The Young Ham of the Year for 2021
Faith Hannah Lea, KD3Z

July 30, 2021

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT: Mark Abramowicz, NT3V, YHOTY Chairman, Amateur Radio Newsline (newsline@arnewsline.org)

Rich Moseson, W2VU, CQ magazine (w2vu@cq-amateur-radio.com)

NEW YORK – Faith Hannah Lea, KD3Z, of Palm Coast, Florida, has been selected as the 2021 Bill Pasternak WA6ITF Memorial Amateur Radio Newsline Young Ham of the Year.

Faith Hannah is the daughter of James, WX4TV, and Michelle, N8ZQZ, Lea. Her brother and two sisters are also hams.

She credited her parents with being the biggest influences in her entry into amateur radio. She said her journey began at the age of 10 in December 2014.

“I started studying for my Technician license with my brother (Zechariah WX4TVJ),” she recalled. “And we both went in and got it. And two weeks later, I had earned my General ... Then, two months later, I earned my Extra.

“So that allowed me to really get into the stuff that I liked, which was working HF.”

Just 18 months after being licensed, Faith Hannah was invited to join the 2016 Dave Kalter Memorial Youth DX team operating PJ6 from the Dutch island of Saba.

“And that’s when I realized especially that DXing is amazing because I absolutely love those huge pileups and getting to talk to all of those different people,” she explained.

Among her PJ6 achievements was a satellite contact that broke the SO-50 distance world record. She wrote an article about the event which was published in the March/April 2017 issue of The AMSAT Journal.

In August 2018, Faith Hannah took part in the week-long “Youngsters on the Air” program in Johannesburg, South Africa where she participated in kit-building and antenna building projects, satellite operations and a high-altitude balloon launch.

She wrote an article about her experiences in South Africa that was published in CQ magazine.

On the way to South Africa, Faith Hannah and her father, James, WX4TV, had a 22-hour layover in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates. They were invited by the Emirates Amateur Radio Society to visit and operate A62A and A60YOZ.

In December 2018, Faith Hannah and her younger sister, Hope, ND2L, and her father organized a 36-hour mini-DXpedition to the Dry Tortugas in the Gulf of Mexico, off the southwest coast of Florida, where they activated N4T.

The girls logged 1,970 HF contacts and 100 satellite contacts.

Faith Hannah’s account of the N4T operation was published by CQ magazine, and she and Hope shared the April 2019 cover.

These and other ham radio experiences energized her desire to actively participate in contesting with her family and she has been a regular participant in ARRL Field Day, ARRL International DX contests, CQ WW SSB, and several state QSO parties.

She has participated in several special event operations as well, including National Parks on the Air (NPOTA) activations, the first SpaceX Falcon Heavy launch, the Ponce Inlet Lighthouse in Florida, a 13 Colonies station (K2G) in Georgia, and Jamboree on the Air and Boy Scout Radio merit badge weekends.

She has been active in several clubs in Virginia and Florida over her brief time as an amateur radio operator, finding mentors and friends in each of them. She has served as a net control operator for Volusia, Florida ARES (Amateur Radio Emergency Service) during Hurricanes Matthew, Irma and Dorian.

Faith Hannah completed high school through home schooling. But before doing so, she enrolled in Daytona State College where she earned an Associate of Arts degree at the age of 15.

Presently, she is enrolled in Stetson University in Deland, Florida, where she is recognized as a member of the junior class. She maintains a 4.0 GPA as she works toward earning two different degrees – a Bachelor of Science in molecular and cellular biology and a Bachelor of Business Administration.

Faith Hannah said she is exploring two career tracks – medicine or the law, or possibly both.

In 2020, she earned a $25,000 scholarship from the Foundation for Amateur Radio. And in 2021, a $16,000 scholarship in the “Voice of Democracy” essay contest sponsored by the Veterans of Foreign Wars – finishing first in Florida and second in the national competition.

As for amateur radio now and in the future, Faith Hannah says there’s always time for that.

“I know this sounds weird but it doesn’t really take all of my time to do my school, to have fun and to do ham radio,” she explained. “It all just fits in perfectly because a lot of times if I’m getting on the radio and it’s not a contest, I’ll just do it in the evening when gray line is there because that’s usually when I’m free and it’s a great time to make contacts.

“If it’s a weekend, we might take a radio and go out to a park or something and get on the air. And once it starts dying down, we’ll just hang around the park for a couple of hours.”

You can follow Faith Hannah, K3DZ, her family and their activities on their “HamRadio.World” YouTube channel where they have nearly 13,000 subscribers.

The YHOTY award is traditionally presented during the Huntsville Hamfest in August at the Von Braun Center in Huntsville Alabama. However, because of the spike in the Delta variant of Covid-19, Amateur Radio Newsline will not stage a public presentation at the hamfest this year. Faith Hannah will receive a certificate of recognition and other gifts during an online presentation.

The Young Ham of the Year Award was inaugurated by William Pasternak, WA6ITF, in 1986. Upon his passing in 2015, Bill’s name was added to the award as a memorial to his commitment to recognizing the accomplishments of young people to the Amateur Radio Service.

Amateur Radio Newsline, CQ magazine, and Yaesu USA are primary sponsors of the award, along with Heil Sound Ltd. and Radiowavz Antenna Company.

The award presentation was held online on Tom Medlin, W5KUB’s Amateur Radio Roundtable program. You can watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUoxFrQJxVQ. The presentation itself begins around 10 minute in.