others.
He wrote the definitive tome, “Managing Interstation Interference with Coaxial Stubbs and Filters” in 1972, with an update in 2009. Hams all over the world continue to use this publication to configure layouts and multi-op stations for field day, contests and dxpeditions.
In retirement, W2VJN continued to contribute innovations to ham radio through his two companies: INRAD (International Radio), which designed and produced crystal filters for a wide variety of radios, and Top Ten Devices, with Dave Hawes, N3RD, which designed and produced equipment including the A/B station selector, the Op Swapper and the Band Aide band decoder.
Eric Nichols, KL7AJ
Eric has a long history of advancing and promoting radio science. He is probably best known as an early participant in the High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP) conducted in Fairbanks, Alaska.
His work on HAARP has combined with his experience operating in the high latitudes of Alaska to give Eric a unique and practical understanding of ionospheric radio propagation, which he has shared in books and articles. He further translated this understanding to a thorough explanation of receiving antennas, also shared with the amateur community in book form.
Eric is a prolific contributor to QST, QEX and other amateur radio publications. He makes himself readily accessible through correspondence and online presentations.
John Portune, W6NBC
John has been licensed for sixty years and is a prolific writer and designer of antennas and related hardware. Focusing on easy-to-build and non-traditional antennas, such as skeleton slot variations, low-profile and compact mobile and portable VHF antennas, and stealth antennas for those living with deed restrictions, John has developed numerous space-saving yet efficient antenna solutions that Hams can reproduce with reliable results.
John makes himself readily available for club presentations and to answer individual questions from readers. He continues to experiment, build, and write, having averaged roughly three articles per year for the past twenty years in ARRL periodicals alone. John exemplifies the best of amateur radio, technical curiosity, careful experimentation, and a generous willingness to share knowledge with others.
Tomek “Tom” Ciepielowski, SP5CCC
Tom's career as a radio amateur can be summarized as organizer and promoter of amateur radio activities, lobbying for spectrum privileges and publicizing about our rich history.
His major achievements are
• The reactivation of the Polish Radio Amateur magazine as a separate publication and the complete management of its publishing process between 1990 and 1994.
• The reorganization of the SP DX Club and serving as its President (1994-2001).
• Reorganization and transformation into an independent legal entity of the Polish VHF Club and serving as its President (2004-2024).
• Author of numerous publications (articles and books) dedicated to the historical aspects of amateur radio in Poland and worldwide, with particular focus on VHF topics.
• Active participation in the consultation processes at the level of Polish national authorities, aimed at lobbying against the spread of PLC technology (2003-2006).
• Active involvement in consultation processes with Polish Ministries and radiocommunication administration and lobbying against the requirement for type- approval measurements of amateur radio equipment in the context of existing high- frequency electromagnetic field exposure standards (2002-2008).
• A long record of organizational activities within the Polish Amateur Radio Union
(1990-2015), including membership in the PZK Headquarters as a representative of the Regional Branch no. 25 (Warsaw) and running the local youth amateur radio club SP5WWL in the Wołomin Region.
Ward Silver, NØAX, President
The Yasme Foundation