Successful Radio Symposium Supported by Harvard Wireless Club
/The symposium, which took place on 29 April 2017, featured speakers from the University and elsewhere, including appearances by W1AF’s incoming president Ben Lee, K7JS, and the club’s outgoing president Douglas Maggs, KK4UHK. Both men were joined by Yale University Amateur Radio Club (W1YU) President Scott Matheson, N3NFP; First Vice President James Surprenant, AB1DQ, and past president Martin Ewing, AA6E, in recounting the distinguished histories of these two collegiate Amateur Radio clubs.
Flavio Jorge, CT7AQK, of the University of Aveiro, discussed microwave propagation for space systems in his presentation, “Knocking down walls, changing mentalities and breaking rules — a case study on radiowave propagation for space systems.”
Emeritus professor of electrical engineering Paul Horowitz, W1HFA, delivered a thoroughly enjoyable presentation and discussion of the ultimate DX — monitoring the universe in a search for extraterrestrial intelligence. Matheson and Ewing participated in a roundtable forum, “Youth in Amateur Radio.”
That group was joined later via Skype by Martin Atherton, G3ZAY, the master of Cambridge University’s G6UW and two of his student colleagues. Vasiljie Perovic, M0HZC, spoke on “Extremely Low-Frequency meteor detection,” while William Eustace, M0WJE, discussed “LoRa spread spectrum radio.”
Others taking part were Daniela Marcelino, CR7AQM, and Micael Rebelo, CR7AQL, of the University of Aveiro, and Nicolas Weninger, KC1GLI, and Saahil Mehta, KG5HEW, both of Harvard.
Also on hand was ARRL CEO Tom Gallagher, NY2RF, who presented a progress report from League Headquarters and emphasised the need to welcome new hams into the Amateur Radio community. Attorney Fred Hopengarten, K1VR, shared some of his career highlights in his talk, “Ham radio pays my mortgage and other thoughts.” Hopengarten is the author of the book Antenna Zoning for the Radio Amateur.
“The Harvard Wireless Club made a strong showing on Saturday. They combined excellent material with a fast-paced program that never bogged down — from Professor Paul Horowitz’s description of chasing DX across the universe to live transatlantic conversations with Cambridge University’s radio club members.”
Attendee George Allison, K1IG, summed up the proceedings this way: “A full day with no fluff...accomplished and proficient speakers…absorbing and enlightening…wholehearted League support...and all-you-can-eat free ice cream is always a winner!”
Last fall, ARRL announced its Collegiate Amateur Radio Initiative (CARI) to assist college and university ham radio clubs in collaborating and networking. The community has grown rapidly since then, with membership in the Facebook CARI group growing fivefold to nearly 500 individuals.
Harvard Amateur Radio Symposium (YouTube) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xr2sUtDldXI
