Gabor Horvath, VE7JH - Canadian Amateur Radio Operator of the Year
/Through the Amateur of the Year Award, Radio Amateurs of Canada recognizes the outstanding contributions made by Canadian Amateurs.
The RAC Board of Directors takes great pleasure in selecting Gabor Horvath, VE7JH, as the recipient of the RAC Amateur of the Year Award for 2018.
“Gabor has demonstrated an intense commitment to diverse aspects of Amateur Radio and in 2010 he was recognized as the Pacific Northwest VHF’er of the Year for consistently promoting and encouraging VHF/UHF/microwave activity in the Pacific Northwest. ”
He was the only Canadian to compete in the 14th IARU High-Speed Telegraphy World Championship in 2017 and was one of only four Canadians competing in the 2018 World Radiosport Team Championship in 2018.
In addition, he was a key volunteer in developing the RAC Canada 150 Award in 2017 and he also provided an article on the Cowichan Valley Amateur Radio Society’s Search and Rescue efforts in the January-February 2018 issue of TCA.”
Born in Hungary and introduced to Amateur Radio in elementary school as HA2KMR, Gabor Horvath has held VE3GBA, VE7DXG and VE7JH call signs. Gabor is a member of Radio Amateurs of Canada, the Pacific Northwest VHF Society, ORCA DX and Contest Club, and the Cowichan Valley Amateur Radio Society.
Gabor is active on VHF, usually as a portable on 50, 144, 222, 432, 903, 1296 and 10,368, EME and meteor scatter. He enjoys HF contesting. His home station is an ICOM-706 with 100W, a 3-el tribander and wires for the lower bands but he also operates from the VE7UF contest station.
Gabor was an operator at TM100VIMY and represented IARU Region 2 in the 14th IARU World HST Championship, in Esztergom, Hungary which included 105 participants from 18 Countries.
In 2017, drawing on his experience with similar events, and teaming with RAC, Gabor conceived of honouring his adopted country’s sesquicentennial by spearheading the RAC Canada 150 Award. RAC was approached for the use of the RAC station call signs and Gabor made arrangements with his friend Attila, HA2NA, who had a program enabling the automatic generation of PDF awards which greatly simplified the RAC 150 Awards program.
The Award was issued for contacting the RAC stations between 1st July 2017 and 31st December 2017. Gabor was instrumental in using his extensive contacts to ensure that all Provinces and Territories were represented. This project led to a nationwide response with 250+ activations of the RAC call sign resulting in 60,000 QSOs.
The RAC Board considers nominations for the RAC Amateur of the Year Award and presents it if and when the nomination demonstrates the exceptional contribution made. If there are several nominations the best for that year is approved. With the addition of Gabor to the list, only six Canadian Radio Amateurs have received the award since 2010.
RAC Amateur of the Year Award - https://wp.rac.ca/rac-amateur-of-the-year/
