RCA_Proceedings_Spring2025_FINAL

RADIO CLUB OF AMERICA

RADIO CLUB OF AMERICA

Proceedings VOLUME 97, NUMBER 1 | SPRING 2025 NOVEMBER AWARDS

THE 2025 TECHNICAL SYMPOSIUM & 116TH AWARDS BANQUET HEADS TO WASHINGTON D.C.

Dr. Robert Wilson Lifetime Achievement

Dr. Goutam Chattopadhyay Armstrong Medal

Dr. Morimi Iwama Lee DeForest Award

IN THIS ISSUE: RCA’s 2024 Banquet and Technical Symposium Wrap-Up Networking the Moon and Beyond Quantum Computing – What Is It and What Does It Mean For Radio?

Public Safety’s Push-to-Talk Evolution

Proceedings

VOLUME 97, NUMBER 1 SPRING 2025

2025 BOARD OF DIRECTORS

CONTENTS

PRESIDENT Alan Spindel*

From Your President .....................................................................................................................................4 RECAP OF 2024 BANQUET WEEKEND

EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT Nick Pennance*

RCA Salutes Its Board: 115 Years of Dedication, Innovation, and Service ...................................6 Welcome New Members..............................................................................................................................7

VICE PRESIDENT Richard P. Biby*

RCA Tours NYU Wireless.............................................................................................................................8

VICE PRESIDENT/COUNSEL Chester “Barney” Scholl, Jr.

RCA Tours InfoAge, Bell Labs, Holmdel Horn, & AT&T Museum....................................................10 Congratulations To RCA’s 2024 Banquet Participants and Award Recipients.......................... 15

VICE PRESIDENT/CO-COUNSEL Edward Ryan*

RCA Inducts 2024 Class Of Fellows....................................................................................................... 17

TREASURER Ronald J. Jakubowski*

RCA’s 2024 Technical Symposium Was A Huge Success!............................................................... 18 2024 Technical Symposium Photos ...................................................................................................... 22

SECRETARY Margaret J. Lyons, PE, PMP* DIRECTORS JonPaul Beauchamp Dr. James Breakall Karen Clark Dr. Nathan Cohen Cheryl Giggetts Michael Kalter PRESIDENTS EMERITI Steven L. Aldinger David Bart Sandra Black Philip Casciano Mercy Contreras Timothy Duffy

2024 Awards & Banquet Photos............................................................................................................. 28 FEATURES

Charles Kirmuss Robert LaRose Carole Perry Dr. Ajay Poddar Dr. Julio Urbina

Waste Figure and Waste Factor: A New Metric for Evaluating Power Efficiency in any Cascade......................................................................................................................... 35 Networking the Moon and Beyond .......................................................................................................40 Quantum Computing – What Is It and What Does It Mean For Radio?....................................... 44 Public Safety’s Push-to-Talk Evolution................................................................................................... 51

John Facella P.E. Mal Gurian Carroll Hollingsworth Bruce McIntyre Stan Reubenstein Anthony Sabino, Jr.

Current Perspectives: Why Do We Fear Our Phones More Than the Sun?............................... 53 RCA NEWS ITEMS IWCE is a Huge Success for Radio Club of America.........................................................................58 RCA’S 2025 Dayton Hamvention Program..........................................................................................60

STAFF Amy Beckham, Administrative Director Kathy Sheridan, Membership & Order Fulfillment Maria Olaez, Bookkeeper

RCA’S Innovation Council Steps Up For Dayton Hamvention....................................................... 63 INDUSTRY UPDATES AT&T Recognized for STEM Contributions.......................................................................................... 67

COMMITTEE CHAIRPERSONS Awards & Fellows: Charles Kirmuss Banquet: Margaret Lyons* Constitution & By-Laws: Chester “Barney” Scholl, Jr./ Ed Ryan* Education: Rich Biby Executive: Alan Spindel* Finance: Ron Jakubowski* Historical/Museums & Archives: Jim and Felicia Kreuzer Interview Series: John Facella Marketing: David Bart Membership: Bob LaRose Member Services, Women in Wireless: Cheryl Giggetts Member Services, Young Professionals: Edward Ryan Member Services, Mid-Career: Open Member Service, Senior Career & Retired: Bob LaRose Mentoring Program: Open Nominations & Elections: Jon Paul Beauchamp Operations Handbook: Bruce McIntyre Publications: David Bart* RCA Radio Amateur Club License: Ed Ryan* RCA Regional Conferences: Ernie Blair Rocky Mountain CO Chapter: Karen Clark/Mercy Contreras Scholarships: Alan Spindel* Shows/Conferences: Alan Spindel* Sponsors/Fundraising: Karen Clark Strategic Planning (Includes Future Sites): Nick Pennance Technical Symposium: Dave Bart, Dr. Nathan Cohen Website: Alan Spindel Youth Activities: Carole Perry

IEEE Global Museum Opens Unseen Signals Exhibit......................................................................69 Dr. Martin Cooper Receives 2024 National Medal of Technology and Innovation Communications........................................................................................................ 71 Book & Film Reviews...................................................................................................................................74 Business Directory ..................................................................................................................................... 83 RCA Calendar & Events ............................................................................................................................85

RADIO CLUB OF AMERICA

*Executive Committee Member

HEADQUARTERS OFFICE: 13570 Grove Drive #302 Maple Grove MN 55311 (612) 430-6995 amy@radioclubofamerica.org www.radioclubofamerica.org

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EDITORIAL DIRECTOR David P. Bart 8512 Kedvale Ave., Skokie, IL 60076 (847) 542-9873 jbart1964@gmail.com

PROCEEDINGS SCIENTIFIC ADVISOR Nathan “Chip” Cohen, Ph.D. 2 Ledgewood Place, Belmont MA 02478 (781) 275-2300 w1yw@aol.com

ADVERTISING CONTACT Amy Beckham (612) 430-6995 Amy@radioclubofAmerica.org

PRODUCTION Sapphyre Group

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FROM YOUR PRESIDENT Dear Fellow RCA Members,

I would also like to congratulate the trade show committee on making RCA’s presence at the IWCE conference in Las Vegas a success in March. This visibility reinforces RCA’s position as a leading voice in wireless communications, brings in new members, and creates networking opportunities for our membership.

I am pleased to share the latest edition of our RCA Proceedings. The new year has already brought many exciting developments for our organization, and I look forward to what the remainder of 2025 has in store for the Radio Club of America.

BOARD CHANGES

First, I want to express my deep gratitude to our outgoing President, Dave Bart, for his exemplary leadership and contributions to RCA. Under his guidance, our organization has continued to thrive and advance our mission, not to mention his personal dedication as editor of these Proceedings.

The reboot of our Women in Wireless program under the leadership of Chair Cheryl Giggets deserves special recognition.

This initiative continues to provide crucial support and mentorship for women in our field, and we look forward to its continued growth and impact. Speaking of Cheryl, please join me in congratulating her on her recent election to fill one of our Board seats. She will be a valuable asset to our leadership team.

RECENT ACTIVITIES Looking back on recent months, our Annual Banquet and Technical Symposium last November was a great success. We were honored to recognize Nobel Laureate Dr. Robert Wilson, whose contributions to radio astronomy have revolutionized our understanding of the universe. Attendees also enjoyed an exceptional tour of the historic Holmdel, New Jersey antenna site, InfoAge Museum, Bell Labs where so many groundbreaking innovations in telecommunications technology were born, the AT&T Museum, and NYU Wireless. These locations hold special significance in the history of wireless technology.

We also extend our congratulations to Nick Pennance on his election to the position of Executive Vice President pro tem.

We are fortunate to have him in this leadership role. Andy Maximillian has stepped up to assist Ron Jakubowski in the Treasurer position. Their combined expertise ensures that RCA’s financial management remains in capable hands.

It is with heartfelt gratitude that we acknowledge Carole Perry for her remarkable 36-year tenure as director of the RCA Youth Forum at the Dayton Hamvention. Carole’s unwavering commitment to fostering interest in radio among young people has created a lasting legacy. As she passes the torch, we

Register Today!

2025 TECHNICAL SYMPOSIUM & 116 TH AWARDS BANQUET SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2025 HYATT REGENCY CAPITOL HILL WASHINGTON D.C.

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welcome Jim Storms, who will take her place at this year’s event. We are confident that Jim will continue the tradition of excellence that Carole has established. I would also like to mention that our Youth Activities scholarship program has already provided numerous students at all levels with tuition to assistance to advance their careers.

Washington, DC this November, as well as our presence at the APCO convention in Baltimore in August and California APCO in September. I would also like to mention that applications will soon be available online for applications for the Dr. Ted Rappaport Scholarship, which is funded by the club’s New Century Scholarship Fund, and remind folks that these scholarships are open to children of RCA members.

DAYTON PROGRAMS

JOIN US

I am particularly excited about the new forum at the Dayton Hamvention led by Dr. Nathan Cohen entitled “Frontiers in RF - AI, People, and Amateur Radio.” This forward-looking session promises to explore how emerging technologies will shape our hobby and profession in the years to come. As I said, RCA’s Youth Activities program continues. Jim Storms has been assisted this year by Grace Papay in putting together a wonderful group of presenters. See the article in this issue for further details about our Dayton programs.

I want to thank each of you for your continued support and participation in RCA. Our organization’s strength lies in its members, and your involvement makes possible all that we accomplish. Join a committee, sponsor an event, give a talk, or volunteer to help represent RCA at a trade show. I encourage you all to stay engaged with RCA’s activities and to share your expertise and enthusiasm with fellow members.

AWARDS AND FELLOWS

I look forward to seeing many of you at our upcoming events and to continuing our important work together. Our RCA constitution states our purpose:

I would also like to extend my sincere congratulations to all of our award recipients and the incoming class of RCA Fellows.

Your achievements and contributions to wireless technology and to RCA are truly commendable.

“to study and contribute to the development of radio communication programs and provide a scholarship fund for needy and worthy students for the study of radio communications.”

UPCOMING YEAR

ALAN SPINDEL President The Radio Club of America Inc.

The remainder of 2025 promises to be a significant year for the club. We are actively preparing for our upcoming meeting in

RADIO CLUB OF AMERICA

Make It Official

BECOME A LIFE MEMBER OF RCA! Step up to Life Membership and join the ranks of RCA’s most dedicated members. Say goodbye to annual renewals and cement your place in wireless history—for life!

You may qualify for Life Membership under one of the following options:

✅ Standard Life Membership: For members in good standing for the past 3 years, upgrade now for a one-time fee of $2,215. ✅ 65+ Life Membership: For members age 65 or older and in good standing for the past 3 years, upgrade now for a one-time fee of $600. ✅ 20-Year Member Life Option: If you’ve been an RCA member for 20 years or more, upgrade now for a one-time fee of $1,275.

Make a one-time investment and enjoy RCA benefits for life—no more renewals, ever.

www.radioclubofamerica.org Radio Club of America, 13570 Grove Dr. #302, Maple Grove, MN 55311 612-430-6995

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2024 LEADERSHIP RECAP

RCA Salutes Its Board: 115 Years of Dedication, Innovation, and Service On behalf of the Radio Club of America, the members thank the board of directors for all your effort, work, and generous services provided to benefit the club and the general public. Without your commitment, RCA would grind to a halt, depriving everyone of this wonderful organization.

For 115 years, RCA’s board members and volunteers have been the lifeblood of its membership, bringing programs, scientific discoveries, technical symposia, tours, demonstrations, awards, and recognitions.

There are far too many to name. Each fall, we elect a new board of directors who are approved at the November board meeting and who officially take office on January 1. Congratulations, and thank you all for your generous contributions to RCA!!

RCA 2024 Technical Symposium leadership team.

RCA board meeting, November 2024.

HAS YOUR CONTACT INFORMATION CHANGED? If you have recently changed your address, email, or phone number, please login to your membership page on our website to update your information, email amy@radioclubofamerica.org or call (612) 430-6995.

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WELCOME New Members!

We are excited to announce that RCA welcomed 93 new members in 2024 and has already added 30 new members year-to-date in 2025! Our growing community reflects the strength and momentum of RCA and our industry.

We are grateful for their continued leadership and dedication to RCA’s mission.

We are also pleased to announce a new member benefit: access to the RCA Career Center, now available at no charge to all RCA members.

This valuable resource offers job listings, career tools, and support to help advance your professional journey.

Please join us in welcoming Cheryl Giggetts, our newest RCA Board Member. We extend our congratulations to Dr. James Breakall, Karen Clark, Michael Kalter, Charles Kirmuss, and Dr. Julio Urbina on their re-election to the board.

Thank you for being a part of RCA—where connections grow and careers thrive.

RCA Returns to APCO 2025!

Join us for the RCA /APCO Reception!

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NOVEMBER TOURS RECAP

RCA Tours NYU Wireless Radio Club of America (RCA) members were provided with a rare opportunity to tour the NYU Wireless Laboratories (“NYUW”) in New York City before the banquet and Technical Symposium. This rare treat was hosted by Dr. Ted Rappaport, one of RCA’s legendary members and one of its generous supporters.

NYU WIRELESS NYUW is centered at New York University’s Brooklyn engineering location. It works with faculty and students throughout the entire NYU community. NYUW offers its industrial-affiliate sponsors, faculty members, and students a world-class research environment that is creating the fundamental theories and techniques for next-generation mass-deployable wireless devices across a wide range of applications and markets.

This center combines NYU Tandon’s School of Engineering program with NYU’s School of Medicine and the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences. It offers a depth of expertise with unparalleled capabilities for creating new wireless networks. It provides a leading research environment to explore and develop fundamental knowledge, theories, and techniques for future massdeployable wireless devices across a wide range of applications and markets.

NYU Wireless founder and RCA Armstrong Medalist Dr. Ted Rappaport (L) and RCA Board Member Rich Biby (R).

RCA TOUR Dr. Ted Rappaport met with the RCA tour group and provided an introduction to NYUW and a briefing about what the group would see. Dr. Rappaport also explained to his graduate student docents what RCA meant to him and how RCA helped him with scholarship funds at a critical time in his graduate work. The tour group saw a series of laboratories. The graduate students in each lab explained what they were working on and took questions.

The projects were in varying degrees of completion, which made it more interesting for us as visitors. We also saw NYU’s large Maker Space with its dedicated clean room.

RESEARCH NYUW’s research spans multiple underlying technologies, protocol layers, and vertical domains to shape the future of connectivity and the applications they will enable.

Current research focuses on: Wireless Communications and Sensing; Networking, Edge Computing, and Security; Circuits and Devices; Applications; AI/ML in Wireless; Testbeds and Prototypes.

Overall, this was a rare opportunity to see a leading-edge laboratory and to meet directly with the researchers and future developers of wireless technology.

NYUW has state-of-the-art RF/Analog circuit design, simulation, and hardware testing capabilities for semiconductor devices up to 220 GHz. NYUW researchers pioneered the area of millimeter wave communications, which are central to developing 5G wireless systems.

Today, NYUW researchers are conducting fundamental propagation measurements, channel modeling, and system design for new spectrums above 100 GHz as well as the upper mid-band (from 7 to 24 GHz). Research includes beamforming, MIMO processing, energy-efficient architectures, and new forms of spectrum sharing that can enable future networks with greater robustness, coverage, capacity, and lower energy consumption and cost. High frequency, multi-antenna wireless signals also provide new sensing capabilities, and research is developing integrated sensing and communication.

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NOVEMBER TOURS RECAP

RCA Tours InfoAge, Bell Labs, Holmdel Horn, & AT&T Museum Prior to the 2024 awards banquet and technical symposium, Radio Club of America (RCA) members toured the InfoAge Museums, former Bell Labs sites, the Holmdel Horn, and AT&T Laboratory in New Jersey. The day featured an amazing array of experiences and historic locations in a full schedule.

this National Historic Landmark and expanding programs accordingly.

The extensive campus has many locations to wander and see. InfoAge is the steward of 16 buildings on a historic campus, which opened in the early 1900s as a Marconi wireless telegraph station, served as a Navy/RCA communications laboratory during World War I, and was known as the Camp Evans Signal Corps Research and Development laboratory from World War II until 1997.

INFOAGE The Information Age Learning Center (“InfoAge”) was incorporated in 1999 at the New Jersey shore in Wall Township. InfoAge quickly evolved into a consortium of science and history museums and exhibits. Together, they serve as the focal point for the preservation and interpretation of New Jersey’s rich history in communications, computers, and electronic technology.

InfoAge has three missions: (i) to develop an Interactive hands-on Learning Center (“ILC:) focused on the evolution and preservation of communications, electronics, and related technologies; (ii) to inspire people – especially children – to learn and appreciate information technology to improve their lives and career opportunities; and (iii) to serve as New Jersey’s WWII living memorial, honoring the accomplishments and service of veterans, civilians, and military contractors by recognizing their contributions and by preserving this unique historic site.

The first InfoAge museum/exhibit spaces were opened in 2005 in the Marconi Hotel. Since then, InfoAge has expanded its education and historical program offerings and display space at our Camp Evans campus. The site currently has over 40,000 square feet of space dedicated to scientific, historical, and educational museums, exhibits, and programs. Plans anticipate renovating and/or repairing an additional 42,000 square feet of

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RCA TOUR OF INFOAGE

BELL LABS HOLMDEL

RCA members started the tours at the InfoAge site. To do all the exhibits justice, one would need a complete day. Since this was a U.S. Army Signal Corps research laboratory for many years, there were many historic exhibits to be seen. Some of the docents in the various exhibits had worked in the laboratory and provided a firsthand perspective about their experiences. As might be expected, many, but not all, of the exhibits focused on equipment that used vacuum tubes and large power supplies.

RCA toured the Holmdel, New Jersey, location of Bell Laboratories. The Holmdel Complex operated for 44 years as a research and development facility, initially for the Bell System and later Bell Labs. The centerpiece of the campus is an Eero Saarinen–designed mammoth building.

Bell Telephone Laboratories operated on this historic site for research. This is the location where Karl Guthe Jansky invented radio astronomy. In subsequent years, radio astronomy and similar research was performed at the separate Crawford Hill annex facility, three miles away (see below). Bell Labs Holmdel was the site of a Nobel Prize discovery, the laser cooling work of Steven Chu.

Moving from building to building in different groups, RCA saw historical radio and television broadcast equipment, space satellite communications, radar development, military electronic warfare, shipwrecks and marine communications, military communications, computer history, World War II, and even model railroad layouts.

There were several areas that RCA did not have time to see, including the sections on women’s history, African American History, Military Technology (such as tanks), World War I, a Fallout Shelter Mockup, New Jersey 911 Remembrance, and several others. The museum directors provided plenty of docents, so RCA members always had someone available to answer questions.

In 2006, the building was put up for sale and has since undergone renovations into a multi-purpose living and working space, dubbed Bell Works by its redevelopers.

Beginning in 2013, it has been operated by Somerset Development, who further redeveloped the building into a mixed-use office for high-tech startup companies.

The RCA tour group had a quick lunch onsite, with several restaurants to choose from in the mall area. We had plenty of time to quickly wander in this historic building.

After an exciting several hours at Info Age, RCA boarded the bus and visited Bell Laboratories sites.

Two views of the massive Bell Laboratories Holmdel, NJ Complex.

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AT&T Science and Technology Innovation Center in the AT&T Laboratory Complex, Middletown, NJ.

The Crawford Hill Horn Antenna.

AT&T MUSEUM AND LABORATORY

train! The group spent about an hour looking at the horn and the control booth at the top.

Next, RCA visited the AT&T Laboratory in Middletown, New Jersey, where the AT&T Science and Technology Innovation Center is located.

The horn was designed for the Project Echo and Project Telstar experiments. The Echo experiments used metalized balloons to passively reflect microwave radio energy back to earth in 1960 and 1964. Echo was built upon knowledge that had been gained by the Signal Corps’ Project Diana in 1946, which bounced radio signals off the moon at 111 Mhz. The Telestar experiment in 1962 used satellites to relay television images, telephone calls, and static images. Telstar provided the first live transatlantic television picture feed.

The Innovation Center is a corporate museum located in AT&T’s laboratory complex. It showcases the history of telecommunications and AT&T’s innovations, including artifacts like Claude Shannon’s mice, information about telephone operations and ocean cables, and a Telstar satellite. The museum is interactive, with quizzes and videos, and is divided into sections like instruments, innovation, switching, and transmission.

The same horn was later used by Robert Wilson and Arno Penzias, who discovered evidence proving the Big Bang Theory of the origins of the universe. (see separate article).

Each group saw all the museum sections. In a nice personal touch, the Center displayed advertising announcing the upcoming RCA Technical Symposium and Awards Ceremony on its screens.

THE OVERALL EXPERIENCE

CRAWFORD HILL HORN

For those members who had experienced RCA’s previous tours in Atlanta and Colorado, this incredible tour day was absolutely the best of all! RCA saw so many historical sites and museums. RCA was able to listen to many of the people involved in making wireless history! This very special RCA outing will not be forgotten any time soon!

RCA wants to thank the many people who arranged for the tours and docents in these locations.

Crawford Hill is the location of the large horn antenna designed for the Project Echo and Project Telstar experiments. That horn was later used by Robert Wilson and Arno Penzias, who discovered evidence proving the Big Bang Theory of the origins of the universe. (see separate article).

The horn antenna not only still exists, but RCA saw the entire horn turned by the original electric motor and gear

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2024 BANQUET RECAP

Congratulations To RCA’s 2024 Banquet Participants and Award Recipients In November 2024, we celebrated the 115th anniversary of the Radio Club of America, and our awards presentation was a great success!

We commemorated the anniversary of the discovery of evidence that proved the Big Bang Theory of the origin of the universe by Dr. Robert Wilson and Dr. Arno Penzias.

Both received the Nobel Prize in Physics for their discovery. RCA presented Dr. Wilson with its Lifetime Achievement Award for this discovery and his many other contributions to radio and wireless research. The award recognized the noble example he set for the rest of us by his achievements and his generous support of students, professionals, and academics through his work.

115th Awards Presentation SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 2024 NEW YORK CITY

RCA’s awards commemorated other groundbreaking contributions to wireless, and we recognized the upcoming 2025 centennial of Bell Laboratories, where Dr. Wilson and Dr. Penzias performed their research.

NYC

Our award recipients were warmly welcomed by an admiring audience of friends and colleagues.

Congratulations and thank you to the banquet planning committee. We also thank Amy Beckham and the entire Sapphyre team for pulling off a wonderful celebration!

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efforts continue to bring forth new technological advances, benefiting the wireless industry and mankind.

Thank you to all our sponsors and donors as well as those who purchased items in the donation auction; your generous contributions help enable RCA to continue providing our programs and services.

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD Dr. Robert W. Wilson

Thank you to all who participated, and we appreciate the wonderful team of presenters: David Bart, Ed Ryan, Giovanni Vannucci, Lauri White, Felicia Kreuzer, Mercy Contreras, Charles Kirmus, Ajay Poddar, Michael Kalter, and Alan Spindel.

For very significant achievements and a major body of work accomplished over a lifetime that has advanced the art and science of wireless technology.

The entire ceremony was recorded and can be viewed on RCA’s YouTube channel.

ARMSTRONG MEDAL Dr. Goutam Chattopadhyay

We invite everyone to return for the next award banquet and Technical Symposium that will be held in Washington, DC, on November 23, 2025.

For excellence and lasting contributions to radio arts and sciences.

RADIO CLUB OF AMERICA’S 2024 AWARDS R. ULRICH L. ROHDE AWARD Prof. James K. Breakall

Congratulations to all of RCA’s 2024 award recipients and the new class of RCA Fellows who received recognition at the banquet last November. Each of the recipients deserves recognition for their many individual contributions to radio and wireless communications. Their work has helped lead the way toward creating and preserving the arts and sciences in wireless communications. Their

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For Innovation in Applied Radio Science and Engineering.

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WIRELESS INNOVATION AWARD Evelyn Toees Gomez

EDGAR F. JOHNSON PIONEER CITATION Stanley Rubenstein

In recognition of creating a new concept or product to be used in the wireless industry.

In recognition of noteworthy contributions to the success of RCA or the radio industry.

USN CAPT. GEORGE MCGINNIS MEMORIAL AWARD Mario A. Vulcano

RALPH BATCHER MEMORIAL AWARD Michael P. Molnar For significant work in preserving the history of radio and electronic communications.

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).

LEE DE FOREST AWARD Dr. Morimi Iwama

JAY KITCHEN LEADERSHIP AWARD Ross Merlin

For significant contributions to the advancement of radio communications.

For significant success leading a wireless association, government agency, or commercial enterprise.

R. ARNO A. PENZIAS AWARD Dr. Nathan “Chip” Cohen For contributions to basic research in the radio sciences.

HELP US ENSURE RCA’S WORK FOR

BARRY GOLDWATER AWARD Rene Albert Steigler (Posthumous)

FUTURE GENERATIONS

In recognition of unique contributions to the field of amateur radio.

Please remember Radio Club of America in your wills and trusts.

RCA PRESIDENT’S AWARD Charles Kirmuss For dedicated services and unselfish dedication to the work of the Radio Club of America.

Call us at 612-405-2012 or visit radioclubofamerica.org to learn more about legacy giving and bequests.

RCA SPECIAL RECOGNITION AWARD Alan Spindel

RADIO CLUB OF AMERICA

For dedicated service to the Radio Club of America.

Follow us!

CAROLE PERRY YOUNG PROFESSIONAL AWARD Tucker Dunham

www.radioclubofamerica.org

To honor a Young Professional who was part of the RCA Youth Activities Program in their formative years and who has gone on to a career in wireless science.

Radio Club of America, 13570 Grove Dr. #302, Maple Grove, MN 55311 612-430-6995

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2024 BANQUET RECAP

RCA Inducts 2024 Class Of Fellows Each year, RCA elevates to Fellow a small group of members whose contributions are deemed outstanding to the art and science of radio communications or to the Radio Club of America. Elevation to Fellow status is approved by the board of directors after nomination and review. This occurs when they have been a member with RCA for at least five years and they have made substantial contributions, either to the science and/or the art of radio, broadcast, or to the RCA itself.

The RCA board of directors selected the following members to be elevated to Fellow status in 2024. Michael Kalter accepted on behalf of the 2024 class of RCA Fellows, delivering his comments at the awards ceremony.

Congratulations to all for their many contributions!!

Michael Kalter’s acceptance speech for new Fellows at RCA’s 2024 Awards.

RADIO CLUB OF AMERICA’S 2024 FELLOWS Michael Kalter, Fellows Respondent For contributions to amateur radio, the Dayton Hamvention, and Radio Club of America.

RCA Mentorship Program

Becky Neugent For contributions to CAD, radio, phone, and recording systems, and CPE equipment for managing all aspects of call-handling and radio dispatching processes and procedures and leadership in APCO International.

A way to share your knowledge and experience, or learn from the best!

Stephen Nichols For contributions to the Project 25 Technology Interest Group (PTIG, P25) digital radio Standard for Land Mobile Radio technology.

Howard Rosen For inventions and innovative contributions across various industries, including telecommunications, cooling and air, and medical devices.

The new RCA Mentorship Program is designed to pair RCA members together, providing opportunities for young professionals to learn and emulate the experience of more seasoned RCA members. Several mentoring pairs have already been formed and more are being formed. Learn more on the RCA website.

Dr. Julio Urbina For contributions to radar design, digital systems and space instrumentation, analog design, software designed radio and radars, radio wave propagation, meteor detection, system integration, radio wave remote sensing and radar studies of the atmosphere and ionosphere.

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2024 BANQUET RECAP

RCA’s 2024 Technical Symposium Was A Huge Success!

The Technical Symposium held in Denver on November 23, 2024, was a spectacular success. RCA’s annual opportunity to learn about innovative wireless technology had significant participation. The all-day symposium is indeed one of the wireless industry’s premier events.

RCA presented a record 14 sessions and hosted nine poster presentations and special exhibits. Highlights included Nobel Laureate Dr. Robert Wilson and a bevy of research and industry leaders. Presentations covered the future of energy, lunar wireless networks, historic discoveries, satellites, Bell Laboratories centennial, public safety, antennas and signal generation processing, and leading-edge research topics.

The presentation slides and a video of the presentations are available on the RCA website, and presentations can be seen on the RCA YouTube channel. Those who attended the event and needed continuing education units (CEUs) for their professional engineering licenses were able to do so for a nominal fee.

2024 Technical Symposium SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 2024 NEW YORK CITY

Thank you to Dr. Jim Breakall (Technical Symposium Cochair), Dr. Ajay Poddar, Dr. Nathan Cohen, Dr. Julio Urbino, and John Facella for organizing this terrific annual event.

Preparations are already underway for the 2025 Technical Symposium in Washington, DC. A call for abstracts for this year’s Technical Symposium and an invitation to prospective presenters to submit their ideas can be found on the RCA website.

We hope to see you all live in 2025!

Speakers and students at the 2024 Technical Symposium.

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THANK YOU TO OUR 2024 TECHNICAL SYMPOSIUM PRESENTERS

THANK YOU TO OUR 2024 TECHNICAL SYMPOSIUM POSTER PRESENTATIONS

Dare Mighty Things: Exploring the Universe and Searching for New World – Dr. Goutam Chattopadhyay (NASA-Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology)

High Frequency Active Up Conversion Mixer With 4dB NF and 11.5 dB Gain Using The BFP 193 SiGe Transistors – Trusha Kared

Charles Proteus Steinmetz, the Man, Legacy and Relevance Today – Dr. Sreeram Dhurjaty (Kodak Senior Fellow, IEEE)

Electromagnetic Wave Coupling Analysis, Using the Extended B.L.T. Equation – Terele Parker

Wireless Latency Arbitrage: From Smoke Signals To Ionospheric Tomography – Dr. Alex Pilosev (Shortwave Solutions)

Micro-Electromechanical Systems (MEMS) Sensor Characterization For Diesel Engine Health Monitoring – Ruth Willett and Karl Reichard

Waste Figure: A New Method For Measuring and Evaluating the Energy Efficiency and Wasted Energy In Any Communication Network – Dr. T.S. Rappaport (NYU Wireless)

Devising a Cybersecurity Checklist for Building, Constructing, and Integrating University Small Satellites – Rachel Jones

SETI: We Can Make The Cosmic Connecion – Dr. Nathan “Chip” Cohen, W1YW (Fractal Antenna Systems)

Reliable Low latency Communications Using Distributed MIMO and mmWave – Soumyadeep Datta, Rohit Budharaja, Pei Liu, Shivendra Panwar

Space Communication At Bell Labs: Then and Now – Dr. Peter Vetter, (President, Bell Labs Core Research, Nokia)

Performance Optimization of Resource-Constrained Wireless Receiver Front-Ends with Power-Centric Design Approaches – Desmond Wong, Akshayalakshmi Padmanathan, Hamed Rahmani

Photonics for National Defense – Dr. Naresh Chand (Life Fellow IEEE) Three Events that Shaped My Career – Crystal Radio to Telstar Antenna – Dr. Morimi Iwama (AT&T Bell Laboratories) Millimeter Wave Links – Similar to Microwave Links? – Krishnamurthy Raghunandan (Bell Laboratories, IEEE)

EXHIBITS:

Three Pivotal Discoveries in Radio Astronomy at Bell Labs, Holmdel – Dr. Robert Woodrow Wilson (Nobel Laureate, Bell Laboratories, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics)

115 Years of RCA: A Special Exhibit by the Antique Wireless Association – James and Felicia Kreuzer

The Origin of the National Interoperability Field Operations Guide (NIFOG) – Ross Merlin (NVIS Communications)

Radio Club of America Helps Invent Radio (the 1920s) – David Bart and Felicia Kreuzer

Open Discussion – David Bart (President, Radio Club of America)

RCA: A Century of Changing Paradigms – David Bart

Moderators and Co-chairs – Dr. Jim Breakall, Dr. Chip Cohen

Plans For The RCA 2025 Technical Symposium The 2025 Technical Symposium this year will be in Washington DC on Saturday, November 22. Topics and speakers are still being organized. We are looking for presenters in any of the areas of wireless technology including antennas, broadband, broadcast, cellular, land mobile radio, military, satellite, or other wireless-related technologies. We will again welcome poster presentations. RCA especially likes to feature ‘early work’ and offers an opportunity for researchers and companies to gain feedback on the technologies that they are developing.

We are calling for abstracts from potential presenters. Please contact the 2025 Co-chairs, Dr. Dr. Nathan “Chip” Cohen and David Bart, if you have suggestions or ideas. Please email to info@radioclubofamerica.org.

Also, make your reservations early. The hotel block sells out quickly.

Information is on the RCA Website.

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SECURE YOUR 2025 SPONSORSHIP TODAY! Thanks to our sleek new RCA web site, opportunities to host innovative virtual programs and more new ways to connect with RCA members, being an RCA sponsor is a better-than-ever investment in the future.

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2025 TECHNICAL SYMPOSIUM AND 116TH BANQUET & AWARDS PRESENTATION SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 22 | WASHINGTON D.C. Register for the 2024 Technical Symposium and Banquet will open July 1, 2025.

REASONS TO ATTEND THE RCA BANQUET AND TECHNICAL SYMPOSIUM Cutting-Edge Technical Insights

Historic and Professional Prestige

The Symposium offers a deep dive into the latest innovations in wireless, radio, and communications technologies—ideal for professionals, engineers, and researchers looking to stay ahead in a fast-evolving field.

As the oldest wireless communications organization in the world, RCA events carry professional weight and a legacy of excellence—making attendance a badge of distinction.

Unmatched Networking Opportunities

Young professionals and students benefit from direct access to mentors, potential employers, and influencers who can open doors in both commercial and defense sectors.

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Attendees can connect with top minds in wireless technology, from seasoned pioneers to rising innovators, including executives, developers, and federal stakeholders.

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Held in the nation’s capital, this event provides unique context around spectrum policy, public safety communications, and government-related tech initiatives.

The Banquet honors individuals who have made significant contributions to the field—offering inspiration and a rare opportunity to engage with legends of the industry.

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FEATURE

WASTE FIGURE AND WASTE FACTOR: A NEW METRIC FOR EVALUATING POWER EFFICIENCY IN ANY CASCADE By: Theodore S. Rappaport, Mingjun Ying, Dipankar Shakya [EDITOR’S NOTE: Dr. Theodore Rappaport presented this topic at the November 2024 RCA Technical Symposium.

His material has been made public by NYU Wireless on its website. The following invited article is reprinted with the permission of Dr. Rappaport and NYU Wireless as a benefit to RCA members.]

of Things (IoT) devices, known for their operation within stringent resource parameters [2]. The global initiative to curb greenhouse gas emissions and mitigate climate change further accentuates the urgency to innovate energy-efficient solutions, particularly within wireless networks.

ABOUT THE RESEARCH

BACKGROUND

Waste Factor (W) or Waste Figure (W in dB) is a tool for understanding the energy efficiency in communication networks [3, 4]. This is a practical tool inspired by H. Friis’ Noise Factor from 1944 [5]. W provides a tangible means to measure power efficiency in cascaded communication systems. Additionally, the recent study in [6] used the established Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) metric, commonly used in data centers, to expand the practical applications of W to evaluate the power efficiency of data centers better. Simulations focused on the impact of cell radius, carrier frequency, system bandwidth, and component efficiency in communication systems and gave concrete insights into real-world energy efficiency scenarios.

The era of telecommunications is swiftly progressing from 5G to the intricate landscape of 6G. This transition brings to light an escalated need for energy efficiency across wired and wireless communication infrastructures [1] [11].

Contemporary systems are already accountable for 2% of the world’s energy consumption. Forecasts project this number to increase to over 20% by the end of 2030, with 6G networks and AI usage being a significant contributor.

These anticipated leaps, characterized by ultra-wide bandwidths and elevated data rates, simultaneously compound the dilemma of energy oversight. This energy imperative becomes even more accentuated for Internet

NOTE: NYU WIRELESS Founding Director Dr. Theodore S. Rappaport’s overview of Waste Figure, Waste Factor was presented at the 2024 IEEE World Microwave Congress Keynote, May 3, 2024, which is available at https://youtu.be/Gs5uY6TJ9gc. Dr. Rappaport’s presentation at the Radio Club of America’s Technical Symposium on November 23, 2024, Waste Factor and Waste Figure: A Unified Theory for Modelling and Analyzing Wasted Power in Radio Access Networks for Improved Sustainability, is available at https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=W2EMWA2UHRU.

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FEATURE The power consumed by every communication device, system, or cascade consists of three parts [3, 4]:

Employing this concept of waste factor enables a precise qualification of power dissipation (waste) within a device, which is given by:

Non-path power can be significant, and it includes the power consumption of many auxiliary devices: where the Waste Figure is stated in dB (greater than 0 dB) and the Waste Factor is a real positive value greater than 1.

So, Pwasted can be computed as follows:

From this, we can determine the efficiency of a device, having signal path and non-path components, as 1/W. For every device along the chain of a cascaded network, we define gain and efficiency. Gain and Efficiency are defined for components in the cascade that carry information to later stages of the cascade (e.g., signal path components).

The elegance and power of Waste Factor become evident when we standardize it, since the total power consumed at the output of any cascade (including a channel) is simply going to be: Fundamentally, W is defined as the ratio of power consumed by the signal path components:

where W is the total W of the entire cascade. This is just like the elegance of Friis’ NF, where he showed the virtue of the Noise Figure, since SNRin = SNRout * F.

to the useful signal power (Psignal) delivered along the cascaded communication system:

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And, the power waste of the cascade system can also refer to the power input of the cascade using the gains obtained from all stages:

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FEATURE REFERENCES

In 1944, Friis determined a figure of merit that quantified noise in a cascaded system:

[1] T. S. Rappaport et al. Wireless Communications and Applications Above 100 GHz: Opportunities and Challenges for 6G and Beyond, IEEE Access, vol. 7, June 2019, pp. 78 729–78 757.

[2] T. S. Rappaport et al. State of the Art in 60GHz Integrated Circuits and Systems for Wireless Communications, Proceedings of the IEEE, vol. 99, issue 8, Jul. 18, 2011, pp. 1390–1436.

In 2022, a new figure of merit can quantify the power wasted in a cascaded system as:

[3] M. Ying, D. Shakya, and T.S. Rappaport. Waste Figure and Waste Factor: New Metrics for Evaluating Power Efficiency in Any Circuit or Cascade, Microwave Journal, May 2024, pp. 54–84.

KEY FINDINGS

[4] T. S. Rappaport et al. Waste Factor and Waste Figure: A Unified Theory for Modeling and Analyzing Wasted Power in Radio Access Networks for Improved Sustainability, IEEE Open Journal of the Communications Society, IEEE COMSOC, vol. 5, 2024, pp. 4839–4867.

The Consumption Efficiency Factor (CEF), which is data rate over power consumed [7,8] showed varied behavior during uplink transmissions, in contrast to a more predictable behavior during downlink transmissions.

[5] H. T. Friis. Noise Figures of Radio Receivers, Proc. IRE, vol. 32, no. 7, 1944, pp. 419–422.

When put to the test, the research showed that operating at 142 GHz is more energy-efficient than at 28 GHz, especially as the number of actual User Equipment (UE) and Base Stations (BS) in a network increased [9].

[6] M. Ying, D. Shakya, H. Poddar, and T. S. Rappaport.

Waste Factor: A New Metric for Evaluating Power Efficiency in any Cascade, GLOBECOM 2023 - 2023 IEEE Global Communications Conference, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Dec. 2023, pp. 1–6.

UNIVERSAL APPLICATIONS OF WASTE FACTOR W offers a potential framework for assessing AI/ML algorithms implemented within cascaded communication networks. Through simulation, our research provides insights into potential optimization strategies for enhancing network architecture [10].

[7] J. N. Murdock and T. S. Rappaport. Consumption Factor: A Figure of Merit For Power Consumption and Energy Efficiency in Broadband Wireless Communications, 2011 IEEE GLOBECOM Workshops (GC Wkshps), pp.

1393–1398.

We extend W and apply it to data centers. This refined approach supplements the data center energy efficiency metric, PUE, to facilitate a rigorous comparative analysis of power efficiency across different types of data centers.

[8] J. N. Murdock and T. S. Rappaport. Consumption Factor and Power Efficiency Factor: A Theory For Evaluating the Energy Efficiency of Cascaded Communication Systems, IEEE J. Sel. Areas Commun., 2014, vol. 32, no. 2, pp.

221–236.

FUTURE IMPLICATIONS

[9] O. Kanhere, H. Poddar, Y. Xing, D. Shakya, S. Ju, and T. S. Rappaport. A Power Efficiency Metric for Comparing Energy Consumption in Future Wireless Networks in the Millimeter Wave and Terahertz Bands, IEEE Wirel.

Commun., 2022, vol. 29, no. 6, pp. 56–63.

Peering into the future, the horizon illuminated by the Waste Factor looks promising. One can imagine a wireless scenario where base stations are equipped with optimal settings fine-tuned by W. The interplay between AI/ML algorithms and the W paves the way for a zenith of energy efficiency. In this envisioned world, W emerges not just as a metric but as a beacon, guiding us toward a greener, more sustainable wireless communication future.

[10] M. Ying, D. Shakya, T. S. Rappaport. Using Waste Factor to Optimize Energy Efficiency in Multiple-Input Single-Output (MISO) and Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) Systems, 2024 IEEE Global Communications Conference (GLOBECOM), Cape Town, South Africa, Dec. 2024, pp. 1–6.

[11] T. S. Rappaport, ‘Sustainability And The Impending Communications Power Consumption Tidal Wave, “ Keynote Address, 2024 IEEE Global Communications Conference, December 10, 2024, Cape Town, South Africa.

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FEATURE ABOUT THE LEAD AUTHOR

thousands of engineers and educators since 1990. He has coauthored over 300 papers and 20 books, including the most cited books on wireless communications, adaptive antennas, wireless simulation, and millimeter wave communications. He co-founded two wireless companies, TSR Technologies and Wireless Valley Communications, which were sold to publicly traded companies, and he has advised many others. He co-founded the Virginia Tech Symposium on Wireless Personal Communications in 1991, the Texas Wireless Summit in 2003, and the Brooklyn 5G/6G Summit in 2014. He has more than 100 patents issued and pending, served on the Technological Advisory Council of the Federal Communications Commission.

Theodore. S. Rappaport is the David Lee/Ernst Weber Professor with New York University (NYU) and holds faculty appointments with the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, NYU Tandon School of Engineering, Courant Computer Science Department, and the NYU Langone School of Medicine. He is the Founding Director of NYU WIRELESS, a multi disciplinary research center focused on the future of wireless communications and applications. His research has led the way for modern wireless communication systems. In 1987, his Ph.D. at Purdue University provided fundamental knowledge of indoor wireless channels used to create the first Wi-Fi standard (IEEE 802.11), and he conducted fundamental work that led to the first U.S. Digital cellphone standards, TDMA IS-54/IS-136, and CDMAIS-95. He pioneered the use of site-specific design and optimization of wireless networks, and he and his students engineered the world’s first public Wi-Fi hotspots. His work proved the viability of millimeter waves and beamforming for mobile communications and the global wireless industry adopted his vision for 5th generation (5G) millimeter wave cellphone networks. His most recent research has proven the viability of sub-terahertz wireless communications and position location for 6G, 7G and beyond. He founded three academic wireless research centers with the Virginia Tech, The University of Texas, and NYU that have produced

Dr. Rappaport has received the IEEE’s Eric Sumner Award, the ASEE’s Terman Award, The Sir Monty Finniston Medal from the Institution of Engineering and Technology, the IEEE Vehicular Technology Society’s James R. Evans Avant Garde and Stu Meyer Awards, the IEEE Education Society William E. Sayle Award for achievement in education, the IEEE Communications Society Armstrong Award, and the Armstrong Medal and Sarnoff Citation from the Radio Club of America. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, of the Wireless History Foundation Wireless Hall of Fame, of the IEEE Vehicular Technology Society Hall of Fame, a Fellow of the Radio Club of America and the National Academy of Inventors, a Life Member of the American Radio Relay League, a Licensed Professional Engineer in Texas and Virginia, and an Amateur Radio Operator (N9NB).

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FEATURE

NETWORKING THE MOON AND BEYOND

Nokia Bell Labs is kickstarting a new era of communications in space exploration

By Dr. Peter Vetter [EDITOR’S NOTE: Dr. Peter Vetter presented on this topic at the November 2024 RCA Technical Symposium. His material has been made public by Nokia Bell Labs on its website. We have reprinted it below with permission of Nokia Bell Labs as a benefit to RCA members.]

We envision a rapidly evolving and growing space economy enabled by our advanced communication solutions.

Our networks will facilitate scientific discovery, support commercial activities, and help pave the way for a safe and sustained human presence on the Moon and Mars. Working with government and commercial partners, Nokia Bell Labs is creating the networking blueprint, defining a roadmap of technological advances and building solutions that will provide the foundational infrastructure and services for future space missions and programs.

Pushing the boundaries of technology has always been part of the Nokia Bell Labs DNA. Bell Labs breakthroughs ushered in the semiconductor age and defined the fundamental laws of communication. Now, as pioneers and technology leaders in space communications, we are applying this same intellectual rigor and creativity to pave the way for exploration of other planets and moons.

SPACESUIT CONNECTIVITY ON ARTEMIS III The first astronauts to set foot on the Moon in more than 50 years will communicate over a Nokia Bell Labs network.

We have partnered with Axiom Space to deliver a spacesuitintegrated communications system that will allow Artemis III astronauts to communicate while they explore the lunar

Nokia Bell Labs delivered the first cellular network to the Moon, and we will incorporate high-speed communications capabilities in the next-generation spacesuits for Artemis III, the first crewed mission to the lunar surface since Apollo 17. But these two endeavors are only starting points.

Axiom Space’s Axiom Extravehicular Mobile Unit (AxEMU) spacesuits will be equipped with Nokia Bell Labs’ device modules that will connect to our 4G/LTE network on the Artemis III human landing system (HLS). The HLS will, in turn, relay real-time HD video, telemetry data and voice communications to NASA Mission Control via a direct-to-Earth link.

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surface. This historic mission will not only mark humanity’s return to the Moon, but it will also serve as a key test of Nokia Bell Labs’ advanced space-based networking solutions, proving cellular technologies can meet the communications needs of human beings exploring the Moon and Mars.

operation. By achieving these milestones, Nokia took significant steps toward proving that cellular technologies can meet the critical communications needs for future missions to the Moon and Mars.

TAKING 4G FURTHER While the Lunar Surface Communications System (LSCS) is a 4G/LTE system at its heart, it is unlike any cellular network on Earth. Nearly two decades of Bell Labs research and innovation have gone into entirely reconceptualizing a terrestrial network to meet the unique parameters of a lunar mission. We pushed the boundaries of automation, optimization, miniaturization and integration by combining the radio, base station, routing, security and core network elements into a single highly resilient “network in a box” that can be easily installed on a lunar lander, rover or habitat. We overhauled its system software to create a fully autonomous network, capable of self-deploying, self-configuring and self-healing. And we designed multiple hardware and software redundancies and failover mechanisms to alleviate and recover from any potential hardware and electronic failures caused by cosmic radiation. The LSCS is more than the “network in a box”; we have developed device modules and antennas along with custom operations and management software. Together all

THE FUTURE OF COMMUNICATIONS BEYOND EARTH A renewed global interest in exploring and inhabiting the Moon and Mars is contributing to the rapid growth of the space economy. Advanced communication infrastructure will be crucial to humanity expanding its presence in space.

Future missions will bring an ever-increasing number of robots, vehicles, habitats and other payloads to the lunar and Martian surfaces. Future interplanetary commercial operations will deploy infrastructure, drill for resources and create vast sensor grids. And astronauts will need to communicate and share information with one another and mission controllers on Earth as they probe deep into the canyons, craters and undiscovered regions of the Moon and Mars. Nearly every single aspect of this future space economy will require connectivity to function.

Nokia Bell Labs is looking decades into the future. We are working with government agencies like NASA and DARPA, as well as leading commercial space companies to do the advanced planning, design and development for the underlying network systems that will be critical to humanity’s long-term presence on the Moon and other planets.

THE FIRST CELLULAR NETWORK ON THE MOON As part of NASA’s Tipping Point initiative, Nokia Bell Labs delivered the first cellular network to the Moon on March 6, 2025, during Intuitive Machines’ IM-2 mission to the lunar south pole. The mission concluded early due to the configuration of the IM-2 lander, preventing the deployment of its solar panels and limiting available power, but Nokia successfully validated key aspects of the network’s Nokia Bell Labs delivered the first cellular network to the Moon on March 6, 2025, during Intuitive Machines’ IM-2 mission to the lunar south pole.

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FEATURE

Key components of Nokia Bell Labs’ Lunar Surface Communications System (LSCS).

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

these components form an end-to-end solution creating a cellular network for machines and people to communicate while exploring and studying the lunar surface.

Dr. Peter Vetter is President of Bell Labs Core Research and Bell Labs Fellow.

He leads an eminent global research organization with the mission to create game changing innovations that define the future of networks and insure portfolio leadership for Nokia’s core business.

Each of the LSCS components has been carefully engineered to withstand the dynamic stresses of launch, spaceflight and landing as well as operate in the extreme environmental conditions on the Moon’s surface. It meets the rigorous size and weight limitations of spacecraft payloads, and its power consumption has been optimized to easily deal with low and intermittent power supplies. As we look toward future missions, Nokia Bell Labs will evolve the LSCS to support 5G and the unique requirements of Mars missions.

During an international career of more than twenty-five years in research leadership mostly in fixed and mobile networks, he and his teams have realized several world-first system demonstrations and successfully transferred industry leading concepts to the business groups. He was also co-founder of an internal venture that produced the first FTTH product in Alcatel.

OUR HISTORY IN SPACE IM-2 won’t be Nokia Bell Labs’ first foray into the heavens.

Bell Labs provided systems analysis and engineering for every crewed US space program from Mercury to Apollo.

In 1962, Bell Labs and NASA launched into orbit Telstar 1, the first communications satellite capable of relaying TV signals between Europe and North America. In 1964, Bell Labs researchers – who became Nobel laureates – Arno Penzias and Bob Wilson discovered the cosmic microwave background radiation left over from the Big Bang, confirming the now predominant theory on the origins of the universe. Bell Labs researchers have always had an intense scientific curiosity that has led to some of the greatest innovations and discoveries known to humankind.

He received the degree of Physics Engineer from Gent University (Belgium) in 1986 and a PhD with Prof. H. Pauwels in 1991. After a post-doctoral fellowship with Prof. T. Uchida at Tohoku University (Japan), he joined the research center of Alcatel (now Nokia) in Antwerp in 1993.

Since 2009, he has worked at Bell Labs in Murray Hill, New Jersey, and has been on the senior leadership team of Bell Labs since 2013. He has authored over a hundred international papers and presented keynotes and tutorials at major technical industry events. He is also IEEE Fellow and Honorary Professor of KU Leuven.

SOURCES https://www.nokia.com/bell-labs/research/networkfundamentals/space-communications/

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FEATURE

QUANTUM COMPUTING – WHAT IS IT AND WHAT DOES IT MEAN FOR RADIO?

By David Bart Superposition – In physics, quantum particles are a combination of all possible states. They fluctuate until they are observed and measured. Classical bits are measured by off/on, or 0/1, or flipping a coin for heads/tails.

Superposition is a quantum concept where each alternative can be seen simultaneously. In superposition, the off/on, 0/1, heads/tails exist at the same time, as well as every state in between.

Much has been made in recent years about the arrival of Quantum Computing. Is it really arriving? What are its implications for radio?

BASIC CONCEPTS Classical computing uses bits, transistorized off/on or 0/1 relationships, as the basis for the electronics and the relationships that form memory, perform computations, and provide access for input and output of data and results.

Quantum computing leverages the principles of quantum mechanics to perform calculations that are well beyond the capabilities of classical computers.

Entanglement – Quantum particles correlate with each other through entanglement. When qubits are entangled, they form a single system and influence each other.

Measurements from one qubit can be used to draw conclusions about others. The addition and entanglement of more qubits creates a system. In quantum computers, systems of entanglements can calculate exponentially more information and solve more complicated problems than traditional computing.

The Quantum – The quantum in quantum computing refers to the quantum mechanical properties that the system uses to calculate outputs. A quantum is the smallest discrete unit of any physical property. It usually refers to properties of atomic or subatomic particles, such as electrons, neutrinos, and photons.

Quantum Interference – The intrinsic behavior of a qubit, due to its superposition, influences the probability that it can collapse. This is quantum interference. Quantum computers are designed and built to reduce interference to produce clean, accurate results. For example, Microsoft uses topological qubits, which are stabilized by manipulating their structure and surrounding them with chemical compounds that protect them from outside interference.

• Quantum computers rely on the unique behaviors of quantum mechanical relationships in matter (superposition, entanglement, and quantum interference), applying them to computing and introducing new concepts to traditional programming methods.

• Instead of bits, quantum computers use qubits, which can exist in a 0/1 state; but they can also be entangled, allowing them to process information and solve problems in ways that classical computers cannot.

Superposition sees all positions at the same time. (Courtesy Microsoft)

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Entanglement creates systems of interrelated and interacting qubit relationships. (Courtesy Microsoft)

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Measurement – The use of quantum relationships depends on the ability to measure the disturbances caused by the very measurement of quantum objects. The act of measuring causes disruption. This issue makes it impossible to measure a quantum system without altering its state, which challenges classical intuitions about measurement and reality. Classical computing can measure its state, either 0/1, but in quantum computing, due to quantum superposition, a bit can be both 0 and 1 at the same time. This creates a different set of issues when building the quantum system.

of complex systems and become overloaded. Quantum computing systems can successfully model photosynthesis, superconductivity, and other complex molecular formations.

Classical Cryptography – Cryptography relies on massive testing and large-scale computations. The Rivest–Shamir– Adleman (RSA) algorithm is widely used to secure data transmission. It relies on the intractability of problems such as integer factorization or discrete logarithms. Many of these problems overwhelm traditional computing and can be solved more efficiently using quantum computers.

Optimization – The process of finding the best solution to a problem given its desired outcome and constraints also involves large-scale testing and probability computations. In science and industry, critical decisions are made based on factors that often include cost, quality, and production time.

The goal of simultaneously optimizing all or many factors requires enormous computations of data, rapidly applied algorithms, and frequent repeated calculations; all of which can be optimized. Quantum optimization algorithms can be determined and implemented on classical computers. This use of dual systems permits solutions to be found that were previously impossible. Management of complex systems such as traffic flows, airplane gate assignments, package deliveries, and energy storage can benefit from optimization strategies developed with quantum computing.

Quantum Computing – A quantum computer consists of three primary sections: (i) an area that houses the qubits, (ii) a method for transferring signals to the qubits, and (iii) a classical computer to run a program and send instructions.

In some methods of qubit storage, the unit that houses the qubits is kept at a temperature just above absolute zero to maximize their coherence and reduce interference. Other types of qubit housing use a vacuum chamber to help minimize vibrations and stabilize the qubits. Signals can be sent to the qubits using different methods, including microwaves, lasers, and voltage.

APPLICATIONS Quantum computers have the potential to make a big impact in six main areas where computing speed and power are the main issues:

Quantum Machine Learning – Classical computers have revolutionized science and business. They rely upon machine learning techniques, but training machine learning models involves high computational costs. Machine learning approaches use computer systems to learn and adapt without following explicit instructions. They apply algorithms

Quantum Simulation – The quantum phenomena used in quantum computing computations permit exceptionally good modeling of other quantum systems. Classical computers cannot handle the complexity and ambiguity

SOME COMPARISONS: CLASSICAL & QUANTUM COMPUTING Classical Computing

Quantum Computing

Technology

Bits: limited to 0/1 logical operations

Qubits: quantum computers process a vast number of possibilities simultaneously

Computational Power

Uses sequential logical operations

Uses relational computing – Shor’s algorithm factors large numbers exponentially faster; Grover’s algorithm provides a quadratic speedup for unstructured search problems

Challenges

Physical limitations from scaling down components due to physical constraints and energy consumption

Environmental issues such as qubit instability (decoherence), error rates, and the need for operating conditions in very low temperatures

Applications

Widely used: word processing, spreadsheets, internet browsing, and complex tasks, including data analysis, artificial intelligence, and large-scale simulations

Experimental/specialized uses: applications in cryptography, optimization problems, and simulating quantum physical processes; as the technology matures, its scope of applications is expected to broaden

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• Materials Science – simulation and design new materials with specific properties, leading to advancements in various fields.

and statistical models to analyze and draw inferences from patterns in data. Quantum computing can overcome capacity limitations of traditional computers, which have hindered the scope and development of the field.

• Cryptography – uses quantum key distribution and quantum computing to enable secure communication and to protect sensitive data from eavesdropping.

Searches – Searches historically used top-down approaches, like a card catalogue or outline approach to finding information. The leap came in 1996 when a quantum algorithm dramatically increased the use of unstructured data searches, executing the searches in fewer steps than traditional classical algorithms. Further advances in the use of quantum computing technology are rapidly expanding these capabilities.

QUANTUM COMPUTING AND RADIO Will quantum computing fundamentally change how we work and innovate? Is it worth the trillions of dollars being invested within the next decade?

Quantum computing is still in the early stages of development, with some still considering it a laboratorybased proof-of-concept. Most experts seem to agree that widespread practical applications of quantum computing may be a decade away, leaving the timeline uncertain.

The principal issue is the incredible energy demands of quantum computing due to cryogenic cooling. In addition, there is a lack of skilled quantum scientists and engineers.

Advances in quantum computer design, fault-tolerant algorithms, and new fabrication technologies are advancing this technology.

BENEFITS VERSUS LIMITATIONS The World Economic Forum states that quantum technologies refer to a class of technology that leverages the principles of quantum mechanics (quantum entanglement, superposition, and uncertainty principle) to create new capabilities. These capabilities involve computing, communication, and sensing, and they are potentially revolutionizing a wide range of industries. Some comparisons to classical computing provide a perspective to understand what may or may not be coming.

Quantum computing is likely to significantly impact radio technology, particularly in areas like signal processing, component design, and measurement techniques. It offers the potential for faster processing and more accurate results.

APPLICATIONS Essentially, classical and quantum computing represent two fundamentally different paradigms in information processing. Each relies on its own unique principles, capabilities, and challenges. Cross-over applications, where classical computing and quantum computing can work together, can offer the best of both worlds.

In addition, quantum computing interferometers use the principles of interference, specifically quantum interference, to perform computations and create quantum algorithms.

They leverage the wave-like nature of quantum particles to create complex interference patterns that can be manipulated to solve specific problems more efficiently than classical algorithms. For example, quantum computing can accelerate the identification and location of radio sources, even when accounting for data encoding and repeated circuit evaluations. Quantum computing may therefore enable new algorithms for self-calibration of interferometer visibilities. This may lead to more accurate measurements in interferometric arrays, which will then allow more detailed and accurate images of radio galaxies, radio stars, and black holes.

The range of applications using quantum computing is growing. Many of these use quantum sensors.

• Medical Imaging – next-generation medical devices, such as MRI scanners, for improved resolution and faster results.

• Geological Mapping – measurement of magnetic fields and gravity with incredible precision for mapping geological activity and mineral discovery.

• Environmental Monitoring – measurement of atmospheric conditions and pollution levels for environmental research and monitoring.

A few examples show the range of RF communications applications being undertaken.

• Navigation – tracking of moving vehicles for improved accuracy and reliability.

RF Connectors – The use of qubits requires extremely precise control and measurement of quantum states.

RF technology plays a unique role. Quantum computers operate at very low temperatures and use RF signals to manipulate qubits. RF connectors are crucial in maintaining signal integrity and ensuring the accurate functioning of the quantum system. Maintaining the correlation and control of qubits to prevent qubits from losing coherence is a fundamental challenge. High-performance coaxial cable assemblies, comprising both the cable and connectors, are essential for delivering precise, high-

• Cybersecurity – spotting threats, improving cryptography, and opening new encrypted communication channels.

• Financial Modeling – improving machine learning capabilities and aiding financial modeling to optimize portfolio allocations.

• Weather Forecasting – analyzing vast amounts of weather data for more accurate and detailed weather predictions.

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Quantum computing and optimization in smart radio environments. (Courtesy, G. Gradoni)

frequency microwave signals to the qubits, enabling state changes and operations. These assemblies help mitigate the effects of environmental noise and other sources of signal degradation, allowing for more reliable and accurate quantum operations. RF connectors must meet several requirements to deliver precise and stable signals for controlling qubits, including low loss, low noise, stability in extreme environments, a high frequency range, and immunity to magnetic interference.

arrival/departure. However, alternative strategies estimate the channel at the wireless endpoints of the communication link. Optimization can be performed without estimating the segmented channels that link the transmitter to the RIS and the RIS to the receiver. By leveraging quantum computing power, channel estimation and optimization can be completed in the order of milliseconds, enabling ultrafast optimization for dynamic wireless environments.

Other Potential Synergies – Other synergies between quantum computing and radio are becoming apparent. For example:

Smart Radio Environments – Recent studies of hybrid classical-quantum computing models focus on reconfigurable wireless environments using reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RIS). RIS is emerging as a key technology for the next generation of wireless networks by turning the wireless environment into a smart/ reconfigurable space that plays an active role in the wireless communication performance. Large-scale, distributed RIS devices may be deployed on the surface of interacting objects (walls, windows, and furniture) in a 6G environment. Joint optimization of wireless endpoints and distributed RIS can provide a dynamically programmable and customized wireless environment, with enhanced coverage and high energy efficiency supporting ultra-fast and seamless connectivity.

• Quantum sensing technologies may enhance the capabilities of RF systems.

• Quantum communication protocols offer applications for secure RF communications.

• Quantum radar systems may revolutionize traditional RFbased radar technology.

Managing signal interferences in the multi-tone microwave signals used to manipulate qubits is a major challenge. The American Institute of Physics reports that researchers have developed an algorithm to suppress voltage peaks caused by these interferences. This advancement allows for: (i) frequency-multiplexed qubit control, (ii) simultaneous two-qubit gate operation, and (iii) enhanced efficiency and scalability of quantum computing systems. The amplitude of a 30-frequency-multiplexed signal is reduced to less than one-tenth of a single-tone microwave signal, showing promise for large-scale quantum computers based on frequency multiplexing.

This is accomplished by rapidly optimizing the states of RIS with prescribed objective functions (beamforming, localization/focusing, and channel diversity). Quantum computing can accomplish substantial computational tasks in both the physical and network layers of wireless communication. Minimal hardware complexity and low power requirements of RIS may make these systems appear more passive and limited since the RIS may not be able to sense the wireless channel and estimate directions of

PROCEEDINGS • SPRING 2025

Recent advancements in RF technology for quantum computing will be at the forefront of enabling quantum

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computing to reach practical applications. RF technology is needed to improve signal quality, measure and enhance component performance in extreme conditions, and to evaluate the overall performance of these systems.

Embracing the Quantum Economy: A Pathway for Business Leaders, World Economic Forum, https://www.weforum.org/ publications/embracing-the-quantum-economy-a-pathway-forbusiness-leaders/.

ASSESSMENT

The Essential Role of RF Connectors in Quantum Computing, Military Systems & Technology website, Aug. 15, 2024, https://www.militarysystems-tech.com/articles/.

Whether it is a decade, or perhaps a few years less or more than that, quantum computing and spin-off applications are coming, and change is on the horizon. It is important for RF and wireless professionals to gain some familiarity with this new technology.

G. Gradoni, Quantum Computing and Optimization in Smart Radio Environments, Advanced and Applied Computational Electromagnetics (ACEM) Group, ECE Illinois, UIUC, https:// acem.ece.illinois.edu/research/quantum-optimization-RIS/.

R. Jin, Z. Zeng, C. You, C. Yuan, Quantum Interferometers: Principles and Applications, Science Direct, Vol. 96, July 2024, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pquantelec.2024.100519.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR David Bart is President Emeritus of the Radio Club of America, Editor of the RCA Proceedings, and an RCA Fellow.

He is also the Treasurer of the IEEE History Committee and a Vice President and Fellow of the Antique Wireless Association. He has received numerous awards for his work involving the history of communications.

J. Oncea, The Quantum Hype Train: All Aboard or Off the Track?, RFGlobalNet.com, Mar. 17, 2025, https://www. rfglobalnet.com.

J. Oncea, How The Convergence of RF And Quantum Technologies is Shaping the Future of Computing, RFGlobalNet.com, Nov. 13, 2024, https://www.rfglobalnet. com.

SOURCES

Quantum Economy Network, World Economic Forum, https:// initiatives.weforum.org/quantum/home.

C. Brooks, Quantum Computing Has Arrived: We Need to Prepare For Its Impact, Forbes, Feb. 22, 2025, https:// www.forbes.com/sites/chuckbrooks/2025/02/22/quantumcomputing-has-arrived-we-need-to-prepare-for-its-impact/.

K. Tangalakis-Lippert, Big Tech Is Starry-Eyed Over Quantum Computers, But Scientists Say Major Breakthroughs Are Years Away, Business Insider website, Mar. 4, 2025, https:// www.businessinsider.com/scientists-say-major-quantumcomputing-breakthroughs-are-years-away-2025-2.

T. Brunet, E. Tolley, S. Corda, R. Ilic, P. C. Broekema, J.-P. Kneib, Quantum Radio Astronomy: Data Encodings and Quantum Image Processing, Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics, Cornell University, Oct. 18, 2023, https://doi. org/10.48550/arXiv.2310.12084.

C. Vallance, Powerful Quantum Computers in Years Not Decades, Says Microsoft, BBC website, Feb. 19, 2025, https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cj3e3252gj8o.

K. De Lange, Mitigating Signal Interferences in Quantum Computing Applications, Scilight, News and Analysis, American Institute of Physics, Vol. 2024, Issue 38, Sep. 20, 2024, https://ww2.aip.org/scilights/mitigating-signalinterferences-in-quantum-computing-applications.

What Is Quantum Computing?, Microsoft website, https:// azure.microsoft.com/en-us/resources/cloud-computingdictionary/what-is-quantum-computing.

Explore the ‘World of Wireless’ There are many different interesting facets of the wireless communications world. RCA’s ‘World of Wireless’ web page has links to multiple places, ideas, articles, and videos that may be of interest to you. Links include: Hot Topics, Fascinating Information, Interesting Articles, Short Wave Listening, Wireless Museums and more! If you know of anything that could be included here, please contact us.

Learn more at www.bit.ly/RCAWorldofWireless.

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FEATURE

PUBLIC SAFETY’S PUSH-TO-TALK EVOLUTION Posted By: Stephen Devine

Accelerated integration of LTE push-to-talk (PTT) into land mobile radio (LMR) systems has generated additional opportunities and communications capabilities for public safety users. This evolution is creating an environment where a public safety LMR user can access either LMR or LTE PTT functionality, given a number of parameters.

After reviewing the performance of the LMR products on the market today and how those products access LTE PTT, several variables and features could soon be introduced to allow agencies and their users to better leverage and manage their LMR and LTE PTT opportunities. The result is PTT is becoming a service that public safety acknowledges and utilizes to communicate and meet their critical needs, regardless of its source.

PTT capabilities. For example, at what point does the radio determine that its LMR signal (TX uplink or RX downlink) is insufficient to meet a user’s needs at that specific location and at that specific time? If the device can include a system threshold level in which the agency administrator determines its user’s received LMR signal is no longer sufficient to support their users, the radio can “scan” to see if LTE PTT capabilities are available at that specific location and time, as needed. If superior LTE coverage is available to the device, the hybrid user radio should allow LTE PTT capabilities to support the user’s PTT capabilities until the LMR signal strength is again sufficient to provide the coverage needed.

Integrating LTE PTT capabilities into LMR PTT operations provides the best service options to users in the field.

As hybrid LMR LTE devices continue to evolve and manufacturers modify the capabilities of these devices in the way they migrate across LMR and LTE PTT systems, the way these devices between LMR and LTE PTT will become more sophisticated and transparent to the user. At the end of the day, users just want their devices to work.

Manufacturers will develop protocols for radios that allow

Agencies today manage the operations of their LMR systems and how their users access LTE PTT based on vendor offerings. Today’s hybrid LMR/LTE radios are capable of navigating between LMR PTT and LTE PTT service, which function as two disparate PTT systems on the device. Agencies should be able to configure their radios with parameters that promote effective transition across the services that can aid the radio to exercise all its

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RCA members play an important leading role at Hamvention. This year is no different. Look for these people at programs and booths.

• Youth Forum (Jim Storms)

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LMR to opportunistically transition between LMR and LTE PTT. It is essential to be mindful of battery usage as polling and monitoring signal levels across two (or more) disparate LMR/LTE systems can have an impact on hybrid device battery usage and design.

specific areas of the jurisdiction, in buildings and in other areas where coverage challenges exist for the agency. Users should be made aware of the improved coverage LTE PTT can introduce to their LMR systems, and they should be kept abreast of areas where coverage challenges continue to exist.

As a result of the integration of these hybrid LMR LTE PTT devices, agencies can review system and device performance, including where/when LMR to LTE PTT transitions take place within their jurisdictions, to better learn how their system operates in their jurisdiction. This experience can make agencies more familiar with LMR coverage challenges in areas of both indoor and outdoor coverage throughout their jurisdiction. The documentation of these transitions and the overall system performance can result in an agency-created baseline coverage map, the aggregate of both the LMR and LTE PTT capabilities.

Further, agencies could have multiple LTE networks that their hybrid devices access. This can help the agency determine where LTE coverage surpasses their LMR coverage, which carrier provides the best in-building solution within their jurisdiction and what solutions contribute to the best experience of their users. In addition to providing PTT capabilities for the users, hybrid devices that support LMR and LTE PTT can provide agencies a better idea of the LMR and LTE coverage that exists in

There is much discussion in the industry surrounding the differences between LMR PTT and LTE PTT. Both solutions can and do contribute to an agency’s PTT capabilities In the end, I don’t think public safety users care whether their PTT communications are utilizing LMR or LTE networks. They just want to be able to communicate when and where needed. It is our obligation to always offer the best available services to those in the field protecting our communities.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Stephen Devine is the Chief Technology Officer of APCO International.

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FEATURE

CURRENT PERSPECTIVES:

WHY DO WE FEAR OUR PHONES MORE THAN THE SUN?

By David Witkowski Have you ever noticed how we freak out over rare risks but shrug off everyday ones? After a plane crash, some skip flying yet they keep driving despite deadly highway wrecks nearby. It is human nature—we overestimate new, mysterious threats and downplay familiar ones we control.

That is why the invisible waves from our cellphones, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth spark worry, while the sun’s blazing light rarely does. Let us unpack this with some help from two groups focused on understanding risk and communicating to policymakers and the public: the IEEE’s International Committee on Electromagnetic Safety (ICES) and the Committee on Man and Radiation (COMAR).

hear more about the IEEE ICES, IEEE COMAR, and the congressionally-funded National Council on Radiation Protection (NCRP). So, what are ICES and COMAR?

THE WATCHDOGS OF WIRELESS SAFETY Imagine ICES as the rule-setters and COMAR as the explainers. ICES, part of the world’s largest technical professional organization (IEEE), crafts global safety standards for electromagnetic energy—think cell towers and Wi-Fi routers. COMAR is the forum where ICES members dig into science, making sure that we understand the current state of medical and academic research. I am lucky to work with both, exchanging ideas and learning from experts who’ve studied these topics for decades. Their mission? To cut through fear with facts.

The work of ICES and COMAR comes into sharp focus in the aftermath of the recent federal election. In a previous Proceedings column, I noted the possibility that Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. might become the Secretary of Health and Human Services. And, indeed, in mid-February 2025, Kennedy was confirmed to head HHS. Subsequent to his confirmation, an Executive Order creating the “Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) Commission” was drafted, and it was signed shortly after Kennedy’s swearing-in ceremony. The EO established the MAHA Commission, with Kennedy as its chair, to investigate and address the root causes of America’s health crisis, initially focusing on childhood chronic diseases. The commission is tasked with submitting a “Make Our Children Healthy Again Assessment” within 100 days and a subsequent “Make Our Children Healthy Again Strategy” within 180 days of the order’s issuance. Observers in Washington D.C., and Secretary Kennedy himself have confirmed that they consider electromagnetic safety within their scope of inquiry. I predict that in the next four years, you will

PROCEEDINGS • SPRING 2025

A BRIEF HISTORY OF ELECTROMAGNETIC FEARS Fear of electromagnetic energy is not new. In the 1800s, people dreaded electricity and light bulbs, much like some fear wireless tech today. Those worries faded as electric lights beat out oil lamps. Then came radio waves and, later, the nuclear age. After Hiroshima, “radiation” got a bad rap, and some well-meaning people confused harmless radio signals with this dangerous stuff. Fast forward to now: cellphones and Wi-Fi devices are everywhere, they have been for three decades, yet some still see them as risky intruders.

LIGHT, HEAT, AND PHONES: WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE? Here’s the thing—all electromagnetic energy, from sunlight to cellphone signals, is just waves of light at different strengths. Sunlight gives us warmth and tans (or sometimes sunburns), while phones send tiny signals to connect us. The sun’s rays pack way more power—enough to damage DNA if they are the ultraviolet kind. But cell phone signals? Not even close. They are too weak and too low in frequency to harm our DNA, only warming tissue slightly, if at all, like holding a cup of lukewarm tea.

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THE BOTTOM LINE We are wired to overestimate shadowy risks like wireless waves, yet we shrug off the sun’s daily blast or the waves of infrared heat from outdoor heat lamps, fireplaces, bonfires, and even other people. But here is the good news: groups like ICES and COMAR have your back.

Their work shows that your cell phone’s signal, the faint signals from cellular towers, and your Wi-Fi access point are whispers compared to sunlight’s roar—and they are perfectly safe when operated within the IEEE guidelines.

So, next time you text or stream, relax. The science says you are in the clear.

Decades of quality research back this up: there is no solid proof that links cell phones or Wi-Fi waves to cancer or DNA damage.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Think about it. Standing in sunlight floods you with energy a thousand times stronger than your cell phone’s signal.

Have you ever burned leaves or paper with a magnifying glass as a kid? That is focused sunlight—powerful stuff.

You would never concentrate enough cell phone energy to feel a thing, let alone start a fire. Indeed, anything with a temperature above absolute zero Kelvin emits a certain amount of EMF in the infrared band. Even an adult human with normal body temperature emits about 800 watts of infrared EMF. So why fear a cell phone or cellular tower and not the sun, a warm stove, or the person standing next to them?

David Witkowski is an author, advisor, and strategist who works at the intersection between local government and the telecommunication industry. He is a Fellow of the Radio Club of America, an IEEE Senior Member, and the Founder and CEO of Oku Solutions LLC. He is the Executive Director of Civic Technologies Initiatives at Joint Venture Silicon Valley. He served in the U.S. Coast Guard and earned his B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering from the University of California, Davis. He held leadership roles for companies ranging from Fortune 500 multinationals to early-stage startups. He currently serves as Co-Chair of the Deployment Working Group at IEEE Future Networks, as a member of the IEEE International Committee on Electromagnetic Safety, and as a member of the IEEE Committee on Man and Radiation. He is the author of several books and many articles about the state of the industry.

KEEPING IT SAFE, STEP BY STEP ICES sets strict safety rules, like the C95.1 standard, which governments worldwide use to guide their allowable safety device emissions. Think of it as sunscreen for wireless tech—keeping the heat in check. COMAR reviews the science to confirm that these limits work. I have seen the dedication of ICES teams firsthand: experts meeting regularly, unpaid, to sift through studies in order to ensure our gadgets are safe. Some countries tweak these rules for extra caution, but the core science holds firm.

Andy Maxymillian, PMP Principal Consultant Blue Wing Services 235 Summer Hill Drive Gilbertsville, PA 19525 Telephone: (610) 473-2171 Mobile: (610) 316-2660 E-mail: andrew.maxymillian@bluewing.com

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PAPER COPIES OF RADIO CLUB OF AMERICA TECHNICAL PROCEEDINGS – FREE (while they last) Just pay shipping - or to eliminate shipping charge, come to AWA in Bloomfield, NY and pick them up     

Acoustics and Microphone Placement in Broadcast Studios Part I Acoustics and Microphone Placement in Broadcast Studios Part II THE A-B-Cs of Amplifier Circuits Measurements on Broadcast Receivers Measurement & Design of Audio Frequency Transformers

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 Correlations on Class C Radio Amplifiers  Photronic Cell & Control Continued on next page.

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 Carrier Deviation in FM Transmitters Includes Orbital Beam Multiplier Tube for 500 MC Amplification Includes Inductive-Output Tube Applications  Impedance Measurements over a Wide Frequency Range  Wire Transmission of News Pictures  Taming the High Frequency Signal Generator  Cathode Ray Tube Applications  Audio Distortion in Radio Reception  Radio Detector Operating Characteristics  Saturable Reactor Considerations  Direct Drive Horizontal Scan System  Traffic Capacity of Distance-Measuring-Equipment  RF Transmission Lines & Wave Guides  Multiplexed Transmission of FM Broadcast Signals  Armstrong – The Hero as Inventor (Article from Harpers)  Teleglobe Pay-TV System  Reliability & Maintainability of Electronic Devices  New York Fire Communications

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Print these 2 pages and mark the desired issues. Proceedings are free, but shipping charges are the responsibility of the recipient. Shipments to a US address are $1 (for the envelope) plus $1 per Proceeding for shipping. AWA’s mailing address for your order form and check is: AWA c/o RCA Proceedings, PO Box 421, Bloomfield, NY 14469 check should be made out to AWA. Please include your mailing address on the form. Proceedings will be mailed within 2 weeks of receipt of your order & check. For international destinations, email a list of desired Proceedings (RCA-proceedings@ antiquewireless.org) and we will reply with a US$ price for your international shipment.

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RCA NEWS

IWCE is a Huge Success for Radio Club of America The Radio Club of America continued to update and refine its look and sharpen its message. RCA is really focusing on getting the message out about our networking opportunities and the quality of our membership. In the first four months 2025, we:

The IWCE breakfast program hosted more than 70 people as we returned to a networking format, where RCA also presented an update on its activities.

• Further expanded and issued new marketing brochures • Updated the media kits

In 2025, RCA is focusing on networking opportunities and the quality of our membership. RCA brings together professionals and non-professionals from every segment of the wireless industry. RCA promotes the exchange of ideas across boundaries by providing a stimulating intellectual and social environment for our members. We bring together the best in wireless.

• Increased our presence at trade shows • Updated our website, especially the opening pages • Worked closely with event planners to rethink our footprint at industry shows.

RCA is sporting a sharper look and new energy at industry trade shows. We had a huge success at IWCE. Our sharper presence was noted, and we added 200 people to our email lists from direct contacts in the RCA booth. We also added new sponsors, corporate members, and paid individual members. We thank all our volunteers, and we welcome our new members, both individual and corporate.

With a vision focused on the future while honoring the past, RCA strives to encourage, educate, and engage students of all ages and professionals in a myriad of wireless careers.

This was an all-out team effort. We walked the show, visiting all the other booths: thanks to Alan Spindel, Nick Pennance, David Bart. Booth volunteers worked steady traffic: Amy Beckham, Ernie Blair, and Bob LaRose.

Industry sponsors steered information and visitors to RCA: Carroll Hollingsworth, Cheryl Giggetts, Patti Ryg, Jon Paul Beauchamp, Andrew Maxymillian. Many RCA members visited the booth.

Amy hosted a cookie marathon, supervising a cookie baking station that drew active traffic. IWCE was our best showing in many years, bringing in two new corporate members and many new individual memberships.

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RCA NEWS

RCA’S 2025 Dayton Hamvention Program The Radio Club of America (RCA) is once again providing important programming for the Dayton Hamvention, including a panel presentation, the Youth Forum, and our booth activities.

I. PROGRAM RCA will present a program at the 2025 Dayton Hamvention that addresses FRONTIERS IN RF— AI, People, and Amateur Radio. We look forward to seeing you support another RCA member initiative led by the RCA Innovation Council!

radio and the world in general awash in a sea of information and options. Now, that information is being used by us to partner with artificial brains (AI) in ways that change the roles of communicators. Possibilities that once took decades will arise at the speed of thought.

FRONTIERS IN RF— AI, People, and Amateur Radio Date and Time: Friday, May 16, 2025, 9:15–11:00 AM

Here, our speakers will explore where those changes may take us, how we as radio amateurs may explore and pioneer it, and what spectrum use and policy changes we might expect in the next decade. Additionally, we will run the system in reverse and ask AI a different question--not how AI is useful as tool in ham radio, but what ham radio will become if AI optimized the system. See if you agree. A must see!

Location: Greene County Fair and Expo Center 210 Fairground Road, Xenia, OH 45385 Room: Forum Room 2 Moderators: Dr. Nathan “Chip” Cohen, W1YW and David Bart, KB9YPD As communicators, do we know where we are heading?

Huge changes in the last 20 years have made amateur

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II. YOUTH FORUM

Join us for the Radio Club of America Youth Forum, featuring presentations from young ham radio operators.

Topics will include the Dave Kalter Youth DX Adventures, breaking records, microwaves and CW, POTA, and contesting. Learn about the growing involvement of youth in amateur radio and engage with the speakers during the panel discussion and Q&A session. The forum will conclude with prize giveaways and key takeaways, highlighting the future of ham radio and the contributions of young operators to the hobby. Whether you’re experienced or new to ham radio, this forum offers valuable insights and inspiration.

For more than 30 years, RCA has participated at the Dayton Hamvention focusing on the future, our youth. This year we welcome new leadership since Carole Perry has retired.

Radio Club of America Youth Forum Date and Time: Saturday, May 17, 2025, 9:15–11:15 AM Location: Greene County Fair and Expo Center 210 Fairground Road, Xenia, OH 45385

III. VISIT THE RCA BOOTH

Room: Forum Room 3

RCA will be in our same location, so, please visit RCA in the MAXIM BUILDING, BOOTH 1811! We look forward to seeing you support another RCA member initiative led by the RCA’ members!

Moderator: Jim Storms, AB8YK Speakers: Katie Campbell, KE8LQR Lilly Colon, W8LIL Maggie Flowers, KE2AIZ Max Freedman, N4ML Dominic Hord, AD8AK Isaiah Russell, KJ5CMP Josiah Russell, WD5JR Levi Stevens, KG5XR

WARRIORS 4 WIRELESS Warriors 4 Wireless is a charitable organization existing soley to help veterans find decent paying careers in the growing 5G wireless workforce.

We have invested well over $3,300,000 of contributed funds to assist veterans joining the telecom workforce. And we have connected over 3,300 veterans to telecom career opportunities. Let us help you!

WE ARE ALWAYS SEEKING THE BEST VALUE FOR EVERY VET! Want more information? www.warriors4wireless.org

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RCA INTERVIEW SERIES RCA’S Video Interview Series is on Youtube HISTORY SHARED AND PRESERVED

Radio Club of America (RCA) president emeritus John Facella continues to host RCA’s online interview series.

Many of the sessions are recorded and are available on RCA’s YouTube Channel.

The RCA Interview Series has hosted more than 50 people to date. It provides a valuable record of leaders participating in many aspects of RF. RCA’s Interview Series is one of the larger oral/video history collections comprising interviews of electrical engineers and related technologists dealing with wireless technology. RCA’s YouTube Channel also includes presentations from its Technical Symposiums, available at https://www.youtube.com/@radioclubofamerica7981/ playlists.

These programs provide meaningful and interesting discussions about experiences, viewpoints, and developments in wireless technology. They provide a valuable historical resource. Each interview runs approximately 1 hour. Guests include a wide range of notable figures in wireless, discussing their careers, passions for radio, views on industry trends, and outlooks for technology. If you missed any of these interviews, they are available at https://www.youtube.com/ playlist?list=PLx5vFACfP6FkoU02HpbqMNFBziAAiqqCB.

Thank you to everyone participating in RCA’s Interview Series and other programs. Together, you have made history, shared it, and preserved it for posterity.

Congratulations to the 2024 Interviewees

Dr Robert Johnk

Jon Pelson

Patti Ryg, Digatalk

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Mike Ippolito, Digitalk

Gordon Beattie

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RCA NEWS

RCA’S Innovation Council Steps Up For Dayton Hamvention The Radio Club of America (RCA) launched its Innovation Council in 2023 to address member requests for more programming pertaining to RCA member contributions toward new technology.

telecommunications.

The IC is leveraging the knowledge of RCA members to help other members, and to bring in INNOVATION COUNCIL new members who will, with better clarity, see the advantage of joining and participating in RCA as it ‘fosters wireless innovation’.

In May 2025, the IC is bringing RCA and the public a panel presentation at the 2025 Dayton Hamvention. The panel will address FRONTIERS IN RF— AI, People, and Amateur Radio (see related story on p. 64).

The IC is a response to member requests for additional programming that addresses the changing environment for innovators, the support for innovation, and a place to discuss areas of current technical development. In the past two years, the IC has undertaken several initiatives.

We encourage you to get involved in the Innovation Council.

Please contact Chip Cohen at ncohen@fractenna.com or David Bart at jbart1964@gmail.com with your suggestions.

• In May 2025, the IC will lead a public panel presentation at the 2025 Dayton Hamvention.

• The IC participated helped plan the RCA’s November 2024 Technical Symposium, assisting with subject selection, speaker invitations, and logistics planning.

• In March 2024, RCA hosted a social gathering at the International Wireless Communications Expo (IWCE) that attracted 60 people interested in RCA, curious about what the IC could offer, and expressing interest in participating in this new program offering. The IC offered support for this new initiative at IWCE.

RCA SEEKS YOUR HISTORICAL MATERIALS

• RCA IC members participated in a pilot program offered at the 2023 Dayton Hamvention. The theme of the 2023 Hamvention was “innovation,” and several RCA members participated in a program that showcased amateur radio’s “enhancement of the radio art” through innovation enabled by skills and knowledge first acquired and nurtured as radio amateurs. Attendance was robust, and a spirited discussion that included audience participation was well received.

The Radio Club of America (RCA) and The Antique Wireless Association (AWA) have installed a display in the AWA Museum about RCA. In addition, RCA’s historical documents, publications, papers, pictures and more have been cataloged and filed in the AWA Museum’s archives. Many other displays at the AWA Museum feature RCA members and their innovations.

RCA’s Innovation Council is co-chaired by Dr. Nathan “Chip” Cohen and David Bart. Our objective is to provide information for RCA members about other members’ experiences; pitfalls and lessons learned; approaches to access markets; ways to come up with innovative solutions; intellectual property; and personal stories. This is an opportunity for RCA members and the public to learn from our unusually talented pool of RCA leaders in the industry, other members, and outside participants who may be invited to offer their views.

RCA’s archived historical material is available to the public. There is considerable additional RCA historical material in the possession of past RCA officers and members. We ask that you please donate these items to the RCA historical collection.

This is your history, and we want to preserve it for future generations.

Please contact the co-chairs of the RCA Historical Committee, Felicia and Jim Kreuzer, to donate RCA historical items to the RCA archives at the AWA museum. Contact Felicia at feliciaa.kreuzer@gmail. com and Jim@wireless@pce.net.

RCA plans for the IC to work independently and in conjunction with other RCA programs to produce forums that feature new innovations in RF wireless and

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Don’t Miss These Historic Milestone Celebrations!

Three Upcoming IEEE Events in May Join us for a series of extraordinary events this May as IEEE honors groundbreaking achievements that shaped the future of technology and science. From satellite communications to signal processing, these dedications and celebrations recognize the pioneers and innovations that changed the world.

Date: May 16, 2025 Time: 2–4 p.m.

Location: 791 Holmdel Road Holmdel, New Jersey 07733 Cost: FREE More Info: https://events.vtools. ieee.org/m/426102

PROJECT ECHO MILESTONE DEDICATION EVENT AT THE FUTURE “ROBERT WILSON PARK” Wilson Park, Holmdel, NJ

In 1959-1960, NASA and AT&T developed a satellite Earth station in Holmdel, NJ, including a novel tracking horn-reflector antenna, maser preamplifier, and FM demodulator. The Earth station demonstrated the first high-quality long-distance voice circuit via the Echo passive communication satellite in 1960-1961, and via the active Telstar communications satellite in 1962-1963.

Experiments conducted in 1964-1965 provided the first indication of the cosmic background radiation associated with the Big Bang.

WHAT IS THE “HOLMDEL HORN ANTENNA”?

The Holmdel Horn Antenna is a large microwave horn antenna that was used as a satellite communicatio nantenna and radio telescope at the Bell Telephone Laboratories facility located on Crawford Hill in Holmdel Township, New Jersey. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1989 because of its associate with the research work of two radio astroomers, Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson.

In 1965, while using the is antenna, Penzias and Wilson discovered the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMBR) that permeates the universe. This was oen of the most important discoveries in physical cosmology.

Since Edwin Hubble demonstrated in teh 1920s that the universe was expanding. It provided the evidence that confirmed George Garmow’s and Georges Lemaître’s “Big Bang” theory of the creation of the universe. This helped change the science of cosmology, the study of the universe’s history, from a field for unlimited theoretical speculation into a discipline of direct observation.

In 1978, Penias and Wilson received the Nobel Prize for Physics for the discovery. The horn antenna at Bell Telelphone Laboratories in Holmdel, New Jersy, was constructed on Crawford Hill in 1959 to support Project Echo, the National Aeronautics and Space Administrations passive communications satellites, which used large aluminized plastic balloons (satellite balloon) as reflectors to bounce radio signals from one point on the Earth to another.

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Don’t Miss These Historic Milestone Celebrations!

Three Upcoming IEEE Events in May Date: May 20, 2025

DAY AT MUSEUM LUNCH WITH LEADERS & LUMINARIES

Time: 9 a.m. – 4 p.m.

A Day at the Museum, Lunch with Leaders & Luminaries, Celebrate Project Echo, Telstar, First Measure of Cosmic Microwave Background CMB Radiation Evidence of the Big Bang Origins of the Universe. Special Tours of the Museum. Celebration from Noon to 3pm.

Location: 200 S Laurel Ave Middletown, New Jersey 07748 Cost: FREE More Info: https://events.vtools. ieee.org/m/470440

AT&T Labs, Middletown, NJ

Presentations to include: Irwin Gerszberg, Peter Wolniansky, PhD, Giovanni Vannucci, PhD. Everyone is invited: Life Members, Community, Jersey Shore STEM Ecosystem, Teachers, Students, STEM, IEEE Role Models, Leaders & Luminaries, Volunteers, Participants.

Collaboration with Jersey Shore STEM Ecosystem and many schools and educators. Students and volunteers arrive early; agenda will be announced.

Teachers will participate in an additional special NJ STEM Ecosystem breakout session from 3 p.m.–5 p.m. Demo and Discussion of AI in the Classroom. All are welcome.

Date: May 22, 2025 Time: 2 – 4 p.m.

Location: Olden Street Princeton, New Jersey 08544 Engineering Quad Room: B205

Cost: FREE More Info: https://events.vtools. ieee.org/m/483375

IEEE PCJS MILESTONE DEDICATION CEREMONY FOR THE FIRST DEMONSTRATION OF FFT Princeton University

In 1964, a computer program implementing a highly-efficient algorithm for Fourier analysis was demonstrated at IBM Research.

Developed through ideas contributed by a Princeton professor to IBM collaborators, the technique calculated Fourier Transforms at least two orders of magnitude faster than had been demonstrated previously.

Named the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT), its speed enabled numerous practical applications including computerized tomography, image and video compression, and real-time Internet streaming video.

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APCO 2025 July 27-30 | Baltimore, MD Registration Is Open Early bird rates end June 30

Professional Development Tracks

3

New Tracks This Year!

Communications Center Management Cybersecurity for Public Safety Communications

Training Essentials

Emergency Preparedness, Response & Situational Awareness

Offers detailed, actionable insights to refine training methods and ensure staff are well-prepared and engaged in any scenario.

Frontline Telecommunicator

Federal Partners

Leadership Development

Includes important partners such as FirstNet, the FCC and NTIA, and sessions developed by APCO’s advocacy team.

NG9-1-1 and Emerging Technologies

Mastering Media & Public Engagement

Radio and Wireless Communications Technologies

Focuses on key areas such as social media management, public education and media communication.

Wellness in the Emergency Communications Center

Plus wellness, events, keynotes, tours and more.

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INDUSTRY UPDATES

AT&T RECOGNIZED FOR STEM CONTRIBUTIONS The Radio Club of America has many members who are or were affiliated with AT&T. Congratulations to AT&T for being recognized for its STEM contributions and to everyone who contributed, participated, and made possible its many STEM events and activities.

AT&T was selected by the New Jersey STEM Pathways Network as its 2025 NJ STEM Month Corporate STEM Champion of the Year. This award recognizes businesses that demonstrate a deep commitment to strengthening New Jersey’s STEM economy through education and workforce initiatives.

AT&T’s dedication to STEM has made a profound impact across the state. Through various partnerships with local schools and student-focused organizations in Ocean and Monmouth counties, AT&T has provided invaluable mentorship and hand-on learning experiences for thousands of students. From hosting Aspire Mentoring STEM events to leading Java-based Meteor Game and Design Challenges with Boys & Girls Club, and inspiring future leaders at Girl Scouts of the Jersey Shore Career Day, AT&T has

AT&T Alabama contributed $40,000 to support K-12 STEM Hands-On Learning Lab Activities at USA.

consistently gone above and beyond to empower the next generation.

AT&T’s collaboration with organizations such as IEEE and the Jersey Shore STEM Ecosystem has expanded STEM opportunities for students at Passaic County Community College, Mercer County Community College, TCNJ, and even international students from South Korea. The numerous in-person events at AT&T Labs have provided invaluable industry exposure and hands-on STEM experience, reinforcing AT&T’s role as a leader in STEM education and workforce development.

Join a global network of 29,000+ communications technology professionals!

SOURCE NJ STEM Month Press Release, Mar. 6, 2025.

Stay Connected with the Radio Club of America!

www.comsoc.org/membership

Follow us on Facebook for the latest updates in wireless innovation, club events, member spotlights, and industry news.

Whether you’re a longtime member or just discovering the world of wireless, our page is your hub for history, networking, and the future of radio.

facebook.com/RadioClubOfAmerica

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JOIN OR RENEW TODAY AND ENJOY SIGNIFICANT SAVINGS: Regular Membership: 1 year for $85, or 3 years for $225 (save $30!)

Senior (65+) Membership: 1 year for $40, or 3 years for $100 (save $20!)

Don’t miss your chance to be part of RCA’s legendary wireless community.

Act fast—this special offer expires on June 30, 2025!

radioclubofamerica.org

RADIO CLUB OF AMERICA

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INDUSTRY UPDATES

IEEE GLOBAL MUSEUM OPENS UNSEEN SIGNALS EXHIBIT The IEEE Global Museum’s Unseen Signals traveling exhibit celebrating the life of the unsung genius and Edwin H. Armstrong by highlighting his technological innovations, patriotism, and the continuing relevance of his achievements. Armstrong was an IEEE Medal of Honor winner and was closely associated with the Radio Club of America (RCA). He is the namesake of RCA’s Armstrong Medal.

The exhibit can be seen through 30 April 2025, at the National Museum of Industrial History (NMIH) in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. It moves next to the InfoAge Science and History Museums in Wall, New Jersey, from May 24 through December 28, 2025.

IEEE Global Museum’s Unseen Signals Exhibit.

EDWIN H. ARMSTRONG

service during the First World War, his alliance with the Radio Corporation of America (RCA), and the rise of the radio broadcasting industry.

Armstrong was an electrical engineer and inventor who developed the regenerative circuit and the superheterodyne receiver system during and following World War I, the basis for AM radio. His work continued into the World War II era with the development of FM radio, and other aspects of FM radar. He held 42 patents and received numerous awards.

Between Armstrong’s triumphs and tragedies, Unseen Signals reveals the profound cultural and political impact of broadcasting and the influence of WWI and WWII on wireless communication. It recaptures how men, women, and children participated in the radio revolution through photographs, advertisements, and our unique collection of radio-branded cultural items and ephemera. It features the prototype (superheterodyne) radio from which modern radios are descended and explores the three touchscreen

The exhibit delves into Armstrong’s intellectual and professional journey against a backdrop of progress in wireless communication. It begins with an exploration of the humble origins of the radio era during the early 20th century, explores Armstrong’s university years, his military

The exhibit entrance features a replica of Armstrong’s antenna.

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IEEE Global Museum Co-curator Daniel Mitchell converses with RCA History Committee Chair Felicia Kreuzer.

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interactives, featuring original radio broadcasts and short documentary films.

Armstrong’s technological innovations, patriotism, and the continuing relevance of his achievements provide fertile ground to explore the early wireless foundations of our modern world. The exhibit provides a fascinating look at the rise of the radio broadcasting industry and the foundations of wireless communications, a dynamic field that Armstrong helped create.

IEEE GLOBAL MUSEUM The IEEE Global Museum, presented by the IEEE History Center, brings museum-quality traveling exhibits to IEEE members and the public to help promote an understanding of electrotechnology and its impact on society.

On November 1, 2024, the IEEE History Center and the IEEE Foundation hosted a celebration with NMIH to mark the launch of the Global Museum and the unveiling of Unseen Signals, its first exhibit.

Left to Right: Alexander Magoun (IEEE Outreach Historian and Unseen Signals curator); David Michelson (IEEE History Committee Chair); Daniel Jon Mitchell (IEEE Senior Historian and Unseen Signals co-curator); Karen Galuchie (IEEE Foundation Executive Director); Michael Molnar (RCA Fellow, radio enthusiast and exhibit donor).

“The launch of the IEEE Global Museum’s first major exhibit brings a new dimension to IEEE’s efforts to raise public understanding of our electrotechnical world,” shared Daniel Jon Mitchell, DPhil., Senior Historian at the IEEE History Center and staff program lead for the Global Museum

SOURCES Unseen Signals has launched!, https://historyweek.ieee.org/ unseen-signals.

The IEEE Global Museum Unveils Inaugural Exhibit on the Life and Work of Inventor E. Howard Armstrong, https:// www.ieeefoundation.org/the-ieee-global-museum-unveilsinaugural-exhibit-on-the-life-and-work-of-inventor-e-howardarmstrong/.

“The influence of Armstrong’s genius and accomplishments are immeasurable and have impacted much of our modern lives,” agreed Andria Zaia, President & CEO of NMIH. “It is a great privilege to partner with the IEEE Global Museum to bring this incredible story to the public and we look forward to our ongoing collaboration.”

Photo credits: IEEE, Mario Acerra.

“Congratulations to the IEEE Global Museum and the National Museum of Industrial History on the successful launch of Unseen Signals,” added Karen Galuchie, Executive Director of the IEEE Foundation. “It’s vital that we support programs that acknowledge and celebrate the historical achievements of innovators like E. Howard Armstrong and we’re grateful to all the donors who helped to make this inspiring traveling exhibit a reality.”

FRESH CONTENT – ON THE –

IEEE HISTORY CENTER

RCA WEBSITE

Based in IEEE’s Operations Center in Piscataway, New Jersey, the IEEE History Center is dedicated to preserving, researching, and promoting the history of information and electrical technologies. The future of the IEEE Global Museum and its projects depends on philanthropic support.

Contact Danny DeLiberato, CFRE at d.deliberato@ieee.org or call +1 732 562 5446 or make a gift online.

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The RCA website is the go-to place for RCA news and events.

TROUBLE LOGGING IN?

Please email Amy@radioclubofamerica.org if you need a new password or have difficulty logging in.

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INDUSTRY UPDATES

DR. MARTIN COOPER RECEIVES 2024 NATIONAL MEDAL OF TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION COMMUNICATIONS The Radio Club of America’s Dr. Martin Cooper received the 2024 National Medal of Technology and Innovation Communications from the National Science and Technology Medals Foundation on January 3, 2025. The laureates were honored during a prestigious ceremony at the White House.

These esteemed awards celebrate groundbreaking contributions that have advanced knowledge, driven progress and tackled the world’s most critical needs while underscoring the vital role of research and creativity in fostering a brighter, more sustainable future.

Dr. Cooper received the medal for inventing the handheld cellular phone and revolutionizing worldwide communications. He delivered breakthroughs for cellular telephone and network technologies that have dramatically altered the world as we know it—changing our sense of proximity to others around the globe, the way we perceive ourselves, and our universe of possibilities.

The award specifies: Birthday-December 26, 1928; Age Awarded-96; Awarded By-Joseph R. Biden; Country-United States; Education-Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT); Areas Of ImpactCommunication & Information; Affiliations-Dyna LLC.

Arati Prabhakar, Ph.D., Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), awards Martin Cooper the National Medal of Technology and Innovation during an awards ceremony at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, DC, January 3, 2025. Photo by Ryan K. Morris (Courtesy National Science Foundation)

DISPLAY YOUR RCA MEMBERSHIP WITH OUR CUSTOMIZABLE MEMBER PINS! Wear it on its own, or add Life Member, Senior Member, or Fellow bars to reflect your unique membership distinctions.

• $9.95 for the standard pin • $3 per bar for Life Member, Senior Member, and Fellow bars ORDER AT: https://bit.ly/3eqX64O Prices include shipping & handling.

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Dr. Cooper is an engineer, entrepreneur, and futurist, and is known as the “father of the cell phone.” In 1973, he invented the handheld cell phone, assembled a team to create it, and made the first public cell phone call, marking a pivotal moment in modern communication history. During his 30-year tenure at Motorola, Cooper and his teams spearheaded the creation of the global paging industry and the first nationwide mobile phone service. In 1992, he conceived Cooper’s Law, highlighting his advocacy for improved cellular coverage, greater affordability of cellular service and the importance of the humanity-centered benefits of wireless, especially lifelong education.

Council. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), a Marconi Society member, and a Prince of Asturias Laureate.

Dr. Cooper has been involved in the Radio Club of America for many years and is the recipient of numerous recognitions, including serving on the board of directors and being named as a Fellow, and receiving the Fred Link Award and Lifetime Achievement Award.

Dr. Cooper’s wife, Arlene J. Harris, is a distinguished inventor, entrepreneur, and advisor to multiple university boards. Together, they continue to inspire innovation in the fields of technology and communication.

Dr. Cooper was a U.S. Navy officer, serving on submarines and destroyers; he participated in the Korean conflict during the 1960s.

SOURCES

A graduate of the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT), Dr. Cooper remains actively involved with his alma mater, serving on its Board of Trustees. He serves on the Federal Communications Commission’s Technological Advisory

https://nationalmedals.org/laureate/martin-cooper/ Proceedings of the Radio Club of America, Fall 2023.

AWA CONGRATULATES THE 2024 RCA AWARD RECIPIENTS AND NEW FELLOWS! AWA is dedicated to preserving and sharing nearly 200 years of history in communication technologies

AWA cordially invites RCA members to join AWASave 5% with a Partner membership at www.antiquewireless.org/joinrenew Visit the world-famous AWA Communication Technologies Museum in Bloomfield, New York near Rochester

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INDUSTRY UPDATES

- Support RCA -

Now and into the future!

Corporate Contributions Individual & Business Contributions

Endowments

Corporate “One-Touch” Sponsorships

Life Memberships

Tom Sorley Fund Donations

Sponsorship Contributions

Membership Dues

Promotional Sponsorships

Contact Amy Beckham or Karen Clark Amy Beckham amy@radioclubofamerica.org PROCEEDINGS • SPRING 2025

Karen Clark kjclark33@comcast.net.

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BOOK AND FILM REVIEWS Travels with High Frequency by John Jacobs Reviewed by John Facella, P.E., RCA President Emeritus EDITOR’S NOTE: The following book has been suggested as interesting reading or as a useful resource. The following review does not constitute an endorsement or recommendation by RCA. We welcome suggestions and recommendations from RCA’s members regarding books, movies, and videos to share with RCA’s membership. The scope can include technical, regulatory, fiction, or other subjects. We encourage you to send your suggestions to David Bart at jbart1964@ gmail.com for publication in a future issue of the Proceedings.

This is a rather different but interesting book. It is a combination of a travelogue and stories about high frequency (HF) single sideband (SSB) radio systems.

The Radio Club of America received a copy directly from its U.K. author, John Jacobs, who asked us to review it.

calling (SELCAL), automatic link establishment (ALE), and frequency hopping in these SSB HF radios.

Codan has revenues of A$348 million (US$226 million).

The book is organized into 42 chapters, totaling 214 pages, plus an introduction and a biography about the author. The book is easy to read and put down because most chapters are short (3 to 4 pages), and each chapter covers a new location in the less developed world where the author travelled. At the top of each chapter, he provides map coordinates so readers can locate his visit on a map atlas, which you will likely need! The locations were primarily in Africa, parts of Asia and the Middle East, and a few in Europe. There are pictures scattered throughout that make it visually interesting.

I have read the entire book, and it was a fun read.

Many parts of it reminded me of my extensive traveling in the Middle East and Asia while working for Motorola in the 1980s. It also reminds me of my work with Motorola Israel in their promotion of a new line of HF SSB radios.

The book combines a travelogue with snippets about HF and VHF communications in remote places of the world. The author was an employee with Codan, an Australian manufacturer of HF SSB radios. Later, he served as a consultant to them after his formal retirement. His first overseas trip was in 1994, to give readers a sense of the timeframe.

The book, now in its second edition (2024), was published by St. Jacton Books (ISBN: 978-099576852-9). The book is available from Amazon for about $12.

Mr. Jacobs was a field engineer, and most of his work involved working with local technicians and operators, teaching them how to properly install and operate the radios. In most of these locations, a local Codan dealer would help with logistics, travel arrangements, and providing spare parts.

Many of the stories are humorous, involving the crazy things that can happen to radios and their antennas in very remote areas. Mr. Jacobs’s command of the English language is very good, as is his knowledge of flora and fauna. You may need a dictionary and other references to keep up with his many details.

For those not familiar with the company, Codan (https://codancomms.com/) was founded in 1959 in Adelaide, Australia. Their original market supplied radios to the Australian population, which was spread out over a country about 79% the size of the continental U.S.; yet Australia’s population is only 8% of the U.S. population. The radios were used for the Royal Flying Doctor’s Service and for the Outback School of the Air , which provided remote schooling for outback children. Today, the radios are used by mining, agricultural, railroad, security industries, some foreign military forces, and non-governmental aid organizations (NGOs) such as the Red Cross and Save the Children, in countries all over the world.

Over time, Codan has pioneered the use of selective

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Along the way, those not familiar with HF and VHF radio communication will learn some basic information about using delta-style antennas to achieve near vertical incident skywave (NVIS) propagation with nearby locations. He even includes a chapter on the history of wireless and some “Technical Bits”. For people who are not Christian or religious, be forewarned that references to his Christian faith occasionally appear.

Lest one thinks a field engineering assignment is all fun, Jacobs also tells the reader about some of the perils of traveling to underdeveloped areas, including river blindness caused by black flies and cerebral malaria.

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Some interesting parts include:

many of us will never see, and to learn about the challenges faced by radio field service engineers and technicians. It is a fun book!

• During a visit to Codan headquarters, he is unhappy with the mechanical design of a new radio being prototyped. His experiences in remote areas caused the lead design engineer to modify the design.

ABOUT THE REVIEWER John Facella has a 35+ year career in wireless, including working for Motorola and their largest competitor (Harris, now L3 Harris, a national wireless consulting company) as well as his own engineering consulting company. He has also been the chief executive of several small high-tech companies and served in the U.S. Army Signal Corps.

He graduated from Georgia Tech with a BSEE degree.

He has an MBA, is a registered professional engineer, and is a Fellow and President Emeritus of the Radio Club of America.

• He explains his troubleshooting technique, which is fairly well known in the industry as ‘halving’.

• In several places he delves into the history of the location or region—such as when he talks about the Nigerian Efik people who were descended from the original black Jews of upper Egypt and Ethiopia; the history of the major roads in Australia; the history of the Kurds in Iran, Iraq, and Turkey; or the history of slavery in Senegal.

• In the chapter on Mauritania, we learn all about processing gold from tons of earth excavation.

• In the chapter on Libya, we learn how Codan equipment was rejected because of the presence of an Israeli battery. (I had an identical experience years ago in Qatar.)

ENDNOTES For an interesting side story about the Royal Flying Doctor’s Service, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_ Flying_Doctor_Service. Read further about the 50-watt “pedal” radios that were distributed in the outback in the 1930s to allow remote residents to communicate with doctors. The website contains links to some additional details.

I found a few minor nits. The author’s writing style, like many from the U.K., depends less on using prepositions and articles than we do in the U.S. Also, many of his visits occurred during historical events. It would have been nice to know the year and month of the visit to put it all into perspective. Similarly, it would have been easier for me to follow if the visits were made in chronological order.

The School of the Air used the same HF radios as the Doctors Service from 1951 until 2009, when they were replaced with wireless internet technology. More information is available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ School_of_the_Air.

Nonetheless, I recommend this book to anyone interested in armchair traveling to distant places that

Support RCA Youth Activities by Donating Your Frequent Flyer Miles Due to the efforts of Carole Perry, the Youth Activities Program has been very successful.

During the year, Carole travels all over the country to meet with people and to speak on behalf of the program. Almost all of the travel is at Carole’s personal expense. You can help by donating your frequent flyer miles to the Radio Club. If you would like to participate, please contact Carole Perry at wb2mgp@gmail.com and she will assist you.

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BOOK AND FILM REVIEWS IEEE Canadian Review Special Issue on the “History of Technology” Reviewed by David Bart, RCA President Emeritus EDITOR’S NOTE: The following magazine/website has been suggested as interesting reading or as a useful resource. The following review does not constitute an endorsement or recommendation by RCA. We welcome suggestions and recommendations from RCA’s members regarding books, movies, and videos to share with RCA’s membership. The scope can include technical, regulatory, fiction, or other subjects. We encourage you to send your suggestions to David Bart at jbart1964@gmail.com for publication in a future issue of the Proceedings.

SUBJECTS COVERED

In 2024, I was asked to participate in a special issue of the IEEE Canadian Review focusing on the “History of Technology”. This was a privilege. The Radio Club of America has a long affiliation with Canadian radio science through our many Canadian members. Dr. John “Jack” Belrose, an RCA Armstrong Medalist and a highly respected Canadian physicist and radio engineer, was the long-time editor of the Proceedings of the Radio Club of America. He was also my mentor when I succeeded him ten years ago. My good friend Dr. David Michelson leads the Radio Science Lab at the University of British Columbia and is currently Chair of the IEEE History Committee. He was the guest editor of this issue of the IEEE Canadian Review. Obviously, I was curious, and I was interested in participating.

In addition to regular information about Canadian news, membership news, conferences, administrative and other notices, and editorials, the special issue on the History of Technology covered the following: • History Matters • Radio Science in Canada • Book Reviews (4) • Curators and Collectors: Partners in Historical Preservation • The Development of Radio Technology by Canadian National Railways in the 1920s (and the Archival Records, Available at Library and Archives Canada) • The Development of Cobalt-60 Radiation Therapy for Cancer • Preserving the History of the Trans-Canada Telephone System • Bootstrapping a University-Based Museum of Computing: From Unsanctioned and Unrecognized to a Stateful Home • Biz Tech Report

THE MAGAZINE The IEEE Canadian Review was conceived in 1988. Like other technical journals and magazines published by IEEE, it seeks to inform IEEE members about technology subjects, current achievements, and efforts to foster growth in the size and quality of Canada’s technology professionals. Its stated mission is: “to project an image of the Canadian electrical, electronics, communications and computer engineering professions and their associated academic and business communities.”

Generally, the magazine’s subject matter is broad, primarily addressing current topics. Some of the feature topics addressed in recent years include (randomly selected): • AI and Cybersecurity • Naval and Maritime Technology in Canada • Frontiers in Digitization • New Frontiers in Space and Physics • Essential Power • Northern Microgrids • Radio Science in Canada • Robotics • Super Mobile Technology

The IEEE Canadian Review provides “a valuable platform for sharing insights, news, and developments in the field of electrical and electronics engineering.”

It is published three times per year, in the Spring (April), Fall (September), and Winter (December). The individual issues are typically about 40 PDF pages.

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For the History of Technology issue, I contributed a perspective on “Curators and Collectors: Partners in Historical Preservation,” focusing on the unique roles of professionals, amateurs, collectors, and others in creating and preserving advances in electrical technology. I incorporated my background from RCA, the Antique Wireless Association, and IEEE.

DONOR GIFT:

COMMEMORATIVE CODE PRACTICE OSCILLATOR

Overall, the quality of the writing in the magazine is high, and it is very accessible to an educated reader.

In other words, the explanations address subjects but do not delve into complex math. The sophistication of the articles resembles the IEEE Spectrum or the RCA Proceedings.

ARCHIVES The IEEE Canadian Review began as a small, printed newsletter. It quickly progressed into a regional news product for IEEE Region 7 Canadians as it transitioned into a fully professionalized, double-column, journalformatted magazine that covers a wide range of topics.

Past issues of the IEEE Canadian Review can be found at https://canrev.ieee.ca/en/archives/. The archive extends back to September 1988. Issues from Fall 2015 forward are available as complete issues in pdf format.

Beginning Spring 2017, issues can also be viewed in an interactive digital book format. Issues from Summer 1999 through Spring 2015 are available online, with individual articles accessible from the table of contents.

Issues released before Summer 1999 were scanned, since the source files are no longer available. As a result, the PDF files are large (10-20 MB) and in image format.

Initially, only the entire file for each issue was posted online. As time permits, individual files for each article will continue to be posted.

We all know that students today are often more interested in computers than wireless. As a result, the future of wireless depends on getting more youth interestesd in wireless.

Here is a great opportunity to support our RCA Youth Program under Director Carole Perry and obtain a free gift as a result. Carole has been driving our Youth Program for 30 years this year! As a surprise to her, Director Charles Kirmuss commissioned a CW Morse code practice oscillator that was the same design Carole used years before with her early amateur radio classes with middle school and high school.

RECOMMENDATION I enjoyed my participation and my experience with this journal. I found the editorial team to be experienced and easy to work with. The quality of their efforts shows in the publication. I encourage you to peruse older issues and to consider exploring the current ones. Further information is available at https://canrev.ieee.ca/en/.

If you donate at least $30 to Carole's RCA Youth Program, you will receive a commemorative code practice oscillator. Your donation will be used to assist with costs like awards to the children, donation materials for school radio clubs, travel expenses for youth presenters to the Technical Symposium, and more.

ABOUT THE REVIEWER

In addition, if you renew your RCA membership for three years, you will also receive a code practice oscillator.

David Bart is President Emeritus of the Radio Club of America, Editor of the RCA Proceedings, and an RCA Fellow. He is also the Treasurer of the IEEE History Committee and a Vice President and Fellow of the Antique Wireless Association. He has received numerous awards for his work in the history of communications.

PROCEEDINGS • SPRING 2025

If you have interest in donating to the Youth Program, please email Director Carole Perry directly (wb2mgp@gmail.com) and she will provide instructions as to how to send a check.

If you wish to renew your membership for three years, contact Amy Beckham (Amy@radioclubofAmerica.org) for details on getting the code practice oscillator.

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RCA’S EXPANSIVE ONLINE RESOURCES R ADIO CLUB OF AMERICA

Radio Club of America brings together professionals and non-professionals from every segment of the wireless industry

Do you know about RCA’s numerous online resources?

For more than a century, the Radio Club of America (RCA) has fostered wireless innovation by providing premier networking and education opportunities. RCA’s members are a premier group who built and are building the world of wireless communication. Our members leadership in the field of wireless communications encompasses professional, academic, entrepreneurial, and amateur individuals who are interested in the art and science of wireless communication.

Regardless of membership in any other local or national organization, RCA fosters innovation by bringing together a unique and high value group of talented and enthusiastic members from every segment of the wireless industry.

RCA PROVIDES A WIDE ARRAY OF ONLINE RESOURCES TO OUR MEMBERS NETWORKING

RECOGNITION

• RCA Events – links to join us at RCA events, including laboratory

• Experts and Legends – snapshot biographies of RCA’s legends

visits, technical symposium, industry events at conferences, awards banquet

who made and are making the modern world of wireless • Award Applications – to elevate achievers, pioneers, game

• Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn – follow us on social networking sites

changers and inventors

• Publications – follow RCA and contribute to RCA’s ENews,

PROGRAMS FOR WOMEN

RCA Proceedings, and website

• Women in Wireless – links, archives, recordings and resources

VIDEO ARCHIVES

highlighting the contributions, historical, and ongoing, of women to wireless communications

• RCA’s Interview Series – nearly 50 online interviews of leaders

in the industry share their perspectives

YOUTH PROGRAMS

• RCA Video Archives – containing recordings of the

Technical Symposium and annual awards

• Youth Activities – special programs for middle and high school

• RCA on YouTube – follow our YouTube page

using wireless and amateur radio as a teaching and leadership development tool

CAREER DEVELOPMENT

• Scholarship Applications – for middle school, high school,

college, and graduate school

• Mentorship Opportunities – Supporting professional growth and

providing opportunities for those industry up-and-comers to meet with more experienced members to learn and grow their careers

TRAINING & EDUCATION

• Young Professional Award Applications – to elevate individuals

• Training – links to certification, training, and RCA introductory

under age 35 for their innovation, leadership, and creativity in wireless communications

video resources • Document Library – links to past issues of the RCA Proceedings,

• Career Links - for job listings

white papers, and other publications Amy Beckham Administrative Director amy@radioclubofamerica.org 612.405.2012

www.radioclubofamerica.org Facebook: facebook.com/RadioClubOfAmerica Twitter: @RCA1909 YouTube: @radioclubofamerica7981 LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/groups/844837 PROCEEDINGS • SPRING 2025

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RADIO CLUB OF AMERICA

CALL FOR PAPERS & EDITORIAL COMMENTS We seek interesting or important technical articles, editorials and discussion pieces in any of the following areas:

The Proceedings of the Radio Club of America is known for bringing you a wide mix of papers, ranging from sophisticated technical material to historical surveys of subjects related to electronic communications. RCA also is known for fostering discussion and sharing the viewpoints of its members. RCA is therefore issuing a call for papers and editorial comments for publication in upcoming issues of the Proceedings.

• Antennas and supporting structures (i.e., towers) • Broadband communications • Broadcast

The Proceedings is published semi-annually, and has been issued since 1914. The Proceedings is considered to be the first publication geared to promoting and sharing the intellectual development of all aspects of radio and wireless communications.

Coverage has expanded to include relevant articles encompassing science, technology development, marketing and regulatory topics. We seek articles from knowledgeable engineers, professionals, academics and amateurs who are participating in building future applications, as well as those who want to document the history of relevant technologies.

• Cellular telephony

As a fellow reader of the Proceedings, we would like you to author an article or editorial for publication. We welcome “early work,” even if it is still in the process of being drafted. RCA offers a unique opportunity for you to get an early reaction to important work now underway in wireless communications. It is also a unique opportunity to air your views, inviting commentary and response from the membership.

• Satellites

• FirstNet • Ham (amateur) radio • Land mobile radio • Long-Term Evolution (LTE) • Military communications • Regulatory topics • Robotics

• 4G/5G Cellular • Semiconductors, LED or other devices supporting wireless communications • Any other wireless/radio technologies

Please submit an abstract (1-3 paragraphs) including the title, author(s) and contact information, a synopsis of the material to be published, and a note as to why you think the subject is interesting or important to the wireless industry. Authors of papers selected for publication in the Proceedings may be given an opportunity to present at one of the RCA’s upcoming events, such as the annual Technical Symposium. (Note: participants are responsible for their own travel expenses to RCA events.)

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Please send abstracts for articles and editorials to be published in the Proceedings to: John Facella at pantherpinesconsulting@gmail.com with copies to David Bart at jbart1964@gmail.com.

Please send abstracts for potential presentation topics at RCA events to: John Facella at TechSymp2018@radioclubofamerica.org.

For general questions about RCA, an article idea or submission, please contact Amy Beckham at Amy@radioclubofAmerica.org.

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OPPORTUNITIES TO SUPPORT RCA The Radio Club of America provides many opportunities to support the organization and its activities.

Sponsors can make specific requests or provide funding for general operations.

INDIVIDUAL SUSTAINING DONATIONS Make a difference in how quickly we progress with our many initiatives for young people, young wireless professionals and those in established careers. We encourage any member who is impressed with the operations of the club to make a tax-deductible donation earmarked to sustaining operations. Donations to support our day-to-day operations are critical to our future as an organization. You can also select RCA as your full or partial beneficiary on an IRA, so funds are tax-free to RCA, or set up a monthly donation through a credit card or ACH withdrawal.

CORPORATE SPONSORSHIPS AT SPECIFIC EVENTS Networking is a key reason many of our members get involved and stay active with RCA. Breakfasts, cocktail parties and other social events can be underwritten by sponsors who receive promotional considerations for their donations and heightened visibility to the membership.

3 YEAR SUSTAINING CORPORATE SPONSORS There is a unique set of advantages to corporate sponsors who participate in our three-year program. See our summary of benefits by level of sponsorship.

SCHOLARSHIPS Donate to an existing scholarship fund or create your own and you will be supporting university students pursuing wireless communications as a career.

YOUTH ACTIVITIES The Youth Activities program brings the excitement of learning about amateur radio and vivid lessons in science, math and electronics to middle and high school children in this unique and innovative program sponsored by RCA.

HOW YOU CAN APPLY YOUR DONATIONS A variety of funds are available to support specific goals of the initial donors and RCA operations. Please contact RCA for more information on these opportunities.

• General Club Operations (unrestricted) • Archive Preservation • Barone-DiBlasi-Facella • Biggs • Brownson • DeMello Award • Continuing Education • Dettra, Finch • General Grants in Aid • Goldwater • Grebe • Gunther • Legacy Fund • Link • Meyer • Meyerson • Poppele • Tom Sorley Memorial Fund to RCA • Youth Activities • Richard G. Somers Youth Edu Fund

RCA is classified as a 501(c)(3) organization under IRS rules. Contributions may be tax deductible in the United States depending on a person’s individual tax situation.

HOW TO SPONSOR/DONATE The RCA donations form is on the website. Please contact our Executive Secretary, Amy Beckham, for more information on any of these opportunities. She can be reached at 612.405.2012 or amy@radioclubofamerica.org.

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READY TO INVEST IN THE FUTURE? Thanks to our sleek new RCA website, opportunities to host innovative virtual programs and more new ways to connect with RCA members, being an RCA sponsor is a better-than-ever investment in the future.

Details are coming soon. If you can’t wait, contact Karen Clark, Sponsor Committee Chair at kjclark33@comcast.net to get a sneak peek!

The Annual RCA Awards Banquet is the premier industry event to honor exceptional achievements by those who devote themselves to wireless communications. The event also showcases the achievements of middle and high school students involved in the RCA Youth Activities Program. Through your sponsorship your Company will receive: Recognition, Logo Visibility, Opportunity to reach a targeted market of Technical Executives, not to mention…your Sponsorship makes it possible for us to keep this event affordable for attendees and shows your support for our industry’s finest performers—both established and up-and-coming— whose invention, ingenuity and dedication benefit us all.

SPONSORSHIP BENEFITS

GOLD SPONSOR $1,200

SILVER SPONSOR $1,000

BRONZE SPONSOR $500

TECHNICAL SYMPOSIUM LIVESTREAM SPONSOR $2,500

TECHNICAL SYMPOSIUM LANYARD SPONSOR $1,500

MASTER TITANIUM SPONSOR $6.000

NETWORKING COCKTAIL LUNCH RECEPTION TITANIUM TITANIUM SPONSOR SPONSOR $6,000 $6,000

RECEPTION APPETIZER SPONSOR $6,000

PHOTO WALL TITANIUM SPONSOR $6,000

BANQUET WINE SPONSOR $3,000

HYBRID EVENT SPONSOR $5,500

Logos on event banners at Tech Symposium and Banquet Logo on Banquet PowerPoint Logo in commemorative Banquet program Logo and URL on RCA website Full page ad in Aerogram and Proceedings (full membership distribution) Company logo on signage supporting Young Achievers Company logo in Proceedings Inclusion in all commerials and soundbites during Symposium Branding on all Symposium videos on RCA YouTube channel Half page ad in Proceedings, logo in Aerogram Lanyard with logo Quarter page ad in Proceedings, logo in Aerogram Table signage 6 tickets to Tech Symposium Logo on speaker podium Event signage Exclusive networking opportunity Logo on cocktail napkins VIP cocktail named after you 7’ x 7’ step and repeat backdrop featuring your logo and RCA logo 2 Banquet and Tech Symposium tickets Social media branding Special pre- and post event recognition

The RCA is offering a variety of new sponsorships in 2021 which can give your company recognition and business opportunities. We can also create a custom sponsorship that meets your needs. Radio Club of America is a 501 (c) 3 non-profit organization, therefore, your sponsorship can qualify for a tax-deduction. Please consult with your tax advisor for specific information.

COMPANY NAME (as you would like it to appear in promotional materials):

YOUR NAME ADDRESS PHONE EMAIL WEBSITE

You can pay online at www.radioclubofamerica.org or call Karen Clark at kjclark33@comcast.net for more information, to pay by check or for the specifications for your company logo.

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BUSINESS & PROFESSIONAL

Would you like to be listed in the next issue of the Proceedings?

Contact RCA at (612) 405-2012 or Amy@radioclubofamerica.org to reserve space.

ANDERSON-INTELLI-SMART BATTERY DIVISION KIRMUSS & ASSOCIATES, LLC

ANTIQUE WIRELESS ASSOCIATION

DIRECTORY ADVANCED WIRELESS MARKETING Jack Armstrong, President 200 Warren Road Cockeysville, MD, 21030 PHONE: (443) 823-5100 jack@advancedwirelessmarketing.com www.advancedwirelessmarketing.com

Manufacturer’s Representative

Charles Kirmuss, Founder, Principal 51 West 84th Ave., Suite 301 Denver, CO 80260 PHONE: (303) 263-6353 ckirmuss@frontier.net www.anderson-intellismartbattery.com

Robert Hobday, President and Chairman David Bart, Vice President PO Box 421 Bloomfield, NY 14469 PHONE: (847) 542-9873 jbart1964@gmail.com www.antiquewireless.org

Preserving the Past for Posterity

Manufacturer of OE and replacement batteries for the two way radio industry. iNTELLi Smart Battery™ technology at lower cost than traditional OE standard batteries.

BLUE WING

CAPITAL AREA COMMUNICATIONS

Andy Maxymillian, PMP, Principal Consultant 235 Summer Hill Drive Gilbertsville, PA 19525 PHONE: (610) 473-2171 CELL: (610) 316-2660 FAX: (610) 473-2536 andrew.maxymillian@bluewing.com www.bluewing.com

Stephen J. Shaver, Project Manager 4120 Swatara Drive Harrisburg, PA, 17113 PHONE: (717) 561-0800 CELL: (717) 645-0086 FAX: (717) 561-9805 steves@cacradio.com www.cacradio.com

Wireless Communication Systems Solutions Provider

Consultant Services

KIRMUSSAUDIO DIV OF KIRMUSS & ASSOCIATES, LLC Charles Kirmuss, Founder, Principal 51 West 84th Ave., Suite 301 Denver, Co. 80260 PHONE: (303) 263-6353 FAX: (303) 862-7170 ckirmuss@frontier.net www.kirmussaudio.com

INFINITY ADVANCED TECHNOLOGIES/WORLDWIDE TECHNOLOGIES DIRECT A DIV. OF KIRMUSS & ASSOCIATES, LLC, SINCE 1979

Charles Kirmuss, Founder, Principal 51 West 84th Ave., Suite 301 Denver, Co. 80260 PHONE: (303) 263-6353 ckirmuss@frontier.net www.wwtechnologiesdirect.com Radio pioneer, Director of RCA and Rampart Search & Rescue: Custom solutions & products for the Public Safety, Search & Rescue and Military markets.

Proud supporter & sponsor of RCA’s Youth Program.

LEONARDO

PANTHER PINES CONSULTING

William P. Fredrickson 11300 W. 89th Street Overland Park, KS 66214 PHONE: (913) 495-2614 CELL: (913) 909-4492 Bill.fredrickson@ leonardocompany-us.com www.leonardocc.com

John Facella, P.E., BSEE, MBA, Principal PHONE: (978) 799-8900 pantherpinesconsulting@gmail.com www.pantherpinesconsulting.com

Communications & Management Consulting

Land Mobile Radio Manufacturer: DMR, P25, Tetra

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BUSINESS & PROFESSIONAL

DIRECTORY RADIORESOURCE MEDIA GROUP Paula A. Nelson-Shira, Owner 7108 S. Alton Way, Building H Centennial, CO, 80112 PHONE: (330) 792-2390 x112 FAX: (330) 792-2391 pnelson-shira@RRMediaGroup.com RRMediaGroup.com

Information leader on wireless communications since 1984.

RLA COMMUNICATIONS ENGINEERING, LLC Robert A. Lopez, P.E., President 8305 Bergenline Avenue #9 North Bergen, NJ 07047 PHONE: (973) 449-5249 rlopez@rlacommunications.com www.rlacommunications.com

Would you like to be listed in the next issue of the Proceedings?

Contact RCA at (612) 405-2012 or Amy@radioclubofamerica.org to reserve space.

ROYAL COMMUNICATIONS INTERNATIONAL, INC. Maggie Lynch, President 3135 Coachman Ct. Oceanside, CA 92056 PHONE: (760) 529-9518 sales@royal-communications.com royalcominc.com

A communications engineering consulting company serving public safety and commercial wireless industries.

Specializing in the sales and service of Barrett High Frequency, Single Sideband transceivers that are dependable and easy to use.

TOWER INNOVATIONS, INC.

TSR CONSULTING ®

TWR

Bruce R. McIntyre, President 107 Dunbar Ave., Suite E Oldsmar, FL 34677 PHONE: (813) 818-8766 CELL: (727) 439-3683 FAX: (813) 925-0999 bruce@towerinnovationsinc.com www.towerinnovactionsinc.com

Dr. Theodore S. Rappaport, P.E., Ph.D PO BOX 888 Riner, VA 24149

Lauren Libby, International President 300 Greyson Drive Cary NC 27511 PHONE: (719) 331-7051 llibby@twr.org www.twr.org

Technical consulting, engineering and design services in the field of wired and wireless communications systems, equipment and devices.

Wireless consulting, Communications structures

MASSIVELY BROADBAND ®

UTILITY TELECOM CONSULTING GROUP

WIRELESS TOWERS, INC.

George R. Stoll, President 9850 S. Maryland Pkwy Las Vegas, NV, 89183 PHONE: (303) 840-2878 CELL: (303) 475-0414 FAX: (303) 840-1129 george.stoll@utcg.com www.utcg.com

Larry Shaefer, President 115 N. Walker St. Angleton, TX 77515 PHONE: (713) 522-7000 CELL: (713) 526-8000 Lshaefer@sbcglobal.net www.wireless-towers.com

Texas Tower Site Leasing

Consulting Engineers

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RF and Digital Content to 190 Countries in 230 languages every day

YOUR AD HERE Would you like to be listed in the next issue of the Proceedings?

Contact RCA at (612) 405-2012 or Amy@radioclubofamerica.org to reserve space.

WWW.RADIOCLUBOFAMERICA.ORG

RCA CALENDAR

EVENTS

CALENDAR

Visit the event calendar on the RCA website for the most up-to-date event information.

RCA EVENTS

INDUSTRY EVENTS CONNECTIVITY EXPO

2025 RCA BANQUET AND TECHNICAL SYMPOSIUM

May 12-14, 2025 Chicago, IL

APCO INTERNATIONAL

DAYTON HAMVENTION

July 27-30, 2025 Baltimore, MD

May 16-18, 2025 Dayton, OH

November 22, 2025 Washington D.C.

UTC TELECOM & TECHNOLOGY June 16-19, 2025 Long Beach, CA

SOCIETY OF WOMEN ENGINEERS October 23-25, 2025 New Orleans, LA

Do you want to see RCA at more shows? Please drop us a line and help organize an RCA booth.

We are ready to come to you!!

SUPPORT RCA WITH A TAXDEDUCTIBLE CONTRIBUTION Help RCA continue its mission of advancing wireless art and science for the betterment of society by makng a tax-deductible donation today!

RCA believes in the future of the industry and your contribution will help us with the important work of encouraging the next generation of wireless pioneers and entrepreneurs. Consider making a donation in someone’s honor as a memorial or gift.

Donate online at www.radioclubofamerica.org/ donate-to-rca/ or call us at 9612) 405-2102.

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SHARE YOUR RCA STORY

SHOP AMAZON & HELP RCA

We had a record number of new members last year help us continue this momentum by spreading the word about why you belong to the oldest, most prestigious group of wireless professionals in the world! Direct potential members to the Why RCA? page of the website to learn what sets us apart.

Amazon has a program called Amazon Smile, through which Amazon will donate .5% of a qualified purchase to a charitable organization of your choice. To designate proceeds towards RCA, go to smile.amazon.com and use your Amazon login.

You will be asked to select a charitable organization (Radio Club of America) and start shopping. It is an easy way to help the Radio Club and at the same time get a great deal on amazon.com. If you are an Amazon Prime member, you will continue to receive the benefits of your Prime membership.

Signing up for RCA Membership has never been easier! Use the new online membership application to submit your information in a matter of minutes.

HAS YOUR CONTACT INFORMATION CHANGED?

HEADQUARTERS OFFICE ADDRESS: 13570 Grove Drive #302 Maple Grove MN 55311

If you have recently changed your address, email, or phone number, please login to your membership page on our website to update your information, email amy@radioclubofamerica.org or call (612) 430-6995.

PHONE: (612) 430-6995 EMAIL: amy@radioclubofamerica.org WEBSITE: www.radioclubofamerica.org

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