Chris Brault, KD8YVJ, is 2020 Amateur Radio Newsline Young Ham of the Year
Christopher “Chris” Brault, KD8YVJ, of Liberty Township, Ohio, has been selected as the 2020 Bill Pasternak WA6ITF Memorial Amateur Radio Newsline Young Ham of the Year (YHOTY). The son of Jocelyn, KD8VRX, and Kimberly Brault, Chris, 18, was the recipient of the 2015 ARRL Hiram Percy Maxim Award. A ham since 2014, he credits his father for being his guide into amateur radio, recalling watching and listening to his dad operating mobile.
“We would be on a road trip somewhere,” Chris said. “We’d be talking to people along the way, it seemed like fun.” Chris is a member of the Dayton Amateur Radio Association, the West Chester Amateur Radio Association, and the Ohio Valley Experimenters Club.
A senior and honor student at Saint Xavier High School in Cincinnati, Chris helped restart the school’s amateur radio club, W8GYH. He has also been recognized as the 2017 ARRL Great Lakes Division Young Amateur of the Year, and he took part in the 2017 Dave Kalter Youth DX Adventure to Costa Rica with other up-and-coming young radio amateurs. In 2017, he was a Youth Forum presenter at Dayton Hamvention® and HamCation in Orlando.
Chris serves as a social media director for the Youth on the Air organization and is a contesting mentor for young hams involved in its programs. He is a tour guide for the National Voice of America Museum of Broadcasting in West Chester, Ohio, and assists in mentoring young operators at its ham station, WC8VOA. He participates with his dad in Scouting’s Jamboree on the Air (JOTA) each October.
The YHOTY award is traditionally presented during the Huntsville Hamfest in August, but the event was canceled this year because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Young Ham of the Year Award was established in 1986 by Newsline editor Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF, who died in 2015. — Thanks to CQ Communications
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