The Harvard Wireless Club (W1AF) sponsored its first Amateur Radio Symposium on April 29 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The symposium featured speakers from the University and elsewhere, including appearances by W1AF’s incoming president Ben Lee, K7JS, and the club’s outgoing president Douglas Maggs, KK4UHK. They were joined by Yale University Amateur Radio Club (W1YU) President Scott Matheson, N3NFP; First Vice President James Surprenant, AB1DQ, and past president Martin Ewing, AA6E, in recounting the distinguished histories of these two collegiate Amateur Radio clubs.

Flavio Jorge, CT7AQK, of the University of Aveiro, discussed microwave propagation for space systems in his presentation, “Knocking down walls, changing mentalities and breaking rules — a case study on radiowave propagation for space systems.”

Emeritus professor of electrical engineering Paul Horowitz, W1HFA, delivered a thoroughly enjoyable presentation and discussion of the ultimate DX — monitoring the universe in a search for extraterrestrial intelligence. Matheson and Ewing participated in a round table forum, “Youth in Amateur Radio.”

That group was joined later via Skype by Martin Atherton, G3ZAY, the master of Cambridge University’s G6UW and two of his student colleagues. Vasiljie Perovic, M0HZC, spoke on  ​“Extremely Low Frequency meteor detection,” while William Eustace, M0WJE, discussed “LoRa spread spectrum radio.”

Others taking part were Daniela Marcelino, CR7AQM, and Micael Rebelo, CR7AQL, of the University of Aveiro, and Nicolas Weninger, KC1GLI, and Saahil Mehta, KG5HEW, both of Harvard.

Also on hand was ARRL CEO Tom Gallagher, NY2RF, who presented a progress report from League Headquarters and emphasized the need to welcome new hams into the Amateur Radio community. Attorney Fred Hopengarten, K1VR, shared some of his career highlights in his talk, “Ham radio pays my mortgage and other thoughts.” Hopengarten is the author of the book Antenna Zoning for the Radio Amateur.

“The Harvard Wireless Club made a strong showing on Saturday,” Gallagher said afterward. “They combined excellent material with a fast-paced program that never bogged down — from Professor Paul Horowitz’s description of chasing DX across the universe to live transatlantic conversations with Cambridge University’s radio club members.”

Attendee George Allison, K1IG, summed up the proceedings this way: “A full day with no fluff...accomplished and proficient speakers…absorbing and enlightening…wholehearted League support...and all-you-can-eat free ice cream is always a winner!”

Last fall, ARRL announced its Collegiate Amateur Radio Initiative (CARI) to assist college and university ham radio clubs in collaborating and networking. The community has grown rapidly since then, with membership in the Facebook CARI group growing fivefold to nearly 500 individuals.

ARRL sponsored a CARI forum at the Orlando HamCation and will sponsor a similar forum at Hamvention later this month in Xenia, Ohio (Saturday, May 20, at 12:30 PM in Room 4).

The Harvard Amateur Radio Symposium has been archived on YouTube.