2021 RCA Honors and Awards

THE JAY KITCHEN LEADERSHIP AWARD

Dale N. Hatfield — In recognition of achievement of a high level of success leading a wireless association.

Dale N. Hatfield is currently Spectrum Policy Initiative Co-director and Distinguished Advisor at the Silicon Flatirons Center for Law, Technology, and Entrepreneurship at the University of Colorado at Boulder. The Silicon Flatirons Center (SFC) was founded in 1999 and conducts research and sponsors conferences and other gatherings devoted to the field of information and communications technology (ICT). It provides a forum for entrepreneurs, lawyers, other industry professionals and policymakers to discuss the changing technologies in ICT as well as the new business models and the relevant policy and legal issues associated with them. In his role as Adjunct Professor in the Technology, Cybersecurity and Policy Programn (TCP) at the University of Colorado at Boulder, Hatfield teaches and gives lectures relating to telecommunications technology, policy and regulation in both national and international venues. In recent years he has focused much of his attention on spectrum management.

He no longer engages in telecommunications consulting except on a pro bono basis. He is currently serving on the FCC’s Technology Advisory Council (TAC) and on the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Spectrum Management Advisory Committee (CSMAC). Hatfield served as the founding Executive Director of the Broadband Internet Technical Advisory Group (BITAG), a multi-stakeholder group whose mission is to bring together engineers and technical experts to develop consensus on broadband network management practices and related technical issues that can affect users’ Internet experience. Mr. Hatfield has had sixty years of experience in the telecommunications field both in the public and private sectors. His government roles have included senior policymaking positions at the Office of Telecommunications Policy in the Executive Office of the President, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), and the National Additional Ads for Fall 2021 Proceedings • Copy hiTelecommunications and Information Administration in the U.S. Department of Commerce. His last position in res version from Nov 9 from Enews with a border and a link –government was Chief of the Office of Engineering and Technology at the FCC. In the private sector, he established this might fit on page 18 at the end of the awards a successful multidisciplinary telecommunications consulting firm and served as a director on the boards of several publicly traded and privately held companies in the telecommunications field. In addition, in the academic sphere, he was the founding director of a graduate level telecommunications program at the University of Denver and, during his most recent three-year stay in Washington, DC, he taught a graduate course in telecommunications technology at Georgetown University. From July, 2001 until his retirement in May 2017, Mr. Hatfield served on the Board of Directors of Crown Castle International (CCI), a telecommunications company whose stock is traded on the NYSE.

JERRY B. MINTER AWARD

Don Hume — For significant contributions to the electronics art through innovation in instrumentation, avionics, and electronics.

Don Hume is a pioneer in the areas of infrared motion detection and communication technology. His interest in electronics began early and he received his amateur radio license at age 14. After receiving a BSEE from the University of Colorado in 1969, he began his career in the aerospace industry. He founded Colorado Electro-Optics in 1973 as a side venture to his full-time engineering job. In 1975, Colorado Electro-Optics became his full-time occupation, developing and manufacturing sensor products for the security industry. Focusing on passive infrared technology, the company developed a range of motion sensor products based on its proprietary sensor array technology. The company grew rapidly and became a division of Linear Corporation in 1978. It remained a vertically integrated operating division including development, manufacturing, and marketing of its products. For use in IR motion sensors, the company pioneered the use of multi-element array technology, polyethylene IR optics, and silicon-based IR filters. Colorado Electro-Optics was first to introduce IR motion-controlled lights, and the integration of battery powered wireless IR motion sensor products. In 1986, Don Hume and Steve Koonce co-founded Inovonics Wireless Corporation. The company developed and manufactured on-site signal and control products utilizing the 902-928 MHz ISM band for use in the United States and similar license-free spectrum in many international markets. The primary Inovonics labeled products focused on needs in commercial security, multi-family submetering and senior care. Many other applications and markets are served by Inovonics Wireless products on an OEM basis. Three generations of technology evolution resulted in the EchoStream network, a robust proprietary frequency hopping spread spectrum communications platform. Inovonics Wireless was purchased by Roper Industries in 2005 and remains a growing operating unit. Don retired in 2008. Now, 35 years after its founding, the company’s products have received global acceptance, and the company is recognized as a leader in commercial wireless applications. Don still maintains an active interest in communication technology and entrepreneurial endeavors.

THE VIVIAN CARR AWARD

Ellen O’Hara — In recognition of an outstanding woman’s achievements in the wireless industry.

Ellen O’Hara has held senior management and C-suite level positions at multiple companies manufacturing land mobile radio products. She was president, CEO, and later chairman of Zetron, a company that makes public safety dispatch consoles. She was also chairman of iCERT, an industry council for public safety. She served as a member of the board of directors of EF Johnson (now a JVC Kenwood company) and held marketing and business development positions at Motorola and GE land mobile radio. Zetron, Inc. designs, manufactures and sells radio dispatch consoles and E911 Call Taking equipment for command and control operations in public safety, utilities, transportation, and industrial markets. Zetron is an independent, wholly owned subsidiary of JVC Kenwood in Japan. Under Ms. O’Hara, Zetron updated all three of its core platforms to IP technology, grew its international business from offices located in Brisbane, Australia and Basingstoke, England, and substantially increased its share of the large systems market in North America. Ms. O’hara has a successful track record in growing revenues, profitability, and market share in a high-tech, competitive business environment. She is a recognized leader in operational roles managing P&L, product development, marketing, engineering and supply chain organizations. Her specialties include general management, product operations, product marketing and sales with areas of expertise in engineering and manufacturing management, strategic planning, program management, and brand management. Ms. O’Hara received a BA from Mount Holyoke College and attended the University of East Anglia; she received an MBA from Harvard University.

THE RALPH BATCHER MEMORIAL AWARD

Robert Hobday — For significant work in preserving the history of radio and electronic communications.

Bob Hobday, N2EVG, has maintained a life-long fascination with radio and electronics since building his first homemade crystal set and then a one tube radio when he was 12. Mr. Hobday graduated from Union College with a BA in Industrial Administration in 1965. He worked for Rochester Gas and Electric in the Pricing and Regulatory Department, eventually rising to Manager of Pricing, and subsequently to Manager of Marketing. In 1998, he led one of two teams assigned the responsibility of creating Energetix Inc., a new unregulated subsidiary of RG&E. He retired from Energetix as Managing Director in 2007 and created the consulting firm of Robert Hobday Consultants. Mr. Hobday maintains a lifelong interest in electronics and radio. He holds a General Class license, N2EVG and has been a member of the Rochester Amateur Radio Association since 1984, serving as secretary, vice president, president, and as a member of the board. He joined the Antique Wireless Association (AWA) in 1984 and became fully immersed in AWA’s management when he was elected to the board of trustees in 2009 and became deputy director, charged with responsibilities for overseeing day-to-day operations of AWA, the AWA Museum, and their financial affairs. He was elected AWA Director in 2020 and in 2021 was elected President and Chairman of the Board. Mr. Hobday with the other AWA leaders have quadrupled the AWA Museum’s collection; acquired a four-building, five-acre campus; developed the Museum’s 7,000 sq. ft. of exhibit space, and are working toward further expansion in 2022. A future phase of the Museum development will include an auditorium and theater.Mr. Hobday negotiated a partnership agreement with Radio Club of America (RCA) for AWA to maintain and preserve RCA’s historical archive. He also negotiated a joint working agreement with the Collins Collectors Association to create the Collins Radio Heritage Group that cooperatively works to preserve Collins Radio history and artifacts. That working cooperation resulted in the rescue of the control room and a Collins 821A 250,000 watt transmitter from the Voice of America Station in Delano, California, where it was scheduled to be sold for scrap. The CCA/AWA team dismantled the control room and transmitter and shipped 19 tons of artifacts to the AWA Museum in Bloomfield, New York. The control room and major pieces of the transmitter are now on display in the Museum. The Delano Station was dedicated in honor of Jack Poppele, a longtime member of RCA. Mr. Hobday has been a member of RCA since 2009 and was named as a Fellow in 2017 and awarded RCA’s Jack Poppele Award in 2017. He received the AWA Director’s Award in 2011 and again in 2014. In May 2016, the Finger Lakes Visitors Connection, the official tourism agency for Ontario County, New York, presented Mr. Hobday with a 2016 Legacy Award.

RCA PRESIDENT’S AWARD

Alan Spindel — For service and dedication to the Radio Club of America.

Alan Spindel, AG4WK, is the senior Electrical Engineer for Global HF in West Palm Beach, FL. He develops hardware and firmware for digital HF radio data modems. Mr. Spindel trained at the University of Tennessee and has over twenty years of professional experience in the telecom industry. He has worked as a broadcaster, professional tower climber, design engineer, and engineering manager. As the principal systems engineer of Mobile Marine Radio/Intraradio/ShipCom LLC, Mr. Spindel automated the operation of one of the world’s largest commercial HF radio facilities. He was the principal engineer for the deployment of a nationwide HF radio emergency network for Public Safety Access Points (PSAPS). As a senior project manager for Smartower Systems he developed active cell tower monitoring systems. He has served as the CTO of ITG since 2005, designing interoperable radio system hardware for public safety and military customers. He is active in volunteer emergency communications and serves as the Rutherford County, Tennessee, ARES Net Manager for well over a decade. Mr. Spindel is chair of the Radio Club of America (RCA) Scholarship Committee, and he was named an RCA Fellow in 2019. He spearheaded the complete historical research, analysis, and summary of RCA’s decades-old scholarship program. This was the first time in many years that RCA had performed a complete view of these activities. He then used that information to restructure and consolidate most of the smaller funds into a single operating scholarship fund, the Captain Bill Finch RCA-Legacy Scholarship Fund, while coordinating with the Finch family and various RCA board members. He is also instrumental in implementing the New Century Fund, currently being launched.

Tim Duffy — For dedicated service to the Radio Club of America.

Tim Duffy, K3LR, is the CEO of DX Engineering in Tallmadge, Ohio, and the chief engineer and owner of the K3LR Contest Super Station (https://www.k3lr. com) in West Middlesex, Pennsylvania. Mr. Duffy is a graduate of Pennsylvania State University and was licensed in 1972. An active Amateur Radio contest operator for 49 years. He has hosted over 145 different operators as part of the K3LR multi-op DX contest efforts and the K3LR team has completed over 800,000 QSOs. Mr. Duffy was a member of the team representing the U.S.A. on five different occasions in the World RadioSport Team Championships (WRTC). Mr. Duffy served on the American Radio Relay League (ARRL) Contest Advisory Committee, and was a former chairperson. Tim serves on the CQ Worlwide Contest Committee (30 years). He is a founding member and current President of the North Coast Contesters. He founded and is the chairman of Contest University. He is also the moderator for the Hamvention Antenna Forum, co-coordinator of the Contest Super Suite, Top Band Dinner and the Dayton Contest Dinner for the past 28 years. Mr. Duffy was the ARRL Section Manager for Western Pennsylvania in 2015 and 2016 and currently serves as a director on the ARRL Foundation Board. He also serves as president of the Mercer Count Amateur Radio Club (W3LIF), president emeritus of the Radio Club of America (RCA), chairman of the World Wide Radio Operators Foundation (WWROF). He is also active in amateur radio emergency groups such as RACES, ACS and ARES. Mr. Duffy started his career in engineering management position at a local AM and FM broadcast station while still in high school. He was engineering manager for SYGNET wireless in Youngstown, Ohio starting in 1985. He then became the chief technology officer and senior vice president at Dobson Communications Corporation (Cellular One) in 1999. In 2007, Dobson merged with AT&T, and he then served as AT&T’s executive director in the Network Planning and Engineering Group. In 2009, he left AT&T to join Stelera Wireless as its chief technology officer, where he was responsible for the company’s technology direction, subscriber product development, engineering related operations and network build out. His last two years with Stelera he served as CEO. He is now the CEO of DX Engineering. Mr. Duffy has earned many accolades, honors and awards in Amateur Radio, including the 1998 Atlantic Division Technical Achievement Award, election to the CQ Contest Hall of Fame in 2006, 2010 Barry Goldwater Amateur Radio Service Award, 2015 Hamvention Amateur of the Year, and the 2016 YASME Excellence Award. He is a Life member of RCA, AWA and ARRL, and became an RCA Fellow in 2010 and received the RCA President’s Award in 2015. In 2021 he became a fellow of AWA. As President Emeritus, Tim has continued to support RCA in many ways. One of them was to host the first ever virtual RCA 2020 Technical Symposium and Awards Banquet during the pandemic. Since then, he has held alternating virtual events every month, which allow RCA members to continue to gather and participate in events. His RCA Interview Series, open to the public, and the RCA Members Only networking events help showcase RCA to a wider audience and add value to members. He is currently the chair of the 1921 Transatlantic Test Centennial, and is working with many amateur radio organizations on commemoration activities. To that end, he will run a special “RCA QSO Party” in November 2021 for amateurs around the world able to participate, further showcasing RCA to a wide audience worldwide.

U.S. NAVY CAPTAIN GEORGE P. MCGINNIS MEMORIAL AWARD

CTICM (SS) Matthew T. Zullo, USN (Ret) — For service and dedication to the advancement and preservation of U.S. Naval Cryptology, as nominated by the U.S. Naval Cryptologic Veterans Association (NCVA).

Matthew Zullo is a retired U.S. Navy master chief petty officer who has more than 35 years of experience in radio intelligence, now more commonly known as communications intelligence. He holds a Master’s Degree in Strategic Intelligence from the National Intelligence University, where he researched and wrote his thesis about the On-the-Roof Gang. He has published numerous articles about the On-the-Roof Gang in the Naval Cryptologic Veterans Association’s (NCVA) Cryptolog magazine and on social media platforms. As one of only a few experts on the subject, he has spoken at the 2009, 2011, and 2013 Cryptologic History Symposiums, and at several Navy events around the world. He attended the induction of Harry Kidder into NSA’s Cryptologic Hall of Honor and spoke about Harry Kidder at a subsequent event for the sailors of Cryptologic Warfare Group Six. He continues his research into the On-the-Roof Gang as he writes and edits his two-volume history about the group. Mr. Zullo has extensively researched the history of the NCVA, specifically focusing on pioneering naval cryptologists that were critical to the efforts in the Pacific War with Japan. He has published On The Roof Gang (Volume 1) – Prelude to War, and On The Roof Gang (Volume 2) – War in the Pacific, which tell the story of our Cryptologic pioneers and the genesis of what is today the combined cryptologic and cyber community of the United States Navy.

James Goldstein has more than 30 years of experience working with public safety. He began his career, after law school, working for the Department of Transportation working on government contract issues of federal and administrative proceedings. He joined a major telecommunications company in 1984 as a member of the law department working on government contract litigation. He left the law department and represented the defense piece of the company in Washington D.C. as a government lobbyist. He subsequently joined the communications group of the company working for years in lobbying Capitol Hill and the executive branch representing the company and obtaining funds for public safety. After leaving the company with 26 years of service, Mr. Goldstein joined the International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC) working on public safety communications issues such as the nationwide public safety broadband network (FirstNet), T-Band spectrum issue, indoor location technology issues at the FCC and sat on the CTIA public safety group working with the carriers amongst a number of issues. Mr. Goldstein also worked on transportation issues and helped create a grant program for first responders dealing with hazardous materials. He has also served as the Delaware volunteer firefighters association public safety radio consultant since 2010. Mr. Goldstein also represented the IAFC on the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) SAFECOM Program which is part of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency of DHS. After retiring from the IAFC, Mr. Goldstein volunteers his time working for NPSTC focusing on government relations and was actively engaged in the repeal of the T-Band auction requirement (Don’t Break Up the T-Band Act of 2020) and on 9-1-1 issues.

Audrey McElroy — For an excellent presentation by a student at the 2021 Technical Symposium

Audrey McElroy is a senior in high school, having been accepted into the STEM academy as a freshman by way of an Amateur Radio video-essay. Her Extra Class callsign is KM4BUN, earned when she was 15. She has combined her STEM Bio-tech, Physics and advanced Calculus knowledge with Amateur Radio to develop many experiments such as decoding the ISS SSTV transmission using her own automated satellite ground tracking station as well as developing high altitude balloon experiments that have reached the edge of space, and one that orbited the globe 4.5 times, all while maintaining periodic telemetry. She is in demand as a SME on High Altitude balloons by numerous organizations. At the request of the Southeastern VHF Society, she published a white paper detailing her experimentation with buoyancy and high-altitude balloons that transmit telemetry via WSPR and APRS utilizing the HF bands. She plans on attending university and pursuing a degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) while continuing to work with Amateur Radio to provide hands-on practice of her academics. Audrey is the first recipient of the RCA Young Achievers scholarship and has had the opportunity to present her experimentation at several conferences such as the American Institute of Aeronautics and Aerospace (aiaa.org) as well as several Amateur Radio virtual podcast events to a global audience.

Congratulations award winners!

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The Radio Club of America looks forward to our virtual ceremony on November 20 where we’ll celebrate Dr. Cooper and his lifetime of achievement.