Emily Stewart, KC0PTL, named '2008 ARNewsline Young Ham of the Year'

A 17 year-old from Leavenworth, Kansas, with interests as diverse as astronomy, pharmacy and public service through amateur radio has been named as the 2008 Amateur Radio Newsline Young Ham of the Year.

Mark Abramovich, NT3V, who happens to chair the award committee is here with the story of Emily Stewart, KC0PTL.

"This is really, really awesome. I'm really shocked!"

Those the words of the 2008 Young Ham of the Year, Emily Stewart after learning at the end of a finalist telephone interview that she had been chosen from among more than two dozen nominees for the prestigious award.

And, there is more. "I feel really, really honored," Emily says. "I think, oh, man. This is like such an awesome opportunity for, I don't know.

"I was talking with my dad about it and he said, you know, 'How would you feel if you won it?

"And I told him: Well, it would be because it would be a great opportunity to show kids that like even though people in the general public may not know what it is, if you work hard with radio and if you make a true commitment to it and if you take it and run with it that you really can get recognized for your achievements."

Emily is the daughter of Mike and Sharon Stewart. Mike is K0MDS. She is heading into her senior year at Leavenworth High School where she's a member of the National Honor Society, vice president of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, and is a copy editor for the school yearbook.

Emily is an only child and says she has lived in Kansas for eight years. Prior to that, home was Germany where her father was serving in the military. She credits her dad for sparking interest in amateur radio when they moved back to the United States.

"I thought it was really cool when he started talking to people overseas in Europe," Emily recalls. "And, Germany was still kind of home to me so when he started talking to people in Germany I said I wanted to do that too."

Emily earned her Technician license in August 2003. Emily says she was so excited about her new hobby that she wanted to share it with others and made presentations at school during her sixth-and seventh-grade years. That led to getting active in her local radio club and even contributing articles to the club newsletter. Emily's activity also led to her an appointment as the first Assistant Section Manager for Youth in the Kansas section, a job she has held since 2006.

She upgraded to General in April 2007. Last August, while attending the Kansas state convention, Emily asked how many had persuaded their children or grandchildren to get involved in amateur radio. The slim response of the attendees led her and Brian Short, KC0BS to develop the Kansas Legacy Project. The purpose: Encouraging hams to get the younger members of their families to get a ham license and get involved. The project has netted good results in the Kansas Metro area, including one of the youngest hams in the region to be licensed - 7-year-old Lucie Goodhart, KD0DMO, who took a license class with her dad and passed her Technician test last March.

Emily's path has also crossed that of another former Young Ham of the Year, Andrea Hartlage KG4IUM at the Dayton Hamvention where she helped run the youth lounge and ran the youth dinner for young hams. But Emily says her other passion is public service and storm spotting.

"My dad would sometimes take me out with him to go storm spotting and I decided that I wanted to have some training so I took a couple of online courses in emergency communications, " Emily says. "And, either I will go out with my dad when we get called out to do some storm chasing.

"Or I will stay at home and do spotting from home just in case something really nasty does happen then that way I'm home with my mom."

Emily says she also enjoys checking out the satellites: "I really like listening to satellite communications," Emily says. "We have this little satellite antenna and we use a program to track the satellites.

"And we follow the satellite with the antenna and listen to what people are talking to and who they're talking to and where they're from.

"And, we heard all the way from California. And that's one of my favorite things to do.

"I also really like packet. It's pretty cool."

Emily is a member of the Kickapoo QRP Amateur Radio Club and the American Radio Relay League. She's also a regular participant in Field Day, Kids Days and QRP events.

Emily was nominated by Susan Backs KC0JCR, XYL of Paul Backs KC0JCQ, Leavenworth's Emergency Coordinator for ARES activities. Susan summarizes Emily this way:

"Her leadership, her outreach, technical and public service achievements mark her as an outstanding example to other young amateurs."

The Young Ham of the Year Award Committee wholeheartedly agreed.

Congratulations, Emily, from all of us.

For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Mark Abramowicz NT3V, chairman of the Young Ham of the Year Committee, reporting from Philadelphia.

Source: ARNewsline™