The Yasme Foundation has announced the latest recipients of the Yasme Excellence Award. They are Brett Ruiz, PJ2BR, and Helena Ruiz, PJ2ZZ; Bob Wilson, N6TV; Jari Perkiömäki, OH6BG, and Jim Brown, K9YC. The Yasme Excellence Award recognizes individuals and groups who, through their own service, creativity, effort, and dedication, have made a significant contribution to amateur radio. This may be a technical, operating, or organizational achievement.

Brett and Helena Ruiz have been active leaders of the VERONA Radio Club, Curaçao’s International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) member-society, for more than 20 years. Their participation has included technical activities, disaster preparedness and relief, and training of potential radio amateurs. They serve as liaisons to government and international organizations, and contribute to important events, such as the Global Amateur Radio Emergency Communications Conference (GAREC) and IARU conferences and meetings. Brett Ruiz is also active in long-distance VHF propagation and digital communication.

Yasme recognized Bob Wilson, N6TV, for his technical support to hundreds of hams through various radio manufacturers’ user groups and logging software communities, and for assistance to Reverse Beacon Network (RBN) hosts in keeping their equipment configured and running. He also provides invaluable support to traveling hams worldwide. “Along with being technically talented, he is exceptionally selfless in using that talent to help others; quick to encourage others in many areas,” the Yasme Foundation said in announcing the awards.

Jari Perkiömäki, OH6BG, has volunteered to support the online VOACAP software and website for nearly 20 years, making world-class HF propagation prediction and modeling services available to any radio amateur. “He believes in teamwork, acknowledging the contributions and ideas from the ham community for further development of the service, but especially from James Watson, M0DNS/HZ1JW, and Juho Juopperi, OH8GLV,” Yasme said. Perkiömäki estimates that VOACAP online serves thousands of users from more than 100 countries every month, including integration with the DX Summit and Club Log services. He is part of the Radio Arcala, OH8X, team and acts as a propagation specialist, assisting the World Radiosport Team Championship (WRTC) community, the Radio Society of Great Britain (RSGB), and others.

Jim Brown, K9YC, was cited for his extensive contribution to amateur radio regarding ferrite materials and their use in combating RF interference, feed-line applications, and transformers. “His efforts to improve transmitter performance and operating practices are also greatly appreciated, as are the extensive set of personal publications available to the public and performing reviews of technical material for amateur radio publishers,” Yasme said.

The Yasme Excellence Award is in the form of a cash grant and an individually engraved crystal globe.