The Yasme Foundation Board of Directors has announced the recipients of the Yasme Excellence Award. The Award is presented to individuals 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 announcement said. The Yasme Excellence Award is in the form of a cash grant and an individually-engraved crystal globe.

The recipients are:

• Mike Mertel, K7IR, for his revolutionary invention of a tunable Yagi antenna that was later made available to the amateur radio community under the brand name SteppIR.

• Koos Fockens, PA0KDF, for his investigations, measurements and publications regarding noise in the Amateur Radio bands that played a key role in the global fight against Broadband over Power Line (BPL) interference.

• James Ying, N2IW, for his creation of an online scheduling application that was used by many W1AW/portable operations during the 2014 ARRL Centennial and remains available without charge.

The Yasme Foundation is a not-for-profit corporation organized to conduct scientific and educational projects related to Amateur Radio, including DXing, and the introduction and promotion of Amateur Radio in developing countries.