FROM YOUR PRESIDENT space industry; RCA member/Vivian Carr awardee Ellen O’Hara discuss her long wireless career, and RCA member, and FirstNet CTO Jeff Bratcher discuss the FirstNet project. On May 10th at 9 p.m. EDT, we will be featuring Maggie Carothers Lynch, a young mom who is also the CEO of a wireless company. The Interview series are archived in the RCA YouTube channel. In the future we are re-evaluating our efforts in these Zoom events and may move to a less frequent schedule to avoid “Zoom fatigue”.
Greetings to all of our RCA Members! I hope you will enjoy this spring edition of the RCA Proceedings, thanks to the efforts of EVP Dave Bart, his Publications Committee, and Sapphyre. There are a lot of new benefits for our RCA members. I will skim over some of them.
PHYSICAL MEETINGS ARE BACK/BRINGING RCA TO ITS MEMBERS
• The RCA Website now features a number of new sections, including one on “Hot Topics” in the “World of Wireless” tab, which features some basic information on current issues in wireless. Right now we have information on 5G vs. Aviation Altimeters, the Havana Syndrome, and Terahertz Communications and 6G.
• We will be at the Dayton Hamvention in Ohio May 20-21, booth 1810. Please stop by if you are at this event. • In June we will be hosting a reception for RCA members in the DC/MD area, followed by a tour of a local wireless museum. Watch the RCA website for details.
• The RCA Proceedings is always full of interesting technical articles about wireless. Starting with this issue, members can receive a printed copy of the Proceedings for an additional $48/year. There is a signup form accessed on the RCA home page.
• Later in the year we are planning an event for RCA members in the San Ramon, California area. Stay tuned. • We will be at the APCO trade show the week of August 8th in Anaheim, California. • On Saturday November 19th we will have our annual Technical Symposium and Banquet in Atlanta at the Hyatt. Plus we are going to bring back some of the fun again with a silent auction, and some tours!
MEMBERSHIP • Each year we bring in a new group of RCA Fellows, and also make awards to those that have made significant advances to the wireless art. The nominations are due May 31. I hope many of you made nominations as I did.
EDUCATION & TRAINING
• We continue to work hard at bringing new and younger members to our RCA ranks. We issued four awards at the IWCE trade show in March to Young Professionals (35 and under) (press release on the RCA website). We also awarded a scholarship to Frankie Bonte, one of Carole Perry’s Young Achievers who presented two years ago at our Technical Symposium, and is now in college.
• We held a 90 minute Zoom panel discussion on Supply Chain Issues Facing Small to Medium-Sized Electronics and Wireless Companies in March. Panelists from 5 companies presented novel ideas on how to deal with this issue. The video is archived on the RCA Youtube channel. • Women in Wireless: We held the first Zoom meeting for women in March, led by Ellen O’Hara, former CEO and Chair of Zetron. Two more such events are planned this year.
• We currently have a member recruitment promotion going on. If you are a member and bring in a new member to RCA, you will receive a $25 credit toward an RCA logo’d golf shirt or cap. If you bring in 3 new members, you receive the $25 credit PLUS 10% off of your ticket to the November Technical Symposium and/or Banquet in Atlanta!
• In June we will be launching our first wireless training modules. These will be virtually based, consisting of both a video introduction and a detailed set of instructive slides. They are designed to assist new comers to the industry, and initially 3 different modules are planned, with more coming in the future.
• Some of our new or younger members are not familiar with our many RCA members who are “Experts and Legends” in the wireless industry. On the home page we have under the revolving display near the top a list of some of our members who are well known in the industry. The list is being added to regularly.
• Also in June we are kicking off a mentoring program. We are going to start with a small group of mentors and mentees, and expand the program as we gain experience. This is designed for adult professionals who are in the early stages of their wireless careers.
• David Bart has become our Executive VP, replacing former EVP Dr. Chip Cohen who stepped down unexpectedly. I wish to thank Chip for his many contributions to RCA over the past years, including helping with several key committees, bringing some first class presenters to the Technical Symposium, and assisting with our membership recruitment.
• Our Networking and Interview Zoom meetings on the second Tuesday of the month continue to provide information from industry leaders. Since January RCA President Emeritus Tim Duffy has had RCA Fellow Alan Tilles discuss spectrum and licensing; Robert Bell of the Space and Satellite Professionals International discuss the
SPRING 2022 PROCEEDINGS
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