The ARRL has honored veteran AMSAT personality and Amateur Radio digital pioneer Tom Clark, K3IO (ex-W3IWI), with its President’s Award. ARRL President Kay Craigie, N3KN, presented the award plaque to Clark at a January 10 meeting of the Potomac Valley Radio Club in Blacksburg, Virginia. The plaque, which bears a likeness of ARRL Co-Founder Hiram Percy Maxim, W1AW, recognizes Clark’s 60 years of advancing Amateur Radio technology.
“In addition to his work with AMSAT, Tom was a leader in the development of the AX.25 packet radio network in the 1980s, when he was W3IWI. Anyone who was on packet in the 1980s knew that call sign,” President Craigie said. “I recall attending a forum he gave on packet radio at a hamfest in Baltimore in the 1980s, when people on the East Coast were just getting interested in the mode and its possibilities.”
Clark was a TAPR director during the heyday of packet radio forwarding, and TAPR’s significance was huge, she said. “Before terminal node controllers were available on the commercial market, if you wanted to get on packet, you ordered a TNC kit from TAPR and assembled it. I still have my TAPR II TNC.”
Former AMSAT President and current AMSAT Director Bob McGwier, N4HY, was more direct. “There would be no AMSAT to inspire all of this work without Tom Clark,” he said, noting that the organization was in serious trouble after the Phase 3A satellite launch failure.
“Tom took over as president of AMSAT, and he saved the organization and inspired all of us to look to the future and aim for the stars,” McGwier said. “All that has followed, including PACSAT and microsats, CubeSats, AO-13, all the way through AO-85, are a direct result of Tom Clark saving AMSAT and providing it leadership as president from 1980 to 1987 and continuous leadership on the Board of Directors of AMSAT from 1976 until today.”
McGwier said it was Clark who convinced him in 1985 that the future lay in digital signal processing — DSP. “We started the TAPR/AMSAT DSP project, and it was announced in 1987,” he said. “We showed in our efforts that small stations with small antennas could bounce signals off the moon, and, using the power of DSP, we could see the signals in our computer displays.”
McGwier said this led to the SDX, the Software Defined Transponder, included in ARISSat and in AMSAT’s Phase 3E. McGwier said Clark was an early supporter of women in science, too.
“Tom is now and always will be a leader, mentor — the chief scientist for all of Amateur Radio,” he said.
Clark is an advisor to Virginia Tech as adjunct professor of aerospace and ocean engineering and of electrical and computer Engineering. McGwier said Clark will play a crucial role in the Phase 4B geosynchronous satellite opportunity on the USAF Wide Field of View spacecraft, in which Virginia Tech is a partner.
Source:ARRL
The Maritime Mobile Service Net (MMSN) on 14.300 MHz came to the assistance of a sailing vessel on June 25. MMSN control operator Steven Carpenter, K9... Read more
QSL A memorable QSL card is often the first visual impression other hams will have of you. It says a lot about who you are. And it may make t... Read more
Thomas Lindner, DL2RUM, is happy to announce the availability of version 3.5.2 of his RUMlogNG2Go logger for the iPhone and iPad. RUMlogNG2Go can be ... Read more
“CQ’s November issue is a mini contest special . . . with plenty for the non-contester as well! We start with a behind-the-scenes look at... Read more
The winning article for the September 2016 QST Cover Plaque award is “Arduino CW Trainer” by Tom Lewis, N4TL. The QST Cover Plaque Award — given... Read more
Wouxun KG-D2000 DMR HT Radio “The second model of DMR HT from Wouxun is dubbed the KG-D2000. Still a monoband UHF radio (VHF version might also... Read more
The CloudSDR is a stand-alone, high performance 9 kHz – 1200 MHz SDR with a built-in internet server. The radio performs the tuning and d... Read more
“Again we find ourselves with a spotless Sun, yet a huge solar storm hits Earth and brings stunning aurora clear down to Germany and Nebraska! T... Read more
Bad news for Baofeng ? The FCC’s Enforcement Bureau released an enforcement advisory, noting that it has observed that an increasing number of convent... Read more
The WRTC 2018 will consist of up to 63 two-operator teams coming from qualifying regions around the world. The qualifying process is based on results... Read more
Photo: CN2AA Team – QSOS 23832 – 76 M points – Multi Multi Check the CQ Worldwide DX CW Contest 2014 Contest Scores Rumors ! ... Read more
Here is an old ham radio operators trick for cleaning wires for soldering that are old and corroded. It is hard to find this technique printed anywhe... Read more
Afghan Girl by Steve McCurry for National Geographic Rudy after several months trying finally managed to Afghanistan valid license in the period of Ma... Read more
Ham College Episode 5 Read more
More
Maritime Mobile Service Network Comes to the Aid of Vessel in Distress
Why have an original QSL ?
RUMlogNG2Go for iOS version 3.5.2 now available
CQ’s November Issue Preview
How to build a Simplified Arduino CW Trainer by Tom N4TL
Wouxun KG-D2000 DMR HT Radio
CloudSDR – The next chapter in connected software defined radio
Dark Coronal Hole Brings Bright Aurora: Solar Storm Forecast 11-09-2017
FCC Warns on Noncompliant VHF / UHF Two-Way Radios – Baofeng
WRTC 2018 Qualification Process
CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW 2014 [ 3830 Scores Rumors ]
How to perfectly clean wires in minutes! by NH7ZE
T6 / IV3FHA – Afghanistan
Ham College Episode 5
Warning: file_get_contents(https://plusone.google.com/_/+1/fastbutton?url=https%3A%2F%2Fqrznow.com%2Farrl-president-bestows-presidents-award-on-amsats-tom-clark-k3io%2F): failed to open stream: HTTP request failed! HTTP/1.0 404 Not Found in /home/qrznow/public_html/wp-content/themes/goodnews5/framework/functions/posts_share.php on line 151