Past Meetings

Index of past meetings

2016

  •  Thursday, May 12 –  Dave Skolnick, KO4MI, discussed Maritime Mobile communications including marine VHF, HF/SSB, Email via Pactor and Winlink
  • Thursday, April 07 – Bluetooth wireless technology, what it is, how it works, and how we can use it.
  • Wednesday, March 9 –  Frank, K0BRA, discussed LF antennas and plans for the AMRAD LF antenna.  Board members also elected officers.
  • Thursday, February 4 – Ken, KE2N discussed the MAIPN (Mid-Atlantic IP Network) and his experiences using on-line tools to find microwave paths for wireless broadband. Check out the website at: http://www.remoteamateur.com/Home1503.aspx
  • Monday, January 11,  Note that this was a special, business meeting for various annual reports and to hold elections.  Some discussion was held about future AMRAD directions and interests, including the repeater.

 

2015

  • Wednesday, December 9A quorum was not met, so no formal business was held.  Kevin Barth, K3BAR, gave a presentation on Civil Emergency Response Teams (CERT) in Montgomery County
  • (June-NOV coming…)
  • May 14 – Pete McNeil, KF4HCW, “Digital Modulation Description Language”. While considering remote operations on HF there are two problems: 1. Most digital modes done these days require a lot of bandwidth because the signals are being transmitted and received as digitized audio (or worse), and 2. Network delays introduce timing problems inherent in CW work that are not normally apparent in half-duplex digital and audio work. Pete shared his thoughts on developing a method to send digital timing information rather than analog audio to the transmitter and use direct synthesis to perform high fidelity modulation. It may be possible to use the descriptive language to code every currently known modulation scheme and then later use the same mechanism for schemes that have not yet been invented.
  • April 2 – Bill Liles, NQ6Z, presented significant propagation data taken by hams during solar eclipses in the 20th and 21st Centuries. Discussion included possible AMRAD involvement in measurements during the August 21, 2017 solar eclipse. For details of “The Great Radio Atmospheric Propagation Experiment” see http://www.sweoc.org/GRAPE.html
  • March – TBD
  • February 12 – Brennan T. Price, N4QX, ARRL’s Chief Technology Officer, represents the interests of Amateur Radio to numerous governmental and international agencies, including the FCC, NTIA, and ITU. With the staff of ARRL’s Technical Relations Office and ARRL’s Washington Team, he prepares for World Radiocommunications Conferences, held about once every four years, at which spectrum is internationally allocated to various radio services.
  • January 8 – John Huggins, KX4O The J-Pole Antenna: Myths and Facts. John modeled a 1/4-wavelength ground plane as a reference and then compared several J-pole configurations using a combination of Numerical Electromagnetics Code (NEC) and Finite-Difference Time-Domain method (FDTD) antenna modeling software. Simulations results were confirmed by testing  1GHz models in a test chamber. He discussed the radiation patterns and antenna currents in each variant. John brought several J-pole antennas to the meeting to show off various construction techniques.

2014

  • December 10 – George Lemaster, WB5OYP and Terry McCarty, WA5NTI were re-elected as Directors. Bill Fenn, N4TS and Frank Eliot, W3WAG were elected as Alternates. Terry WA5NTI made a presentation of the terminal equipment being deployed on a high speed MESH network in Prince William County. Paul W4RI was presented with an engraved wood plaque in recognition of his election to the grade of President Emeritus.
  • November 12 – Karl Berger, W4KRL, presented lessons learned while building and enhancing an Arduino-based Morse Decoder using the Goertzel algorithm for tone detection. He reviewed useful design tools including IdealCircuit for filter simulation and VeroDes for laying out a stripboard.
  • October 9 – Bill Liles, NQ6Z, discussed the race to make the first transatlantic two-way contact. The 1920s was an exiting time for amateur radio as hams were allowed back on the air after WWI. Bill drew on material from the RSGB archives as prepared by Elaine Richards, G4LFM.
  • September 11 – Terry McCarty, WA5NTI, gave an update on his work in promoting license training to emergency services and 4H clubs. Glenn Baumgartner, AK4QJ, updated us on his construction of moonbounce equipment
  • August 14 – Ray Cole, K4GAA, presented his work on cave radio communications at 3.5 kHz.
  • July 17 – Ron Payne, WA6YOU, shared his adventures operating from various countries during his ham career. He displayed superb examples of 1950s and 1960s spy radios.
  • June 12 – Members’ night: Free discussion on member projects.
  • May 15 – “Practical Applications for High Speed Mesh Networks” Keith Elkin, KB3TCB, demonstrated the equipment used for high speed MESH networks and backbone links. He detailed a proposal to link regional MESH networks with microwave links.
  • April 17 – “Fun With Electric Motors” Karl Berger, W4KRL reviewed the fundamentals of direct current motors and ran tests on a century-old open frame dc commutator motor that has slip rings connected to one rotor winding. This enabled observing the rotor voltage on an oscilloscope. All control of the motor control was done with an Arduino using Pulse Width Modulated power supplies, Hall-effect current sensors, and servo-driven instrumentation.
  • March 20 – “An Amateur-Radio Solution to Frequency-Hopping Synchronization” André Kesteloot N4ICK and Maitland Bottoms AA4HS jointly presented a creative approach to the spread spectrum challenge posed by André in his December 2013 presentation.
  • February 13 – cancelled by snow
  • January 9 – “Rubidium Frequency Standards and Teardown” Frank Gentges, KØBRA, briefed us on rubidium frequency standards. Then, upholding a proud AMRAD tradition, he toredown a Frequency Electronics type FE-5682A standard.

2013

  • December 12 – Annual Business Meeting. Directors elected for 2014-2015: Paul Rinaldo, W4RI, Frank Gentges, KØBRA, Karl Berger, W4KRL
    André Kesteloot, N4ICK, demonstrated an Arduino-based “Spread-Spectrum Frequency-Hopping Transmitter Module” that he has developed. André needs ideas for the receiver side of the system. AMRAD members engaged in a lively discussion about how the receiver could detect and lock on to the transmitted signal.
  • November 21 – Bill Liles, NQ6Z “100 Years of Amateur Aerials” The Radio Society of Great Britain is 100 years old this year. For the celebration they have gone through their archives and produced a set of talks. One talk is on 100 years of amateur aerials. Bill presented this talk with photos and discussion.
  • October 10 – Ron Payne, WA6YOU – “Coax Connectors – The Intimidating Interface.” Ron demonstrated installing PL259 and BNC coax crimp connectors and weatherproofing methods.
  • September 19 – Mark Braunstein, WA4KFZ, provided an overview of printed circuit board fabrication for the electronics experimenter. Mark has personal experience using CNC routers in a commercial enterprise. Other options for do-it-yourselfers include conventional photo-etching and contact etching with laser printed masks. A number of domestic and foreign fabricators offer fast turn around at low cost but with confusing choices for software and file formats.
  • August 8 – Maitland Bottoms, AA4HS, introduced us to digital voice communications on HF using FreeDV software. FreeDV is an application for Windows, Linux and MacOS (BSD and Android are in development) that allows any SSB radio to be used for low bit rate digital voice. The software compresses speech to 1400 bit/s then modulates a 1.1 kHz wide quadrature phase-shift keying (16-QPSK) signal which is sent to the Mic input of a SSB radio. On receive, the signal is received by the SSB radio, then demodulated and decoded by FreeDV. Communications is readable down to 2 dB S/N, and long-distance contacts are reported using 1-2 watts power.
  • July 18 – Dr. Frank Eliot, W3WAG, discussed Weak Signal Detection. Thanks to the rapid increase in digital processing availability, hams have implemented sophisticated and user-friendly techniques that enable us to communicate with much weaker signals than we had dreamed of exploiting just a few years ago. In this session, Frank discussed weak signal detection, exploring under what circumstances we might detect even weaker signals, thus communicating over even more difficult paths. Also, on a related topic, he described how earth antennas behave, and experiments one might perform to sort out their modes of operation.
  • June 13 – AMRAD hosted a doubleheader for slow modes: DFCW and JT65.
    • The first presentation was by André N4ICK titled An Arduino-based DFCW Beacon for the 479 KHz Band. André discussed Dual Frequency CW (DFCW) and updated us on the ARRL petition to the FCC Office of Engineering and Technology regarding the new band. He demonstrated his design of an Arduino-based 479kHz beacon, and expanded on the eventual possibility of “crossing the Pond” to communicate with British Hams who have been experimenting for a while with this new allocation. Dual Frequency CW, or DFCW, is a technique where a CW signal is transmitted at a very slow symbol rate, typically at 3 seconds per dot. This allows reception in very narrow bandwidths.
    • Terry McCarty, WA5NTI, made a presentation on The JT65 Weak Signal Digital Soundcard Mode. JT65 can decode signals many decibels below the noise floor making an exception to the old rule “if you can’t hear them, you can’t work them.” Terry has racked up an impressive list of contacts on nearly every band. The mode was developed by Joe Taylor, K1JT as an offshoot to his WSJT weak signal mode widely used in moonbounce contacts. Although JT65 was originally intended for troposcatter and Earth-Moon-Earth paths, Terry is one of the pioneers in using it for low power HF contacts. Terry told us where to get the free software, how to configure it, and what you can expect in a contact.
  • May 9 – Karl Berger, W4KRL, shared his adventure exploring the possibilities for using the Arduino microcontroller in amateur radio projects. Karl set out a few months ago to make a stand-alone touch screen display for a portable antenna analyzer. He broadened his objective to include a flexible graphic display system that a ham can adapt to station control, test instruments and data logging. Along the way, he overcame challenges in converting his program from “in line” coding to the “object oriented” style and solving unexpected problems with hardware control.
  • April 11 – Ron Payne, WA6YOU, demonstrated how to build UHF Yagi antennas for receiving off-air DTV stations, or, for any UHF band application. Ron demonstrated his method of building antennas using spun copper wire for the antenna elements and how to get great results with low cost construction.
  • March – Andrea Hartlage, KG4IUM, “Involving Youth in Ham Radio and A Look Inside the ARRL Board Room”
  • February – Paul Mooney, K4KRE,”An Experimental SDR Project”
  • January – Jim Veatch, WA3EUJ,”ARRL Homebrew Challenges”

2012

  • December – Annual Business meeting.
  • November – Andre Kesteloot, N4ICK, “A 40-Meter Class E Rig”, and George Lemaster, WB5OYP, “Non-Linear Effects”
  • October – Presentation by Terry Fox, WB4JFI
  • September – John Donaldson, AB8YZ,”Applications of HSMM-MESH”
  • August – Bob Sullivan, W0YVA,”Boat Anchor Restoration”
  • July – TBD
  • June – Sir Richard O’Neill, Wizard3 (a.k.a. KBRSJ),”How to Make a Crystal Set”
  • May – Kevin Whipp, W3KDW, David Bern, W2LNX and Vic Nardo, WB2U,”HSMM-MESH”
  • April 19 – ARRL Chief Technology Officer Brennan Price, N4QX, reviewed the ITU 2012 World Radiocommunication Conference and the outlook for a new domestic allocation at 472-479 kHz.
  • March 8 – Terry McCarty, WA5NTI, told us how he automated his ham station with a PC to make working, logging, and QSLing DX stations easy.
  • February 16 – Jerry Wolczanski, KI4IO, described the high performance Low Frequency (LF) receiver he designed and built as well as his vintage German Torn E.b regenerative LF receiver. Jerry has logged many LF Non Directional Beacons (NDBs) with a very interesting LF antenna he designed.
  • January – Greg LeSAge, N6LYU, “The Terminated Folded Dipole (T2FD) Antenna”

2011

  • December – AMRAD’s Annual Meeting. Elections were held at the meeting. Directors Bill Fenn, N4TS; Frank Gentges, KØBRA; and Paul Rinaldo, W4RI were re-elected for two-year terms, as were Alternates Paul Mooney, K4KRE and Rob Seastrom, AI4UC for one-year terms.
  • November 10 – Dr. Michael King, an experienced high-performance HF receiver designer, spoke on hardware design for Software Defined Radio systems that hams can build.
  • October 13 – This meeting was devoted to a discussion of digital amateur television by Bill Fenn, N4TS and Paul Rinaldo, W4RI. DVB-S and other protocols were covered.
  • September 8 – This meeting was affected by the heavy rain which caused many people and the speaker to be caught in traffic. See rescheduled meetings for October and November.
  • August 11 – The August meeting was CANCELLED.
  • July 14 – This meeting was a preparation for our Manassas special event of 21-24 July jointly with the Ole Virginia Hams.
  • June 9 – Chris Paton, W3CUM talked about Skywarn.
  • May 12 – Terry Fox, WB4JFI, talked to us via Skype about current and developing projects. He provided detail about modular programming of FPGAs. Terry provides an article in the July-August AMRAD Newsletter.
  • April 14 – George Lemaster, WB5OYP presented a visual tour of the Bletchley Park National Codes and Cipher Centre.
    March 10 – Greg LeSage, N6LYU, spoke on his Beverage antenna system.
  • February 10 – Mike Toia, K3MT, talked on antenna modeling and theory.
  • January 13 – Frank Gentges, KØBRA, made a presentation on the latest do-it-yourself surface-mount techniques.

2010

  • December 14 – The Annual Meeting gave an opportunity for members to report on progress of projects and to elect new Directors and Alternates. Results of the election are: Directors (11-12): Terry Fox, WB4JFI George Lemaster, WB5OYP Alternates (11) Paul Mooney, K4KRE Rob Seastrom, AI4UC
    The meeting accepted a proposal by Bill Fenn, W4TS, to commemorate the anniversary of the First Battle of Manassas with a special event station.
  • November 10 – This meeting was a briefing by Doug Lindsey, KB3HER, on SHARES, MARS and emergency communications.
    October 14 – Terry Fox, WB4JFI, made an audio/video presentation via Skype about his software defined radio developments. He also did a scan of his shack. This was a first AMRAD use of Skype and we hope to do more.
  • September 9 – Dr Andrew Clegg, W4JE, presented a show-and-tell of the Perseus software-defined receiver (http://www.microtelecom.it/perseus/).
  • August 28-29, AMRAD field trip to the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), Green Bank, WV Twenty-five AMRADers participated in the field trip. Look for the photos in the Nov-Dec 2010 issue of the AMRAD Newsletter.
  • March 11 – Steve Stearns, K6OIK, gave an extensive report on antenna matching at multiple frequencies simultaneously and broadband match along with Smith chart tricks.
  • February 11 – cancelled by snow.
  • January 14 Greg Le Sage, N6LYU, briefed us on his work on high efficiency antenna tuners. The meeting was held at the Falls Church Community Center, 223 Little Falls St., Falls Church, VA.

2009

  • December 10 – This was our Annual Meeting for an exchange between members and Board Members on activities. In addition, there was an update on spectrum management issues of importance to hams.
  • September 10 – This was a discussion of progress with construction of the Charleston software defined radio receiver, led by Frank Gentes, KØBRA.
  • August 13 – Dr Joe White of the Naval Research Laboratory described his work with precision clocks. The Naval Research Laboratory and the Naval Observatory have set up a clock comparison system using the WTTG (channel 5) digital television signal. This talk discussed time and frequency comparison using television signals.
  • July 9 – Bill Fenn, N4TS, talked about the transition to Digital Television and described the ATSC digital television transmission format. Bill demonstrated how to dissect an off-air transport signal using a Tektronix analyzer.
  • June 18 – Hal Feinstein, WB3KDU, made a presentation on optical fiber communications.
  • April 9- Greg LeSage, N6LYU returned to talk about lasers. Topics were chirped pulse amplification, photoemission, and laser scattering from relativistic charged particle beams.
  • March 12 – Greg LeSage, N6LYU spoke on RF powered particle accelerators, how and why large RF systems are engineered for these massive machines. Greg showed a number of components used.
  • February 12 – This included a video presentation of W1FR’s talk. This was an experiment, which proved successful. The AMRAD Board of Directors decided to purchase the video camera used for this demonstratin, so it will be available for future meetings.
  • February 11 – Dr Frederick Raab, W1FR briefed us on the “500 kc experiment.” See article in the Mar-Apr edition of the AMRAD Newsletter.
  • January 8 – Rob Seastrom, AI4UC and Maitland Bottoms, AA4HS presented a tutorial on posting to the AMRAD Wiki Web site.

2008

  • December 11 -At the Annual Meeting, the following Directors  were elected for the ’09-’10 Term: Terry Fox, WB4JFI, George Lemaster, WB5OYP, Rob Seastrom, AI4UC. Alternates for ’09: Paul Mooney, K4KRE, …
  • November 13 – Rob Seastrom, AI4UC, spoke on migration of the AMRAD Web site to Wiki format.
  • October 9 – Paul Rinaldo, W4RI, reviewed the 2008 ARRL/TAPR Digital Communications Conference held in Chicago.
  • September 11 – Greg Le Sage, N6LYU, will speak on propagation and the ionosphere, how and why radio signals reflect.
  • August 14 – Dr. Robert C. Hansen, gave a presentation on electrically short antennas. Dr. Hansen is the author of over 100 papers and several books on electromagnetics. His newest book is Electrically Small, Super-directive, and Superconducting Antennas.
  • July 10 – Michael Chisena, KA2ZEV, briefed us on the 6 meter radio project and using them for meteor scatter.
  • June 12 – Eric Haseltine, AB3DI, spoke on anomalous propagation.
  • May 8 – Tom Lauzon P.E., KI4AFE, spoke on RF safety for hams.
  • April 10 – There were technical difficulties with the borrowed projector, which resulted in postponing Hal Feinstein’s talk. We had a general discussion and those Board Members present voted in favor of purchasing a projector. Subsequently, a new projector was purchased and will be available starting with the May 8 meeting.
  • March 13 – Bob Bruninga, WB4APR, gave a fast paced presentation on APRS including a new operational feature of displaying stations’ frequencies.
  • February 14 – Vienna Wireless Society balloon coordinator Tom Azlin, N4ZPT, discussed practical aspects of balloon launching and lessons learned. Maitland Bottoms, AA4HS, showed some slides related to winter listening efforts on LF with Beverage antennas in Iowa. AMRAD President Emeritus André Kesteloot, N4ICK, demonstrated the AMRAD Parakeet, a Simplex Repeater Controller for emergency uses. Look for an article on the Parakeet in an upcoming AMRAD Newsletter.
  • January 10 – Guest speaker Paul Najarian made a presentation on Intelligent Transportation with interesting background on the domestic infrastructure.

2007

  • December 13 – Annual AMRAD Annual Meeting. There was a general discussion of technical projects, particularly software defined radio. Congratulations to the winners of the Director/Alternate election: Directors (2008-2009): Frank Gentges, KØBRA; André Kesteloot, N4ICK; and Paul Rinaldo, W4RI Alternates (2008): Glenn Baumgartner, KAØESA; and Paul Mooney, K4KRE.
  • November –
  • October 11 – Dr Andrew Clegg, W4JE, spoke on “U.S. Radio Astronomy Observatories: Present and Future.” Andy is Program Director, Electromagnetic Spectrum Management, National Science Foundation.
  • September 20 – Mike Toia talked about antenna modeling on NEC4 with demos.
  • August –
  • July 12 – Dennis Sweeney, WA4LPR, spoke on “Beyond the Celphone: Wireless Widgets and FCC Part 15.”
  • June –
  • May 10 – AMSAT President Rick Hambly, W2GPS, brought us up to date on amateur satellite programs.
  • April 12 – Dr. Robert Fontana, AK3Y, President of Multispectral Solutions Inc., spoke about ultra-wideband (UWB) RF technology and show some new UWB applications from his company. Bob’s company Web site, www.multispectral.com, has an excellent set of papers online to learn about UWB technology.
  • March 8 – Frank Gentges, K0BRA, made a presentation on the MiniVNA as an AMRAD project. This was a follow up to the demonstration made at the Vienna Wireless Society Winterfest.
  • February 8 – Hal Feinstein, WB3KDU, spoke on ad hoc mobile networks.
  • January 11 – Major General Charles G. Sutten, Jr., U.S. Army (Ret), gave a presentation on “Military Communications from Viet Nam to Iraq: Issues and Challenges.”

2006

  • December 14 – AMRAD Annual Meeting. Following a general discussion of 2006 and 2007 activities, the following members were elected to Board positions: Director George Lemaster, WB5OYP (07-08) Director Terry Fox, WB4JFI (07-08) Alternate Glenn Baumgartner, KAØESA (07) Alternate Paul Mooney, K4KRE (07)
  • November –
  • October 12 – Paul Rinaldo, W4RI, made a presentation on amateur radio preparations for the 2007 World Radiocommunication Conference.
  • September 14 – Frank Gentges, K0BRA, made a presentation on SoftRock software defined radio.
  • August 10 – Bob Bruhns, WA3WDR, spoke about theory and practice of transmit-receive switching and display a complete T-R switch with circular polarization sense reversal.
  • July 13 – Byron (Bo) Genner, Manager, End User Engagement Team, Lucent Technologies spoke on Lucent/Bell Labs perspective on next generation networks, both wireless and wireline including new carrier service layer technologies based on IMS.
  • June 8 – Frank Weaver, Director, Telecommunications Policy, Boeing Corporation presented “Aeronautical Telecommunications.” He told about studies leading to more spectrum at WRC-07 for aeronautical test telemetry.
  • May 11 – Terry Fox, WB4JFI, and Hal Feinstein, WB3KDU, led a discussion of establishment of an experimental HF test range between the VA/DC/MD area and Charleston, SC.
    Terry received the title of President Emeritus by AMRAD Board of Directors.
  • April 13 – Dick Parks spoke on the technology of Non-Cooperative Target Recognition of Air Targets (NCTR).
  • March 9 – Mike Toia, K3MT, made a presentation on antennas, formulas included.
  • February 9 – Ken Hutcherson talked on the physics and design of the new style of small fluorescent lamps that provide higher efficiency than incandescent lamps.
  • January 12 – Paul Mooney, K4KRE, gave a presentation on his work sweeping the coupling circuits of various crystal receiver circuits. Look for an article on this talk in the March-April edition of the AMRAD Newsletter.

2005

  • December 8 – Annual Meeting. Elections results: Those receiving the most votes were elected as Directors for the 2006-2007 term: Frank Gentges, K0BRA; André Kesteloot, N4ICK; and Paul Rinaldo, W4RI. Paul Mooney, K4KRE, and Terry Fox, WB4JFI.were elected as Alternates. Treasurer Maitland Bottoms, AA4HS, presented an interim report. Director Gentges briefed on progress with the AMRAD van and plans for the near future.
    Incumbent Officers were re-elected by Board Members present, namely: President Paul Rinaldo, W4RI; Vice President George Lemaster, WB5OYP; Secretary Iain McFadyen, KI4HLV; and Treasurer Maitland Bottoms, AA4HS.
  • November 10 – André Kesteloot, N4ICK, spoke on “The Theory and Practice of Using Vacuum Tubes with Extremely Low Plate Voltages.” He demonstrated an AM receiver he built that uses 12 volts dc as the anode voltage. Iain McFadyen, KI4HLV reviewed AMRAD’s participation in communications for the Marine Corps Marathon. Frank Gentges, K0BRA, displayed photos of the event.
  • October 13, Dolley Madison Library, McLean, VA: Howard Cunningham, WD5DBC, briefed us on emergency communications at the Pentagon during 9/11
  • September 8 – Henry Lee, KB1PE, briefed AMRAD about his latest experiments with LF.Recent Meetings
  • August 18 – We were treated to a demo and talk by Bob Curry, KC3VO, on his kilowatt motorcycle trailer.
  • July 14 – Mike Toia, K3MT, talked about Near Vertical Incidence Skywave (NVIS) antennas.
  • June 9 – Ed Kennedy of NRL gave a comprehensive talk about HAARP.
  • May 12 – Ron Payne, WA6YOU, continued his series on antennas.
  • April 14 – Hal Feinstein, WB3KDU, returned to expand on orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM).
  • March 10 – André Kesteloot made a presentation on a pirate radio station that operated in the North Sea.
  • February 10 – Hal Feinstein, WB3KDU, spoke on IEEE 802.11 technologies.
  • January 13 – Frank Maas briefed us about his work on video compression methods.

2004

2003

2002

2001

2000

  • December 14 – Annual Meeting – Paul Rinaldo, W4RI, gave the annual State of the Corporation address, and recounted our successful Technical Symposium and 25th Anniversary Dinner in June.  Terry Fox, WB4JFI, demonstrated his homebrew spectrum analyzer and Maitland Bottoms, AA4HS, gave us an early look at his computer-controlled RX-320 receiving system. Terry Fox and George Lemaster, WB5OYP, were elected Directors for 2001-2002; Maitland Bottoms and Elton Sanders, WB5MMB, were elected Alternates for 2001. At a subsequent meeting, Board of Directors elected the following Officers: Paul Rinaldo, president; George Lemaster, vice president; Bill Hansell, KD1ET, secretary; and Terry Fox, treasurer.
  • November – lost in the mists of time.
  • October – gone with no trace.
  • September 14 – Henry Lee KB1PE of the Long Wave Club of America (LWCA) spoke on Low Frequency Experimental Radio (LowFER) experiences.
  • August 10 – General discussion on the repeater relocation, digital voice over HF, and LF.
  • July 13 – Bill Hansell KD1ET spoke on design options for software defined radios.
  • June 17 – AMRAD 25th Anniversary & Technical Symposium –  Our guest speaker was FCC Office of Engineering and Technology Chief Dale Hatfield WØIFO. Held at McGill’s Cafe in Falls Church.
  • June 8 – John Kuhen, N3YYJ, demonstrated his control software program for the Ten Tec RX320 receiver.
  • May 11 – Hal Feinstein WB3KDU introduced Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) design covering speed, architecture, and technology of popular brands, how a configuration design is created, and introduce the configuration language called verilog.
  • April 13 – Mr. Boynton Hagaman, AA4QY, discussed the technical design and modeling of the VLF antenna at the Navy Radio Station NAA in Cutler, ME.
  • March 9 – Roundtable discussion.
  • February 10 – Dr Michael Marcus, FCC, spoke on new technologies. He was the FCC person directly responsible for AMRAD’s involvement in amateur spread spectrum experiments in the early 1980s and a permanent rule change.
  • January 13 – André Kesteloot N4ICK presented a follow up to his recent trip to Belgium and practical aspects of LF. André demonstrated his homebrew 300W Class D 136kHz transmitter.

1999

  • December 9 – Annual Business Meeting – Directors: David Border K8MMO, Frank Gentges KØBRA, Paul Rinaldo W4RI. Alternates: George Lemaster WB5OYP, Elton Sanders WM5MMB. Officers: President Paul Rinaldo W4RI, VP George Lemaster WB5OYP, Scry Tracy Wood K7UO, Treas. Terry Fox WB4JFI. Dick Barth, W3HWN, was awarded a plaque thanking him for his service since the early 1980s as the HEX BBS sysop.
  • November 11 – Demonstration of Direct Broadcast Satellite technology
  • October 14 – News on LF transmitters and antenna experimentation
  • September
  • August
  • July
  • June
  • May
  • April
  • March
  • February
  • January

1998

  • December 10 – Annual Meeting and elections.
  • November 12 – Discussion on DSP and receiving a LF beacon. Opened nominations for Directors for the years 1999-2000. The incumbents were Maitland Bottoms, AA4HS, and Terry Fox, WB4JFI.
  • October 8 – Memebers related experience receiving very low frequencies, that is, below 30 kHz.
  • September 10 – Bob Bruhns, WA3WDR, demonstrated extraction of extremely weak signals from noise using digital signal processing (DSP) techniques.
  • August 13 – Paul Rinaldo, W4RI, presented a talk on “Amendments to Part 97,” a comprehensive, if not comprehensible (maybe reprehensible), review of recent proposals. ARRL and FCC are proposing changes to the licensing structure. Spread spectrum rules are expected to change real soon now. There was general discussion about where we are with respect to getting an LF allocation.
  • July 9 –
  • June 11 – There was a digital photography shoot-out. Members brought digital cameras, display devices, and prints.
  • May 14 – Terry Fox, WB4JFI, spoke on high-definition television, advanced television, digital television and remastering of “I Love Lucy.”
  • April 9 – Webmeister, Maitland Bottoms, AA4HS, presented the technology of the Web, including a glimpse into the innersanctum of the AMRAD website. He introduced the meanings of new terms, such as “websurfing,” “webauthoring,” “webpolice,” “death by web” and many others.
  • March 12 – Richard B. Engelman, N4COP, “IMT-2000, a Technology Garden.” Rick is Chief, Planning & Negotiations Division, International Bureau, FCC. He has just completed his work as convener of US Task Group 8/1 (IMT-2000, formerly Future Public Land Mobile Telecommunications Systems) and turned it over to a colleague. In this position, he has been responsible for the US inputs to the technologies and standards that have been adopted by TG 8/1 and has been first-hand witness to inputs of other industrialized countries.
  • February 12 –
  • January 8 – Digital Radio and DSP Roundtable. Discussion of VOA’s digital broadcast shortwave tests; VLF signal processing; projects.

1997

  • December 11 – AMRAD’s Annual Business meeting. Elections. AMRAD Board of Directors: Maitland Bottoms (AA4HS)1997-1998 Terry Fox (WB4JFI)1997-1998 Paul Rinaldo (W4RI)1996-1997 Sandy Sanders (WB5MMB)1996-1997 Robert Straton1996-1997 Alternate Members George Lemaster (WB5OYP)1997 Randy Mays (ex WA6VFC, now W6RAM)1997
  • November 13 –
  • October 9 – Work in Amateur VLF Radio. Communications on 73kHz. Visit by Robert Lainey of the Longwave Club of America.
  • September 11 –
  • August 14 –
  • July 10 –
  • June 12 – Dr Sam Chen of Sky Station, Inc, followed up on the discussion at Tacos, regarding the possibility for an Amateur Radio package to be placed aboard an experimental flight expected to fly in July from Ft Sumner, NM.
  • March 13 – A presentation on avionics by Glenn Baugartner, KA0ESA.
    February 13 – ARRL Executive Vice President Dave Sumner, K1ZZ, was our hornored guest at this meeting. The February 13 meeting will be a discussion of amateur radio package parameters for Sky Station as a follow-up to the meeting we’re having with Dr Ye on February 8 at and after tacos. (The Sky Station is an untethered lighter than air platform for communications relay.)
    January 16 –

1996

  • December 12 – Annual Business Meeting. Planning for Digital Amateur Radio Conference.
  • November 14 – Protocol Tunneling, from ampr.org gateways to IPv6 development
  • October 10 – Dick Daniels made a presentation on Phase IIID satellites. Mark Kanawati made additional comments. Attendees were asked to review technical aspects of equipment for the hearing impaired.
  • September 12 – George Lemaster, WB5OYP, continued his review of video compression technologies.
  • August 8 – Richard L. Neat, WB3AXY, Manager, Frequency Engineering, Aeronautical Radio, Inc. spoke on advances in aeronautical radio communication.
  • July 11 – Cheryl Heppner, director of the Northern Virginia Resource Center for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Persons described new technologies and applications for the deaf and hard of hearing.
  • June 13 – David Weinreich, WA2VUJ, (COMSAT Labs) spoke on DSP, software radios, and the possibility of AMRAD and some of the COMSAT Labs guys doing a joint project involving these technologies.
  • May 9 – George Lemaster, WB5OYP, described current digital television standards used in broadcast and teleconferencing.
  • April 11 – Tony Failoa, K3WX continued our discussion of multimedia repeaters.
  • March 14 – Paul Rinaldo, W4RI, and David Bern, N2AER, introduced the subject of multimedia repeaters.