2021 Technical Symposium Overview

2021 RCA TECHNICAL SYMPOSIUM

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 20 | VIRTUAL

The 2021 Technical Symposium this year will be VIRTUAL on Saturday, November 20. Topics and speakers are finalized and available on the Radio Club of America website. We have presenters in many of the areas of wireless technology including antennas, broadband, broadcast, cellular, land mobile radio, military, satellite, and wireless history related technologies. We are featuring a panel highlighting the centennial of the 1921 Transatlantic Tests made by RCA and ARRL members. Once the 1921 Transatlantic Tests proved that large distances could be spanned with very modest wireless equipment, a new era of experimentation and innovation began in wireless. These tests laid the foundation for viable commercial and amateur use of the shorter-wave radio bands under 200 meters. The success of these tests immediately rendered the huge, largescale, longer-wave broadcasting stations obsolete. Other inventors over the next 100 years worked on ever higher frequency equipment, perfected antenna technology, smaller and eventually miniature circuits, and perfected improved techniques for sending both voice and data transmissions. These tests set the table for many later technological developments in radio that are still applied in international government broadcasting and by private domestic stations, air traffic control, utility stations not intended for the general public, amateur radio, time-signal and radio clock stations. Other sporadic or non-traditional users of the shortwave bands also include clandestine and numbers stations, unlicensed two way radio activity, pirate radio broadcasting, over-the-horizon radar, and ionospheric heaters used for scientific experimentation. Please see the website for details. If you have questions or suggestions or ideas, please email info@radioclubofamerica.org. Our live streaming during the pandemic has been very well received, and we intend to provide another wonderful live stream experience again in 2021, using the Facebook Live platform.

2021 TECHNICAL SYMPOSIUM HOST

Prof. Jim Breakall, WA3FET, received B.S. and M.S. degrees in Electrical Engineering from Penn State University and a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and Applied Physics from Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, and has over 45 years of experience in numerical electromagnetics and antennas. He was a Project Engineer at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA, and an Associate Professor at the Naval Postgraduate School (NPGS), Monterey, CA. Presently he is a Full Professor of Electrical Engineering at Penn State. Dr. Breakall began his career as a graduate student at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico working on antenna analysis and radar probing of the ionosphere. At LLNL, he and his group worked on the development of the Numerical Electromagnetics Code (NEC), the first sophisticated antenna modeling program. Other significant projects that he has worked on were the designs of the HAARP facility in Alaska, both HF facilities at Arecibo, and the Kinstar low profile AM broadcast antenna. He (electrical) and Tim Duffy (mechanical) designed the very popular Ham Radio Skyhawk Yagi antenna, and he is the inventor of the Optimized Wideband Antenna (OWA). Dr. Breakall is also a life senior member of the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society, IEEE Broadcast Technology Society, Eta Kappa Nu, International Union of Radio Science Commission B, IEEE Wave Propagation and Standards Committee, has been an Associate Editor for the Radio Science journal, and served as an Arecibo Observatory Users and Scientific Advising Committee Member. He has been a frequent speaker at the Dayton Hamvention Antenna Forum and has built two major contest superstations, K3CR and KC3R, near Penn State, and WP3R, on his farm in Puerto Rico near the big Arecibo dish. He has graduated numerous graduate students and received many awards over the years. In 2017, Dr. Breakall was awarded the prestigious Sarnoff Citation from the RCA. He was elected as a Director to the Board in 2018 and 2020 and is the Co-Chairman of the 2020 and Chairman of the 2021 Technical Symposium. He also serves on the RCA Scholarship Committee.

WELCOME NEW RCA MEMBERS!

Stanley E Dillon, K4RCA Khalid Parvez, AP2KD Bobby Samuel Gary Campbell Joseph (Sonny) Delio Mark J Dennis Robert W Denny, N3BD Walter Grosser, W2TE Frank N Haas, KB4T Chip Hood, KM4AF Curtis W Johnson Lee M Lemoine, N3LEE Mark E Lewis, AG6CU Matthew J McKenna, WL7MN Becky Neugent Ellen O O’hara Ben L Ramler, K0BLR Ken J Rehbehn, KC3PNB Daniel M Small Travis A Smith, KN4QDE Ira Wiesenfeld Dagfinn Josvoll William R Semethy, K3YEB Richard C Ferguson Joseph H March William C Mims Calvin T Morton Francis Nay Iggy Bragado Donald S Brant, Jr Bill Brown Frank Danna III Mahbub Hoque Michael Kalter Jay Schwartz Sandra Wendelken Steve Wystrach Jack Mrozak, K2CTH Andrew Husley, KG4HBP John Burningham, W2XAB, WQON496 Dave Kaun, N9KMY Robert P Smith, N3FTU

RCA’S 2020 TECHNICAL SYMPOSIUM AND AWARDS VIDEOS ARE AVAILABLE ON

RCA's YOUTUBE CHANNEL

The Radio Club of America’s (RCA) 2020 Technical Symposium and Awards Banquet were held virtually on Saturday, November 21. The Technical Symposium included a record breaking 11 presentations. Some celebrated the centennial of radio station KDKA’s historic broadcasts, others addressed broadcast themes and other wireless technical subjects. These events were recorded, and the videos are available on RCA’s YouTube channel, which can be accessed from the RCA Website, along with many other videos from prior Technical Symposiums as well as other RCA events. Subscribe to our YouTube channel to receive notifications when new content is uploaded.

RCA’s YouTube Channel.

THE 2020 TECHNICAL SYMPOSIUM VIDEOS INCLUDE:

• Recent Progress in Observing Large Scale Traveling

Ionospheric Disturbances Using Amateur Radio —

Dr. Nathaniel Frissell • The KDKA Tower — Mike Rhodes • KDKA Representative Presentations —

Jim Graci & Chris Hudak

• Progress Report on RCA’s Youth Initiatives

• Stranger Things — Frances Bonte (youth presenter) • Modern AM Modulation Techniques — Geoff Mendenhall • Near Field Drone Measurements of Broadcast Antennas —

Nicole Starrett

• History of Westinghouse Radio and TV Manufacturing on

the 100th Anniversary of KDKA — Mike Molnar • Rail Wireless Communications – What’s Next? —

Umberto Malesci

• Next Gen Interactive TV & Advanced Emergency Alerting

and Informing — Fred Baumgartner