The Young Ham of the Year for 2024
Grace Papay, K8LG

July 5, 2024

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

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

NEW YORK – Grace Papay, K8LG, of Holland, Michigan, has been selected as the 2024 Bill Pasternak WA6ITF Memorial Amateur Radio Newsline Young Ham of the Year. Grace, 18, is the daughter of Doug Papay, K8DP, and Carrie Papay K8CLP.

Grace earned her Technician license in March 2021 and within a year achieved her Extra Class license, passing the test in March 2022.

She is a recent honors graduate of Holland Christian High School in her hometown, where she earned a varsity letter in the Unified Sports program.

Grace credited her father and her grandfather, John Papay, K8YSE, a well-known operator in the ham radio satellite community, for drawing her into the hobby.

“I got involved in amateur radio satellites,” Grace recalls. “I got on the air. And now it has turned into something from honoring my grandfather to a hobby I’m on every day and I love.”

With support from her grandfather and father, she earned the DX Century Club certificate for contacts exclusively using satellites.

Grace attended Youth on the Air camps in Cincinnati in 2022 and Ottawa in 2023, where she says she was exposed to a variety of other amateur radio activities including balloon launches, slow-scan television and radio contesting.

She was part of the K3LR IOTA Dave Kalter Memorial Youth DX Adventure in 2023 and was a team member for the J62K St. Lucia DX contest operation in 2024.

Grace is active on the HF bands and operates in the ARRL and CQ DX SSB and CW contests, ARRL Sweepstakes and CQ WPX, as well as Youth on the Air events.

For the past few years, Grace has been a regular presenter at the Youth Forum at Dayton Hamvention. She delivered a presentation on youth in contesting at the Contest University Forum at Dayton this year and assisted at the YOTA and AMSAT booths.

She is an active member of the Holland Amateur Radio Club, Grand Rapids Amateur Radio Association, West Chester Amateur Radio Association and the American Radio Relay League.

Grace received the Radio Club of America’s Young Achievers Award in 2023.

She had an article on the “Next Generation of Contesters” published in the National Contest Journal (Nov/Dec 2023). A story she co-wrote on YOTA Camp 2022 appeared in the August 2022 edition of CQ magazine.

Grace will be attending Cedarville University in Cedarville, Ohio this fall, where she will study electrical engineering. She says amateur radio played a major role in her choice of a major.

The YHOTY award will be presented to Grace during a ceremony at the Huntsville Hamfest on Saturday, Aug. 17, 2024 at the Von Braun Center in Huntsville, Alabama.

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

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.