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Introducing the Radio Club of America
Founded in 1909, the Radio Club of America is the oldest, most prestigious group of wireless communications professionals in the world, with members across the globe. Its members are dedicated to the wireless art and science for the betterment of society. The Radio Club of America is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, and all contributions made to RCA are tax exempt.
Learn more about RCA’s three exciting major initiatives: Creating the Future, Ensuring the Present, Honoring the Past
SAVE THE DATE: RCA’S 2020 AWARDS BANQUET AND TECHNICAL SYMPOSIUM
FRIDAY NOV. 20TH IN PITTSBURGH
HONORING THE 100TH ANNIVERSARY OF BROADCASTING IN THE U.S. – STATION KDKA
Our Keynote Speaker this year will be Dr. Nathaniel Frissell, Assistant Professor in the Physics and Electrical Engineering Department of the University of Scranton PA. Dr. Frissell’s keynote topic will be announced in future.
For our annual Technical Symposium we are lining up a number of presentations on broadcasting, and we have a number of speakers committed already. We will be announcing them soon – stay tuned!
RCA will return to Pittsburgh on Friday, November 20, 2020 to help celebrate KDKA’s 100th anniversary
The Broadcast industry has moved beyond the simple AM radio broadcasts of the 1920s. RCA’s Technical Symposium will feature many speakers on the current hot issues in broadcasting including DTV (digital TV), DTV channel repacking, experts from broadcast manufacturers, and some interesting facets of KDKA’s various AM broadcast towers.
RCA’s Annual Awards Banquet will feature Dr. Nathaniel Frissell, W2NAF. Dr. Frissell is a Space Physicist and Electrical Engineer who came to Scranton University from the New Jersey Institute of Technology Center for Solar-Terrestrial Research (NJIT CSTR). Dr. Frissell has a passion for radio science and remote sensing of the ionosphere, the electrically charged layer of the upper atmosphere that extends from ~50 to 600 km above the Earth’s surface. The ionosphere is responsible for long distance radio propagation on the high frequency (HF, 3 – 30 MHz) bands, errors in Global Positioning System (GPS) and Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) measurements, and drag on low Earth orbiting satellites. Dr. Frissell recently won a $1.3 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to study the ionosphere using the amateur radio service. You can read more about it HERE.
Another tour of the KDKA facilities, which was so successful in 2017, is being planned, as well as several other historic activities for Saturday. RCA is working in conjunction with a number of other organizations to make this a “don’t miss” event.
Pittsburgh hotels and restaurants are less expensive than NYC, so this is another reason to plan now to attend our Technical Symposium and Banquet on Friday November 20th. The KDKA special events are planned to be on Saturday November 21st.
The History:
The first commercial broadcast in the U.S. took place on Nov. 2, 1920. Pittsburgh radio station KDKA broadcast the presidential election results of the Harding-Cox election , making this the first commercial broadcast.
In the meantime, you may be interested in several historical links about KDKA:
NEW! Interesting videos on KDKA history
NEW! Pittsburgh Amateur Radio Club’s KDKA 100th Plans
NEW! ARRL’s Special Event for Radio Amateurs for KDKA;s 100th
3 minute YouTube clip on KDKA history
Detailed excerpt from a broadcasting book, plus bios on key KDKA persons
Audio clip on the Harding-Cox broadcast on Nov. 2, 1920
A short early history of wireless including KDKA
A Preview of what our KDKA Tour will be like this Year:
(from our 2017 tour)
Neatly laced wiring in the back of Westinghouse transmitter
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Dayton 2020 Hamvention Cancelled!
Click HERE for more information
RCA’s Breakfast at IWCE 2020 is ON!
THE IWCE SHOW HAS BEEN POSTPONED TO AUGUST 24-28, 2020.
The RCA Breakfast will be held on Thursday August 27th, from 8-10 AM, in room S227.
Join your wireless colleagues!
2020 IWCE Breakfast Registration
THANKS TO OUR IWCE 2020 SPONSORS!
RFI Americas, The Sales Group, Kirmuss Audio, PMC Associates, FirstNet built by AT&T, Etherstack, ICOM
RCA’s 2019 Awards Banquet and
Technical Symposium
For details on RCA’s 2019 Fellows click HERE.
2019 Technical Symposium: Attendees said this was the best Tech Symposium ever! We had presentations on hot topics including Massive MIMO, Network Virtualization, and Connected Vehicles. We saw a series of interesting presentations on space including the Explorer I story from Dr. Henry Richter who oversaw it all; the Apollo 11 TV broadcast from the moon; AMSAT’s cubesat; and the current state of space from a young Ph.D. candidate. Click HERE for the details.
Check out the photos from the 2019 Technical Symposium and Banquet on our Shutterfly Page HERE.
Thanks to our 2019 Technical Symposium and Banquet sponsors!
Congratulations to RCA’s New Officers and Directors for 2019-2020
Click here for the press release
NEW!! MEMBER SPOTLIGHT
We are adding a new feature to the RCA Website: a short feature on a current member, what they are doing, and what their wireless interests are. The member that is featured will be changed regularly.
If you are interested in being spotlighted, please send a brief summary of your wireless interests, a brief bio, your contact information, and a picture to info@radioclubofamerica.org. We cannot guarantee that every member will be spotlighted, but we will attempt to spotlight as many as we can.
Introducing RCA Member
Andrew Seybold
Andrew M. Seybold, CEO and Principal Analyst of Andrew Seybold, Inc., is one of the most respected and influential analysts in the wireless industry today. For more than twenty-five years, he has served the industry and shaped initiatives for world leaders of the wireless industry, including Verizon, Nokia, AT&T, Motorola, and Qualcomm. His firm has provided wireless consulting and education services for startups to Fortune 1000 companies such as Dow Chemical, Ford Motor Company, and Microsoft.
Andrew Seybold has consulted to some of the industry’s most talented and successful entrepreneurs. He was a key consultant to a number of companies that introduced products and services that have had a significant impact on wireless including Research In Motion’s popular BlackBerry, Hewlett-Packard’s first handheld device, first two-way pager, Good Technologies’ first products, and AT&T’s push-to-talk offering. He also introduced RadioMail to Dell for the first-ever notebook wireless email offering. He has served on the Motorola Research Visionary Board, IBM’s Mobile Computing Advisory Board, and a number of other prestigious advisory boards. Mr. Seybold is a Fellow in the Radio Club of America in recognition of his contributions to the wireless industry. He co-founded and served as a board member of the Personal Computing and Communications Association (PCCA), and he currently serves on the board of CommNexus San Diego.
He currently writes bylined columns in Mobile Enterprise Magazine, FierceWireless, FierceContent, and Wireless Week and is a contributor to other trade publications generally available online and/or in print. Often quoted, he is called upon by members of the press to comment on day-to-day activities within the wireless industry. His opinions, and insights are published weekly in his free COMMENTARY e-newsletter and in his TELL IT LIKE IT IS blog.
Email address: aseybold@andrewseybold.com
- How long have you been in the wireless industry?
- I started my career in wireless in 1962 when I passed the Novice/Tech Amateur Radio License Exam.
- This was followed by my first business which was a two-way radio shop in the Philadelphia area founded in 1968. We serviced and installed most makes and models of two-way radios and we sold RCA Mobile radios.
2. What are your specific interests or wireless areas of expertise?
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- Over the years my interests in wireless have changed somewhat. I stated out with commercial and public safety two-way radio interests and then in 2009 when I was approached by the Public Safety Alliance, I worked pro-bono with them to convince Congress, the FCC, and the Executive branch that public safety needed a nationwide public safety broadband network. We were successful but not until 2012 and the network did not go live until 2017. Since 2009 my main focus and interests have to do with public safety communications: Land Mobile Radio, FirstNet, Next Generation 9-1-1 and the integration of all of these networks into a cohesive smart communications system which serves both the general public (inbound) and the public safety community.
3. How many years have you been an RCA member?
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- I am not exactly sure, but I was invited to become a member by Fred Link a few years before his passing.
4. What caused you to join RCA?
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- Fred Link invited me to join RCA and I joined because the club then, as it is now, it populated with some of the people who have made a name for themselves, and contributed in their own way to the communications industry. I wanted to meet as many of these people as possible and to listen and learn from their experiences.
5. Where do you live and work?
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- I currently live and work in Phoenix, Arizona. My current roll is as a consultant for public safety communications and assisting public safety agencies as well as the nationwide pubic safety broadband network. I also publish a weekly column (since 2010) known as the Public Safety Advocate which appears every week on the allthingsfirstnet.Com web-site and is available as a free-subscription and delivered by email.
6. Is there a specific benefit from the RCA “Member Spotlight” that you are hoping for? (e.g. ‘to meet other members with an interest in X’, or ‘to meet other members in my area’, etc.I have not been as active in RCA as I would have liked to have been these past few years. I am still proud of my membership and the fact that I was elected as a fellow in 2000 and then in 2010 was honored to be awarded the Sarnoff Citation for my work in public safety communications.
- My goal is to once again become a contributing member of RCA and also to inform RCA members about my current activities and my weekly Public Safety Advocate column. It is, once again, an honor to be singled out by RCA for the Member Spotlight.
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The history of our Club is one with which every member should be familiar.