Most of our speakers have abstracts of their presentations and/or personal biographies below.

The speakers are listed in alphabetical order, by last name.

See the Conference Overview Schedule page for an overview of the weekend.

See the Forums Schedule page for full schedule of the Forums.

* * *

Jim Aspinwall, No1PC

Title: NARCC - Overview of NARCC Activity and Opportunities
Introduction of NARCC staff, review of coordination activity and opportunities to assist, and community interest/concerns with spectrum management in an evolving multi-mode world.

Jim Aspinwall, No1PC
Jim is current President of NARCC, owner of 4 linked UHF repeaters in the SF Bay Area. Licensed in 1971 amid the genesis of repeaters. Retired, enjoying HF, elmering, and helping keep Northern California repeater operations viable. Jim runs the "Amateur Radio Elmers" group on Facebook and is a frequent co-host of "Ham Radio Now".

Orv Beach, W6BI

Title: An Overview of AREDN Software and its Capabilities
An update on the latest in AREDN software, used to create amateur radio networks. Will do a presentation and maybe a show and tell. No live demonstration.

Orv Beach, W6BI
Orv was first licensed as WN6WEY in 1967. He's been into digital ham radio all his life, starting with CW. He worked his way up through RTTY, PACTOR, packet radio and PSK31, and started messing around with ham radio networking in 2014.

He's helped deploy the AREDN network's digital radios in Ventura County and western Los Angeles County. He's also active in coordinating the build-out and maintenance of the wider ham radio network, which now spans from California's central coast south to the Mexican border and east to Las Vegas, comprising over 450 nodes, both on hilltops and at ham QTHs.

He's a retired Linux system administrator, an ARRL Santa Barbara Section Technical Specialist and an AREDN Ambassador, one of those who promote ham radio networking through presentations about the software developed by the AREDN team.

Michael Burnette, AF7KB

Title: The Fast Track to Understanding Ham Radio Antennas
Antennas can make or break a ham station! This fast-paced presentation covers antenna concepts in a way designed to give you a solid base of fundamentals so you can think intelligently about antennas and ask productive questions. We'll touch on dipoles, monopoles, and beam antennas.

Michael Burnette, AF7KB
Michael is the author and narrator of the Fast Track series of ham radio license learning systems and supporting publications.

David Casler, KE0OG

Title: Ask Dave
My YouTube channel and my column in QST have the same name, "Ask Dave." This presentation focuses on what hams want to know, and how you can help other hams get past issues that stand in their way to enjoying the hobby. I'll talk about how the channel came to be and how people react to the channel, now at 112,000 subscribers. I plan to use slides.

Dave Casler, KE0OG
Dave has been a ham radio YouTuber for over a decade and has been licensed over 45 years. He keeps current a complete set of training videos for Tech, General, and Amateur Extra, that match the ARRL license manuals section-for-section. The ARRL has leased these videos to use as their own training videos. His YouTube channel, www.YouTube.com/davecasler, answers questions submitted by viewers. Dave also writes the "Ask Dave" column for QST each month. Dave enjoys HF ragchewing. He lives with his wife, Loretta, KBØVWW, in the Colorado Rockies.

Rick Ellis, K6TOR

Title: Intro to POTA/SOTA: Radio Fun in the Sun
Introduction to Parks on the Air, Summits on the Air, and other outdoor ham radio activities, including tips on operating portable and mobile, using FT8/SSB/CW, participating in award programs, and leveraging xOTA activity for regular awards (e.g. DXCC, WAS) and contests.

Presenters are John Owens N6JSO and Rick Ellis K6TOR.


Dan Goldstein KJ6KEU

Title: EmComm Mutual Aid in a Digital World

Dan Goldstein KJ6KEU
Dan is the ARRL East Bay Section Emergency Coordinator, and member of the Alameda County Sheriff's Communication Team.

Kaitlyn Handelman, KN6MAN

Title: Hacking Satellites for Fun and Profit
For decades, humanity has been placing computers in space and communicating with them over basic RF channels. Outdated orbital infrastructure is now under attack by modern hackers with unprecedented access to radio equipment. What could possibly go wrong? Spoiler: a lot!

Kaitlyn Handelman KN6MAN
Kaitlyn is an offensive security engineer at Amazon focusing on the Kuiper satellite constellation. Previously, Kaitlyn worked at NASA securing ground, air, and space systems.


John Hays K7VE

Title: ARDC's Grants Programs

John Hays K7VE
John is Outreach Manager for Amateur Radio Digital Communications (ARDC)

Richard Manies, N6DT

Title: Just Another Ham at the Mt. St. Helen’s Volcano
Presentation is a general overview of the events as well as ham radio activities & disaster preparedness & response.

Richard Manies, N6DT
Richard is a California native from Sonoma County, received his first Ham license in 1976 as WN7NAV in Castle Rock WA. His background includes a BS in Business Mgt, MBA, with careers in sales and marketing, and currently provides tax issue resolution services as an Enrolled Agent appointment from the IRS.


Tony Marcin , W7XM

Title: Building a DMR Code Plug from Scratch and DMR Q&A/Updates
The session will provide attendees the basics for building a DMR Code plug from Scratch. The Antyone 878/578 will be used to demonstrate building of a code plug. The general steps presented mostly apply to all manufacturers' code plug configurations regardless of attendees own these or other types of DMR radios. Time permitting, the second half of the session will open to Questions and Answers for advanced topics related to Code plug building, radio specific and also provide any updates around BrandMeister (the server where hotspots and repeaters connect to) and DMR in general.

Tony Marcin, W7XM
Anthony is the Vice Director-Pacific Division, a Life Member of the ARRL, ARRL Diamond Club, Volunteer Examiner and licensed amateur radio operator for over 30 years, having earned his novice license at age 16. He presently holds an Extra Class License.

He was born in Carson City, Nevada and presently resides in North Las Vegas where he is an Information Technology Professional with the State of Nevada, Department of Transportation as the Azure DevOps Architect for the agency.

Along with serving the ARRL, he is active with clubs in Nevada and serves on two amateur radio clubs in the Las Vegas and Reno/Tahoe area along with serving on the BrandMeister USA Admin Team supporting users connecting DMR Repeaters and Hotspots to the global network. He has also been a frequent presenter at the annual Pacific Division Convention (Pacificon) presenting DMR Topics such as the DMR 101 and Building a Codeplug and the monthly Sierra Nevada Amateur Radio Society Ham Radio Night on Zoom.

Brian Mathews, AB6D

Title: The Design and Use of SOTAmat - a New SOTA/POTA Self-Spotting and HF Communication Platform
Agenda:
1) Introduce SOTA: Summits-on-the-Air, the awards program for ham on mountain-tops
2) Introduce POTA: Parks-on-the-Air awards program
3) Define the problem of getting "Spotted" in-the-field and how traditional methods "cheat" by using cellular or satellite (non-ham) methods.
4) Introduce SOTAmat: a gateway that connects the newly available FT8-on-mobile devices with PSKreporter monitoring stations, the SOTA/POTA API servers, and SMS. It allows self-spotting and sending one-way SMS messages using just an HF radio and a mobile phone.
5) Introduce FT8 and show a demonstration of the new FT8 apps for iOS and Android mobile devices.
6) Show a video demonstration of SOTAmat in action in the field (on a mountain top)
7) Introduce the technical considerations in the design of SOTAmat: the encoding of callsign suffixes, international laws around the meaning of callsign suffixes, the use of PSKreporter APIs, different types of skimmers and monitoring station hardware/software (HERMES-LITE, Red Pitaya, SparkSDR, etc.), approach to compliance with FCC regulations, etc.
8) Show some metrics on the use of the system, and which monitoring stations

Summary of topics covered of interest to hams:
A) FT8 on mobile devices in the field
B) PSKreporter and API's
C) SOTA / summits-on-the-air
D) POTA / parks-on-the-air
E) International law concerning callsign formatting and suffixes
F) Portable HF operations
G) Internet / Cloud / Server technologies and gateways (and databases)
H) Software Development
I) Radio "skimmers" and automated monitoring stations (SDR: SparkSDR, Hermes, Red Pitaya)

Brian Mathews, AB6D
Brian was originally licensed in 1985 and more recently has been an active participant in the Summits-on-the-Air program having activated 68 summits since 2021 in both the summer and winter, including a first-ever activation and multiple peaks around 13,000 feet elevation. He is the developer of the new SOTAmat software that enables SOTA and POTA participants to self-spot in the field using the FT8 software newly available on mobile phones. SOTAmat is a gateway between skimmer monitoring stations, PSKreporter, a SOTAmat website database, mobile applications for iOS and Android, and mobile versions of FT8. It allows amateur radio operators to activate summits and parks without using traditional non-amateur methods (cell / satellite).

Patrick McGinn

Title: Salvation Army Disaster Response and Communications Teams

Patrick McGinn
Patrick McGinn is an internationally certified Emergency Manager. He is currently serving as the Emergency Disaster Services Director of The Salvation Army spanning Northern Nevada, and Northern California to Bakersfield. He serves as the Northern California Voluntary Organizations Active in Disasters (VOAD) Vice Chair and the Sacramento Regional VOAD Vice Chair connecting him to all response and recovery organizations in the state of California. During grey skies, he serves as the state of California Feeding Lead for the Mass Care/Feeding Task Force and The Salvation Army’s Incident Commander during the state’s largest incidents.

Over the last decade, he has served in local and federal government agencies as well as non-profits to coordinate and respond to hurricanes, tornadoes, an earthquake, flooding, wildfires, explosions, severe storms, a pandemic, an epidemic, and a volcanic eruption. He has a Bachelors Degree in Emergency Management and a Masters in Public Administration with a concentration in Disaster Management.


Kristen McIntyre, K6WX

Title: Transformers, More Than Meets the Eye
The lowly transformer. It doesn’t get much attention. We mostly know what it does when we poke it with some voltage or current, but what is really going on? Let’s talk about it from Maxwell on up, and see if we can understand these simple, yet deep devices. You might be surprised at what they can do and how they do it.

Kristen McIntyre, K6WX
Kristen has been interested in radio since she was about 5 years old. She started in Amateur Radio in 1979 getting her ticket while at MIT. Kristen has worked in many diverse areas from analog circuit design to image processing to starting and running an ISP. She is currently working at Apple in Core Networking, and spent many years at Sun Microsystems Laboratories where she was researching robustness and emergent properties of large distributed computer systems. She is a long-time denizen of Silicon Valley and has worked at or consulted for many of the usual suspects. Kristen is an active ham and loves to chase DX on HF with her Elecraft K2 which she built while visiting her mother in Florida. She is ARRL Pacific Division Director, past president of the Palo Alto Amateur Radio Assoc., past Q&A columnist for Nuts and Volts magazine, and is active in many local clubs. Kristen was recently inducted into the CQ Amateur Radio Hall of Fame. She is also an Instrument Rated Private Pilot.

Jim McLaughlin, KI6ZUM

Title: MMDVM (Multimode Digital Voice Modem)
I'd like to present my annual update on the MMDVM (Multimode Digital Voice Modem) open-source project. I first presented about MMDVM in 2015 and have presented updates every year since (except for covid years). My plan is to present slides and perhaps a small demo.

Jim McLaughlin, KI6ZUM
Jim has been developing and releasing open-source hardware and software for over 35 years. When not experimenting with digital radio, he spends his time planning and running ARISS events to allow students to talk to astronauts on the ISS, mentoring high school students' high-altitude balloon (HAB) flights, mentoring high school students to design the camera for the next AMSAT Cubesat and coaching FTC.

Carol Milazzo, KP4MD

Title: YL Forum
In this forum, Dr. Carol Milazzo, the District 6 Chair for the Young Ladies' Radio League and others will present an overview of the contributions of women of all ages (YLs) in Amateur Radio, the history and mission of the Young Ladies' Radio League, and the past and present challenges to women in amateur radio. Attendees will share their interests and activities and network to investigate strategies to promote role models, mentoring and greater YL inclusion in the amateur community. Youth outreach and other opportunities will be discussed. Girls, women of all ages and allies are welcome.

Dr. Carol Milazzo
Carol is the current District 6 Chairwoman of the Young Ladies’ Radio League. Starting as a shortwave listener in the 60’s she has been a licensed amateur radio operator since 1970. Carol has been a member of ARRL since 1973, the Medical Amateur Radio Council (MARCO) since 1977 and the YLRL since 2005. Carol is a Life member of the ARRL where she currently serves as ARRL Sacramento Valley Section Manager. Carol maintains a personal web page at www.qsl.net/kp4md and is n6na.org webmaster for the River City Amateur Radio Communications Society in Sacramento.

Mathison Ott, KJ6DZB

Title: The Bay Area Network Build Out: What Happened in 2019/2020 & Beyond
I presented last year, as part of a 3-person track on AREDN / MESH data networking. My talk was titled The Bay Area network build out, what happened in 2019/ 2020 & beyond. This year I will give an update on the network Bay Area mesh networks growth, I will address the challenges and systems employed on the BAM.

John Owens, N6JSO

Title: Intro to POTA/SOTA: Radio Fun in the Sun
Introduction to Parks on the Air, Summits on the Air, and other outdoor ham radio activities, including tips on operating portable and mobile, using FT8/SSB/CW, participating in award programs, and leveraging xOTA activity for regular awards (e.g. DXCC, WAS) and contests.

Presenters are John Owens N6JSO and Rick Ellis K6TOR.

John Owens N6JSO
John got into ham radio at the start of the pandemic as an adjunct to his offroading hobby, but radio rapidly took over and now his Jeep’s primary purpose is to carry radios to mountaintops and ridgelines. His main interests are Parks on the Air activating, contesting, and chasing awards, ideally all at the same time. In his day job, John manages a team of application developers for a cloud computing company.


Michael Ritz, W7VO

Title: Meeting FCC RF Exposure Regulations and Exposure Mitigation
A seminar for all amateurs explaining why we need to comply with FCC RF exposure regulations, how to easily test your station for compliance, and how to mitigate RF exposure to ensure compliance.

Michael Ritz, W7VO
I am the ARRL Northwestern Division Director and Vice President of the ARRL Foundation.

Mooneer Salem, K6AQ

Title: FreeDV digital voice presentation
* Basic information about the project.
* Updates since the last time this talk was given at Pacificon.
* Various methods of using FreeDV without a computer (e.g. ezDV, an ESP32 implementation of FreeDV).
* Demo of how to set up and use. (Demo will involve remote control of my radio at home over hotel Wi-Fi or mobile hotspot, depending on the quality of network connectivity.)

Mooneer Salem, K6AQ
Mooner has been a ham since the early 2000s. Mooneer is a software engineer by trade specializing in medical devices, and has helped develop and maintain the FreeDV project since 2020. He has contributed code to and developed several other open-source projects, including a Web based magnetic loop controller and to Winlink. When not developing software, Mooneer typically monitors 14.236 MHz for FreeDV traffic or other digital modes such as FT8 or JS8Call.

Ralph Simpson

Title: Cracking the Enigma Machine: the Secret Battlefield of WWII
(An original WW2 German Enigma machine will be displayed and demonstrated)
WW1 was the first war to use radio, which was an enormous strategic advantage, but every country had their secret messages broken by the enemy! The weakness of existing manual ciphers highlighted the need for more advanced machine ciphers. The Enigma machine was invented during WW1 and was the first cipher device to use electricity. Radio was directly responsible for the birth of crypto warfare.

The Nazis used the Enigma in WW2 and had the utmost confidence in the secrecy of their messages, despite evidence of enemy codebreaking. The story of Allied codebreaking during WW2 is a story of innovation, intrigue, and deception. The success of cracking the Enigma was kept secret for 41 years, until 1974, despite tens of thousands of people working on the effort in the UK and US. This secrecy is especially incredible for us living in the age of the internet, WikiLeaks and Edward Snowden. Over 35,000 Enigma machines were manufactured, but only 400 exist today.

Ralph Simpson
Ralph Simpson worked in the computer industry for 32 years, working for IBM and Cisco Systems. He is now retired and volunteers at History San Jose and the Computer History Museum. He wrote a book on cipher history called, "Crypto Wars: 2000 Years of Cipher Evolution". He is also an avid collector of cipher machines, which you can see on his website, CipherHistory.com. Ralph lives in San Jose in a restored Victorian house, which is home to his Cipher History Museum and a very understanding wife.

Eric Swartz, WA6HHQ

Title: K4 update and Q&A
Hear all about the Elecraft K4 transceiver, ongoing updates and good things to come. Eric will also take questions as time allows.

Eric Swartz, WA6HHQ
Eric is Elecraft's Chief Operating Officer, a co-designer of Elecraft's K3S and other transceivers, and co-founder of Elecraft in 1998 with Wayne Burdick, N6KR. Licensed 48 years, he credits his early interest in Amateur Radio with leading him to a career in electronic design and management. He received a B.S. in Engineering and Applied Science from Yale University and has been involved in a number of successful Silicon Valley startups. Prior to Elecraft, Eric was co-founder and President of Verisys, a test equipment manufacturer of high-performance protocol analyzers for the mass storage market. Wayne and Eric have both been inducted into the QRP Hall of Fame, and also jointly received the ARRL's Technical Excellence Award in 2001 for their Elecraft designs.

Eugene Swiech, WB9COY

Title: Adding a JPEG Camera to the RS41 Sonde For Ham Radio
Link to Eugene's presentation slides:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1uZo-mbsirBd0sRHpyqxp2HR9WL9ZuW8Q/view
Picture from the last flight in Images: http://192.169.177.148:8080/images/

Eugene Swiech, WB9COY
I was first licensed in 1969 as WN9COY in Chicago Illinois as a novice. Within the required one-year period I upgraded to general class. I moved to San Diego California for a job with General Dynamics in 1984 and have lived in San Diego ever since. I currently hold an Extra class license. I am a lifetime ARRL member and fully support all things ARRL. Through the years I have been deployed to many disasters in San Diego including the devastating fires of 2003 and 2007. I am very active with CERT and city affairs. I became very interested in High Altitude Ballooning (HAB) and joined a group of hams in San Diego that focused on STEM as related to HAB. A member of the group is the famous Phil Karn KA9Q. Phil introduced the group to weather balloon sondes and suggested that this might be a great way to achieve very inexpensive HAB flights with the high school students we work with. Phil was right. Group member Randy Standke KQ6RS has developed techniques to track and retrieve the weather service balloons launched from Mira Mar in San Diego and make them available to the group for repurposing. Special mention to Jim McLaughlin KI6ZUM and David White WD6DRI for providing launch logistics, innovation and leadership. My talk will be on how one can add a camera to the RS41 radio sonde and transmit live jpeg pictures back to the ground.

Brian Tanner, AG6GX

Title: Equipment demonstrations - Go Kit Recommendations - Practical Things
Talk is about GO Kits - What are they? / What is Ares? / Demonstrate Various types of kits - Field, Net Control, Packet, Shadow. Practical things you need to know for use when things do not go as expected.

Brian Tanner, AG6GX
ARES Activities
I have participated in the Cupertino ARES group (CARES) at CARES as well as the city ARES net Cupertino_Net on every Tuesday night at 19:45 hours Pacific time. The frequency is 145.570MHz simplex, PL is 151.4Hz.

VHF Net Operations
9:00AM talk net at 9_AM_Talk_Net on N6NFI repeater at N6NFI. The net also is supported by an Echolink link. The Net runs every weekday at 9:00AM pacific time.

Run Santa Clara County packet radio net control every first Tuesday of the month to support packet radio operations for the County ARES group.

HF Net Operations
Santa Clara County ARES 80M HF Net at 80M_S_C_Co_Net on every Tuesday night except the third Tuesday of the month at 20:30 hours Pacific time. The frequency is 3.878MHz LSB.

Build Projects
Completed build and debug of HF 100W solid state power amplifier that included automatic low pass band filter switching, power output monitoring, VSWR monitoring and protection and automatic input power limiting.

Alan Thompson, W6WN

Title: Introduction To The Neighborhood Radio Watch Program
Most of us now depend entirely on cell phones to receive emergency information. But the last few years have seen a dramatic rise in the frequency and intensity of fires, storms and power failures that disrupt potentially life-saving cell service at the very moment it's most needed. Hams know how to use radios when normal communications fail, but what about "the rest of us," our families, friends and community, who also need access to reliable communications in the event telephone and Internet service fails?

In response to this growing threat, communities throughout Northern California have set up unique Neighborhood Radio Watch programs to help people stay safer. In this presentation, you'll learn how these community radio programs will benefit your community, and can even help ensure the future of your Club.

Alan Thompson, W6WN
Alan is the Public Information Officer for CERA, the Community Emergency Radio Association. He's also the Owner and Satellite Internet Field Engineer for El Dorado Networks in Placerville, California. His clients include Facebook, the FAA and Bank of America. He was also part of a disaster-recovery Team that helped restore cell-phone service in Paradise, California, shortly after the Camp Fire destroyed the town on November 8th, 2018. What he saw and learned about the colossal communications failures that cost peoples' lives that day, convinced him of the urgent need for better communications resilience for all of us.

Background Links and Recent Media Coverage:
March 10, 2022 - Coverage by Scott Rodd on CapRadio's Insight with Vicki Gonzalez: https://www.dropbox.com/s/dp9vrcid2qmkup2/2022-03-10-CapRadio_Insight_Story_About_EDC_Neighborhood_Radio_Watch.mp3

March 10, 2022 - Written Story with Photos: https://www.dropbox.com/s/7mkl414qygo7r9k/Neighborhood_Radio_Watch_CapRadio_Article.pdf?dl=0

March 29, 2022 - Coverage by Luke Clery on ABC TV 10's News Program:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/2ukqn0abynt9lwt/ABC_Channel_10_Video_Interview_20220329D.mp4

October 12, 2021 - Comments about the Neighborhood Radio Watch program by Eileen Strangfeld, who evacuated and lost her home during the Caldor fire: https://www.dropbox.com/s/afxvvznc7zwto9j/Excerpts%20From%20Eileen%27s%20Interview.mp3

John Trinterud, K9ONR

Title: Winlink Basics - Building Blocks and Configurations
Discussion of the basic (and customizable) Client and RMS elements of the Winlink system. Winlink is easily customized by changing configuration options in free software packages and no custom programming is required. We will also cover the use of “WOAD”, or the Winlink on Android app as an adjunct to the traditional Windows-based Winlink applications. Winlink and WOAD fit large and small operations, can be operated from a fixed site, a portable go-box and with or without Internet service.

Title: Advanced Winlink Class
Concentrating on GPS-enabled message templates, automated mapping and map criteria filtering. Additional topics include GPS dongles for Windows, local wireless access point transfer of messages rather than using amateur frequencies, and the WOAD app (Winlink on Android). This class builds on the Winlink Basics presentation and extends user knowledge and capabilities.

John Trinterud, K9ONR
John has a background of 55+ years in communications, telephony, computer operations, UNIX software support, organic farming and organic inspections (!). John was first licensed in 2012 as KJ6PAP, now a General Class and graduated from Walnut Creek CERT after 10 years. I now serve as a Technical Specialist in the ARRL East Bay Division, concentrating on all things Winlink. My K9ONR VHF public gateway operates on 145.630 in CM87WV, in central Walnut Creek.

Gordon West, WB6NOA

Title: Breakfast with Gordo
Ham Instructor Academy

Gordon West, WB6NOA
Gordon is from Costa Mesa, California, and was named Amateur of the Year by the Dayton Amateur Radio Association in 2006 for his efforts in recruiting and training many new amateurs, in addition to his nearly lifelong involvement in ham radio. He has also been the recipient of the ARRL's Instructor of the Year award.

Gordon has been a ham for nearly 50 years and holds the top Extra Class license. He also holds the highest FCC commercial radiotelephone operator license, the First Class General Radiotelephone Certificate with Radar Endorsement. Gordon is a Fellow Member of the Radio Club of America.

Starting in the late 1950s "Gordo," as he is known, worked for some of the big names in the field helping to develop several innovative pieces of equipment. In the 1980s Gordon and his wife Suzy, N6GLF, began teaching ham radio classes at college and marine venues and authored Amateur Radio training books sold by Radio Shack and equipment dealers around the country. Gordon remains active from 75 meters through 10 GHz, spending at least a couple hours on the air every day, helping new hams make friends on the many nets he runs. In addition, Gordon volunteers with the American Red Cross communications team in Orange County, California, and regularly offers free kids' classes and classes for cities to support their Community Emergency Response Teams (CERT).

Joel Wilhite, KD6W

Title: Amateur Television Game Changers
Amateur Television - this talk will cover the range of technological advances which made the process of getting television into our hobby much easier.

Game changers show up as a surprise to the normal progression of events and introduce some radical change, mixing things up. Amateur radio can be traced back to introduction of the vacuum tube. With the advancements in technology, amateur radio has changed through the ages to keep pace. When transistors were introduced and now highly integrated semiconductors, there has been an explosion of innovation. This talk will talk about the various game changers that have led up to the present state of the art and the lead up to the potential explosion in amateur television.

Joel Wilhite, KD6W
First licensed in 1982 in Phoenix Arizona, Joel grew up in the Midwest learning electronics at a very early age and went on to study Electronic Engineering Technology at DeVry University. Joel has devoted his life to communication following in his father's footsteps, who worked for the phone company. Joel went on to work in television and is now a consulting engineer to major broadcasters in support of ATSC systems in North America.


Tim Wilkinson, KN6PLV

Title: Cleaning Up the Mesh: Making AREDN More Usable, Reliable, and Fun
A lot has changed in AREDN networking software over the last year. This talk by one of the developers, walks through some of the changes made to make the AREDN code more usable and reliable. It started with the quelling of the dreaded network storms and ends just trying to get peoples' signals to play nice with each other.

Tim Wilkinson, KN6PLV
Tim is a relatively new convert to Amateur Radio, getting his license in 2021. But he’s been playing with Wi-Fi networks for over 20 years after he put up an antenna so he could use Wi-Fi at his local Starbucks down the street. His career has included working for large web companies managing the development of sites hosting millions of users, writing software to run cellphones, and embedding Java into SIM cards. He also founded a few startups along the way. These days he actively contributes to a number of open-source projects, including AREDN, as writing code that anyone can use and modify has always been his passion. Tim lives in Berkeley, CA.