Fourteen-year-old ARRL member Bryant Rascoll, KG5HVO, of Montgomery, Alabama, has been selected as the 2018 Bill Pasternak WA6ITF Memorial Amateur Radio Newsline Young Ham of the Year (YHOTY). The son of Tim and Lauren (KG5TQO) Rascoll, Bryant was the youngest participant in the recent World Radiosport Team Championship 2018 (WRTC 2018) in Germany.

Bryant says he became enthusiastic about Amateur Radio after joining the Boy Scouts and taking the Radio Merit Badge. Listening to a counselor’s contact with a station in the Netherlands during an ARRL DX contest fueled his desire to become a radio amateur. First licensed as a Technician in 2015, he had upgraded to Amateur Extra-class by late 2017.

He credits his many mentors in the Jefferson Amateur Radio Club (W5GAD) during his time in Louisiana for exposing him to several aspects of Amateur Radio, including contesting, CW, Field Day, special event stations, public service events, hamfests, and conventions. He was the club’s 2016 Member of the Year.

Also a member of the Montgomery Amateur Radio Club, Bryant was a part of the Dave Kalter Youth DX Adventure (YDXA) team in 2017, which operated from Costa Rica.

At WRTC 2018, where he paired up with Mathias Acevedo Von Frey, CE2LR, of Chile, Bryant was the only youth competitor from North America. A recent issue of NCJ highlighted his accomplishments and identified him as one in the next generation of contesters. He is a member of the CW Operators’ Club (CWOps) and an honorary member of the Georgia Contesting Group. Individually, he placed first in the Low-Power Rookie category in North America in the 2017 CQ WPX SSB contest and firstplace in the Louisiana Section in the Single-Operator, Low-Power Unlimited category in the ARRL 2017 International DX CW and SSB contests.

Bryant was recently appointed as ARRL Alabama Section Youth Coordinator. Homeschooled by his mother, he has written articles for Solid Copy, the CW Operators Club newsletter, and the K9YA Telegraph online magazine.

He’s a Star Scout in Troop 307 in the Tukabatchee Council in Montgomery, Alabama, and is on the trail to earning the rank of Eagle Scout. Last October, he staffed the Montgomery Amateur Radio Club’s Jamboree on the Air (JOTA) CW station. He earned a first place award and the People’s Choice Award for the Classical Conversations Montgomery Science Fair this past February for his project, “Antenna Height Effectiveness.” He earned a Certificate of Merit for Outstanding Achievement on the 2018 National Latin Exam.

Bryant’s honors extend to sports. He is a member of the American Youth Baseball Hall of Fame and has played baseball for 8 years. His team, the NOLA Predators, competed at Cooperstown. He is currently a member of the Triton Rays in Montgomery, a competitive traveling team. Bryant was a speaker at the Hamvention 2018 Youth Forum moderated by Carole Perry, WB2MGP.

He will be recognized as the 2018 YHOTY during the Huntsville Hamfest on August 18 in Huntsville. The Young Ham of the Year Award was inaugurated by William Pasternak, WA6ITF (SK), in 1986. — Thanks to Amateur Radio Newsline