At its March 4, 2021 membership meeting, we’re delighted to welcome Luci Finucan, who is part of the STEM Education team at Green Bank Observatory in Green Bank, WV. A physics major with graduate work in education, Luci is one of a few international ambassadors accepted into an elite STEM education program called the Astronomy in Chile Educator Ambassadors Program (ACEAP) .
Continue reading “Green Bank Observatory STEM Educator will speak to SVARC”A Little Club History
John Kanode N4MM came across this certificate recently that commemorates his acceptance as a Senior Member of the Shenandoah Valley Amateur Radio Club on May 17, 1974. Time flies when you’re having fun, right John?
NEC Co-Author Jerry Burke
Roger Steyaert K7RXV informed us of the sad news that Jerry Burke, co-author of NEC/MOM family of programs about which Roger has given recent presentations on antenna modeling, has died of cancer.
Jerry and A. Poggio wrote the programs at Lawrence Livermore Labs in 1981, under contract to the US Navy. NEC2 was later released to the public and is now available on most computing platforms.
NEC stands for Numerical Electromagnetics Code, and as Roger taught us, NEC2 simulates the electromagnetic response of antennas and metal structures so we can use it to model the performance of our antennas. https://www.nec2.org/.
Moonbounce on 10 Meters
Thanks to Stephen Pederson KN4IOU for sharing this info and video from Tom DK3EE’s adventure of doing moon bounce on 10 meters. He has a 10-meter beam with 50-foot boom, so very high gain. The moon was near the horizon, so he didn’t need an elevation rotor. The video that plays on YouTube after this one is also about moonbounce.
The History of the Phonetic Alphabet
From “Able-Baker” to Today: The History of the Phonetic Alphabet” by Sam Lichtman
Excerpt:
“From Marines in the most remote areas on Earth to airline pilots ferrying travelers across the world at 35,000 feet, nearly everyone who uses voice radio for important communication can understand each other using the phonetic alphabet. It took a herculean effort over half a century for the world to settle on a universal ‘language’ for voice radio. From the jungles of Vietnam to the arid highlands of northern Iraq, that same system has proven itself for more than half a century in all conditions.”