2023 Presenter Biographies

Aaron Addison, is a long time digital mode instructor, and teacher for ham radio classes.

First licensed as WN1JXR in 1967, amateur radio lead Greg to pursue a career in Electrical Engineering, earning BSEE and MSEE degrees from
the Univ. of R.I. He’s worked for Raytheon Co. on RADAR Systems for 42 years as a Senior Principal RF/uW Design Engineer. Greg retired at the end 2019. He is a ARRL Western Mass. Assistant Section Manager and Section Technical Coordinator / Specialist. Greg is Long Island CW Club Leader for the “Doctor Is In” forum and co-leader for the Elmer 101 and Antenna forums. He’s not a Contester or DX chaser, but just a “Rag Chew” QSO operator. Greg is primarily a CW Operator and enjoys QRP Operation. He is one of the founding members of the New England QRP Club. Greg enjoys refurbishing and operating the old “hollow state” boat anchor tube rigs from the 40s, 50s and 60s, He also enjoys teaching ham radio license classes and giving talks and seminars on antennas, transmission lines, and antenna modeling, circuit modeling and vector network analyzer antenna measurements. WA1JXR enjoys exposing new ham operators to CW—the first digital mode!

George Allison, K1IG, has been licensed for over six decades and is president of the Police Amateur Radio Team (PART) of Westford, MA. He served almost 30 years in the U.S. Navy, finishing up as head of the Navy’s Computer and Telecommunications Command.

My interest in ham radio started with my grandfather who was ham operator and an Army MARS operator. Being around radios was the start of the radio bug that has stayed with me. This interest became a career when I joined the Army and became a radio telephone operator.

Nancy Austin, KC1NEK is the Rhode Island Section Manager and outgoing president of the Newport County Radio Club. Professionally, she is a talent development coach for young professionals at Berlin-based CoachHub, building on a career as a Technology & Culture educator at WPI, Yale, and RISD. Her Brown University PhD thesis was on women and work, and the 19th c. design schools founded by women for women to provide economic security at a time of changing industrial challenges and opportunities. 

First licensed in 2020, Nancy is a growth-mindset kind of person, passionate about amateur radio and looks forward to sharing her enthusiasm with your group in informal discussion group meetings, held remotely.

Topics:

• Next Gen Leaders
• Women, Risk & Radio
• Radio & Workforce Development
• Cybersecurity & Radio Literacy – the shared mission to recruit, empower and retain a motivated skilled citizenry

Alan Bradford AE1H Trustee for W1FN, Twin State Radio Club (TSRC) Canaan NH. Serving the NH/VT Upper Valley Area.

Larry was licensed in 1962 as novice KN1VFX and became W1DYJ in 1966.  He was an engineer and project manager in Hewlett-Packard Medical’s cardiac lab in Waltham and Andover MA starting in 1969.  In 1985 he started the cardiac R&D lab’s CAD and the SW Testing groups. He moved to HP Medical Education in 1993, responsible for technical and project management training. When Agilent split out of HP in 1999, he became Agilent Technology’s global program manager for their Learning Management System.  “Retiring” in 2005, he then consulted for Avago (now Broadcom) on eLearning technologies through 2012.  Larry holds three degrees in Electrical Engineering from MIT.  He spends his time chasing DX and contesting in Woburn, traveling with his wife Maren, and attending many jazz and classical concerts.  He is the net manager and newsletter editor for the MMRA, publications editor for HamXposition, and a member of the YCCC.

K1BG has been a ham for over 50 years.  He’s past president of the Nashoba Valley ARC, the Norwood ARC, is the ARRL Affiliated Club Coordinator for Eastern Massachusetts, and is the CWops Ambassador for the New England.

Jeremy Cadrin, WA1JRC, Vice President of the Falmouth Amateur Radio Association. An avid amateur radio operator and a full time firefighter for the Town of Sandwich, MA.

Charles is the Section Emergency Coordinator for Western Massachusetts.

Najm is an electrical controls engineer.

I have been a ham since 2009 and an Extra since 2010.  My current role is Emergency Coordinator for Hillsborough County ARES, New Hampshire.  Prior to this role I was an Assistant Emergency Coordinator – Operations.  I am a certified trainer for both the ARRL and W5YI.  In that capacity, in addition to teaching the 3 license courses I have created multiple technical courses in the areas of digital operations and “Go-Boxes Design and Implementation” to name just a few.  My latest course is titled “The Power of PowerPoles.”

Bob DeMattia, K1IW, is the president of New England Spectrum Management Council.

Paul Decker has been an Amateur Radio hobbyist and teacher for over 40 years. He was first licensed in 1980 and through the decades has studied and explored the many facets of ham radio. He initially became involved with the CW traffic nets in the 1980’s, building various projects from antennas to high powered amplifiers. He has experience working as a VE, teaching weekend license class sessions and working 75 DXCC countries and 48 states on 2 meter EME. Paul is a relative newcomer to the Army MARS organization, but is no stranger to Military-comms as he served as both a surface and submarine Radioman (also holds the only “silver key” award from Commander Submarine Group Nine for CW proficiency). Paul is currently employed as an engineering manager for a medical device company. He is the proud father of two grown children who share his passion for ham radio and technology.

Richard G. Desaulniers Sr., VE2DX, is President and Lead Designer of VE2DX Electronics. He has been involved with ham radio since he was a teenager in the late 70s, licensed first as VE2STN in 1990, he got his advanced license soon after and is an avid experimenter involved in beta teams of HRD, ERC and multiple other projects.  Richard was assistant EC for western Quebec during 1996 Quebec flouds, and 1997/1998 Quebec Ice Storms. Finally, He was RAC/ARRL SM for Quebec from 1998 till 2001. Richard, is an avid contester, activated multiple Canadian Islands and DXXPedition, he likes to operate in digital and Voice modes, a generalists he experiments in multiple things within our hobby.

I’m fortunate to be involved with some great people that make the ham radio hobby most enjoyable. Ham radio is something I’ve had the privileged of being exposed to my entire life.  Growing up my dad, Paul, K1YWI (SK), was always active in some aspect of radio; the time finally arrived for me to get licensed.  I’m sure he would have been quite enthusiastic about trying out new equipment and joining in the fun. I am an enthusiastic supporter of the National Traffic System. This program is something I really believe in and am excited about being affiliated with a great group of dedicated stations.  If you want to get a lot of meaningful radio time, NTS is great.  I serve as an Assistant Traffic Manager for training in the Eastern Massachusetts Section (EMA) and am also Net Manager / Official Relay Station for the Eastern Massachusetts 2 Meter Traffic Net.

Lucas Elliott, W1BTR, age 22, is the project lead of the Radiocraft project and the owner of YouTube channel W1BTR. Lucas is a college student who is passionate about bridging the ham radio hobby with the next generation.

Technology Education teacher in public school for 35 years. Started the museum in September 1990 with personal collection.  Have directed the museum through 33 years and six different facilities.  Married, father of three grown children and grandfather of three. 

The Mohawk Amateur Radio Club of the greater Gardner, MA area will be bringing our 16-foot communication trailer as part of the exhibit.

Dr. Philip J. Erickson, W1PJE, holds a PhD from Cornell University in space physics.  He is head of the Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences group, a Principal Research Scientist, and an associate director at Haystack Observatory, a multidisciplinary radio observatory operated by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Dr. Erickson is a member of ARRL, RSGB, and TAPR, and vice president of the Nashoba Valley Amateur Radio Club.  He is a steering committee member for HamSCI and is a member of the National Academy of Science, Engineering, and Medicine’s Committee on Radio Frequencies, which advocates on scientific radio frequency requirements and interference protection for scientific and engineering research.

W. Burns Fisher, Jr., WB1FJ, has had a lifelong interest in radio and electronics, including giving himself a pretend call sign as a young boy, being a DJ and the chief engineer of a college FM radio station.  He has also had a lifelong interest in satellites and outer space.  After retiring from his job as a software engineer developing operating systems, he got a REAL amateur call sign and started volunteering for AMSAT, the Radio Amateur Satellite Corp, where he finally is fulfilling a lifelong dream to work on orbital satellites.  He was the lead flight software developer for the Fox series of satellites, and is currently developing software for the Golf series.

Michael was first licensed in 1989, while he was in High School, as Novice licensee KB0FCY.  He obtained his Extra class license WZ0C within the next few months.  He studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) where he was active with the campus ham radio clubs W1MX and W1XM.  Later, he worked at Stratus Technologies with a number of other hams and became active with the Minuteman Repeater Association, in which he served as a club officer.  Michael also holds a General Radiotelephone Operator License (GROL) with Ship Radar Endorsement (commercial license under Part 13), as well as a GMRS license (Part 95E). Originally from the Midwest, Michael’s first job was in commercial radio, as an on-air personality, and TV, as a cameraman, for stations KDAO and KGCI.  Michael has lived most of his life in the Boston area.  His professional career is in Cybersecurity, and he lives in Maynard, MA. Michael enjoys many aspects of ham radio.  He serves as regular Net Control Station for several nets and is very active in the ARRL National Traffic System (NTS), where he is an Assistant Section Traffic Manager for the Eastern Massachusetts section.  Along with Jon N1ILZ, he started the Massachusetts-Rhode Island Digital Net (MARIDN) in December 2022, a Section level NTS net utilizing the NBEMS modes.  Michael enjoys experimenting with digital modes and operates a Bulletin Board System (BBS) with ports on 2m, 6m, and the AMPRnet.  He envisions a contiguous New England digital RF network built on AREDN, packet radio, and other digital technologies.  Michael also participates in ARES and public service events, activates and hunts in Parks on the Air (POTA), and enjoys fox hunting (Radio Orienteering). 

Marcia Forde KW1U, Eastern and Western Mass Section Traffic Manager, having held various leadership positions in NTS over the past 40+ years, including section CW net manager, Eastern Area net manager, TCC Director and Eastern Area Staff Chair.

An ARTEN evangelist, Paul turned his 1967 ham license into a MSEE (MIT 1975).  He’s currently a club Vice President and was previously President of the Newport County Radio Club.

Jim, KC1BHD, has always been interested in data transmission in general and for several years, AREDN mesh networking in particular. He lives near Worcester and envisions creating RF access to an AREDN mesh for hams.

Co-authors Bob Glorioso and Bob Rose, KC1DSQ, have written two QST Cover Plaque articles since June 2021.  They have several articles in CQ including Guest Antenna Editors.  They have a book on wire antennas in preparation.  W1IS and KC1DSQ are retired engineers who have been working for the last 5 years on antennas of all sizes and shapes, single band beams including phased dipoles and multi-band configurations, with a goal of delivering less than 3:1 SWR across the widest range of frequencies.

Doug Grant is active on HF (CW and SSB, and occasionally on digital modes) and VHF, as well as being active on 2m EME.  Doug was a competitor in several World Radiosport Team Championships (WRTC) and won one gold and two bronze medals.  He also served as the Chairman of the 2014 WRTC held in Massachusetts.

Rory has been licensed since 1983 (basic phone operation, mostly HF in the early years).  After 9/11 he was involved in a central NJ ARES with special pandemic and dirty bomb planning.  He’s participated in multiple NYC Marathons (mile 4) and Salute To Israel Parade (100k marchers).  He started a Salvation Army VHF net covering all NJ, NYC and eastern PA.  Following a hiatus because his radio was stolen, he got back on the air in 2020.  In 2022 he put together the first Field Day site in his county in over a decade.  Since then, he was appointed ARRL EC, EDM (spin-off from ETO) Steering Committee member.

Rex Harper, W1REX, has had a life-long love affair with electrons. His father instilled that love in Rex at an early age, based on his own life-long relationship with electronics. Wherever they lived, Rex and his dad were the go-to-guys to get anything electrical fixed. Rex studied Electrical Engineering at the University of Maine. He started out in Field Service with Texas Instruments and later opened one of the very first Apple Computer Stores in the country. In more recent years Rex has focused on product development. He holds five Patents on electronic toys and games and has developed many new products for his own company (QRPme) and for other companies. In 1995 Rex attended a local ham radio club meeting and passed his Tech license that same night. His current interests involve building things, hosting buildathons, selling kits, running Lobstercon, and developing new products.

Licensed in 2019, KM1NDY was inspired to get involved in Summits-On-The-Air by Steve WG0AT’s fascinating goat-packing videos and incredible CW hilltopping. KM1NDY currently sits in 14th place in the New England division of the SOTA program with over

Jim has been involved in amateur radio since 1971. He credits the hobby with helping him achieve a productive and fulfilling career in technology and business. He is an active contributor to the amateur radio community through his involvement in public service events, as an author, and as a leading authority on tower safety in amateur radio. Jim enjoys mentoring young hams, contesting, DXing, satellite operations and all forms of station building. Professionally, Jim is Vice President of Product for Acquia, a large provider of internet software. Jim and his wife Sue are the proud parents of two grown children – Shari and Sander (KB1FPU).

Josh Johnston, KE5MHV, is ARRL’s Director of Emergency Management. Johnston is from Ozone, Arkansas, and comes to ARRL with 16 years of experience as the Director of Johnson County (Arkansas) Department of Emergency Management. He holds an Extra class Amateur Radio license as well as being an ARES® Emergency Coordinator, Volunteer Examiner, and ARRL-registered Instructor. Johnston is also certified in FEMA NIMS as well as CISA AUXCOMM Communications Unit Leader (COML). He holds a Bachelor of Science in Emergency Administration and Management from Arkansas Tech University.

Anita is an Extra Class Amateur radio operator.  She is a technical project manager for Verizon, managing software development projects.  Her amateur radio interests including DXing, satellite operations, and digital contesting. Anita is currently serving as an ARRL New England Division Assistant Director for Mentoring and Ham Development and Youth Outreach.  She also leads ham radio educational programs, including all three levels of license classes and the Ham Bootcamp program.

Fred, AB1OC enjoys building Amateur Radio stations. He has built a multi-operator HF Station and is active on all of the HF bands from 160m through 23cm. Fred is also an avid VHF and above band station builder, operator, and contester. He is active on the 6m Band, 2m EME Band, and on Satellites.

Max is a rising 7th grader at Benjamin Franklin Classical Charter Public School. He is the vice-president of STARS radio club at New England Sci-Tech, the president of the 4-H Science Explorers, a mentor at the Medway Library Arduino club, and founder of the New England Weather Balloon Society. He currently has an Extra license. He enjoys working with robotics and has been tinkering since he was a toddler. He also enjoys eating sushi, playing with friends, reading novels, and climbing! Max also recently launched an engineering payload on a NASA-sounding rocket through the Cubes in Space program.

Seth enjoys spending time with the ham club and its host, New England Sci-Tech, mentoring youth in STEM subjects. He works as a character animator in the video game industry.

Larry Krainson been a ham since 1977—a whole 46 years ago. As a current holder of the Advanced class license, he is active in CW, SSB, digital, QRP, chasing DX, HF mobile, D-star, satellite (soon hopefully) and anything that interests him. He is president of the Hampden County Radio Association and ARRL WMA ACC, and the 13 Colonies Team K2H Massachusetts state manager, Big E Booth organizer, and other things along the way. Larry lives in Longmeadow, MA, with his very understanding wife Faye for the past 32+ years. He has one son Jacob (KB1NSN) who is now 28 years old. As long as ham radio is fun and interesting, Larry will be active in it. For the past 46 years, it has not let him down.

Ray LaJoie, AA1SE, always an interest in radio as a kid. He listened to his father’s military receiver for hours in the basement. Later, Ray became interested in scanners. He was first got licensed in 2004 at the old Hosstraders. He upgraded to General in 2010 and Extra in 2019 at the last Boxboro Convention. AA1SE served as a club president for over 10 years. In 2017, he became the ARRL Western Mass Section Manager. He’s been a strong advocate in mentoring new hams and encouraging everyone to become an active part in ham radio to help this hobby grow into the future.

Rob, K1UI, is an Assistant New England Director, Spectrum Protection and Use and an Assistant Section Manager in EMA.  His interests also include promoting MESH networking to achieve a New England-wide network.  Rob has been licensed for 60 years and has held many club and ARRL section leadership positions.  His on-the-air activities have included DX’ing, traffic handling and digital communications.

Bradshaw is an ARRL grant recipient.

Rob Macedo, KD1CY, was born and raised in Saratoga Springs, NY, and moved to New Bedford, MA, for college in 1991, where he attended UMass-Dartmouth and graduated with an Electrical Engineering degree. He works at Dell Technologies where he has been for over 28 years. Rob is a senior principal hardware engineer on Technical Staff and former Director of System Integration in the Drive Media Engineering (DME) department where he previously managed a global team of engineers working on disk drive and Solid State Drive evaluation in Dell-EMC products and now is a technical lead in this area working with the same global team of system integration engineers. Rob has always had a very strong interest in technology, meteorology, emergency management, emergency and public service event communications. Rob has been the Amateur Radio Emergency Services (ARES) SKYWARN Coordinator for NWS Boston/Norton (previously Taunton) for 27 years and is the Eastern Massachusetts ARES Section Emergency Coordinator. When he is not at work or doing Amateur Radio public service, emergency communications and weather spotting volunteer work, Rob enjoys movies, shows, time with family and friends, as well as sporting events.

Dom was licensed initially as WN1RFT in 1972 and now holds an Amateur Extra class license and FCC General Radio Operators License. His ham radio interests are: CW, antennas,160 meters, satellites, homebrewing, and DMR.  He attended the Univer

Dave is a Co-Founder and Senior Engineer of Hamshack Hotline, Inc.

I have been a licensed amateur operator since 1977 with various levels of activity depending on what else was happening in my life!   I was active with RACES and a W5YI VE while in WA state.  I like to operate QRP and portable and have enjoyed participating in a relatively active fox hunting community in CT.  Fox Hunting is the tale I will be telling during this expo event.

Charlie is a rising 8th grader who is an inventor and entrepreneur who inspires to make an impact in the world with his inventions. He also partners with New England Sci-Tech to design circuit boards for soldering kits. Recently, he launched an autonomous atmospheric glider from a weather balloon. 

ARES DEC for Cape Cod and the Islands in the Eastern MA ARRL Section. I also work with the Barnstable County Incident Management Team and Regional Emergency Planning Committee. 

Long time officer (and previous President) of the MinuteMan Repeater Association (aka. MMRA). The MMRA maintains a network of linked repeaters in the Eastern half of Massachusetts. See www.mmra.org for info. Usually listening to MMRA repeaters 53.81/147.27/146.61/147.12/449.925 when I am available.

Interests include: the MMRA, Satellite, SKYWARN, Fox Hunting, Packet/APRS (XASTIR in particular), Repeaters, and Public Service.

Also often operate from North Eastham, Cape Cod (FN51).  When on Cape Cod usually listening to 53.01/147.255/146.955.

Tom Perera, W1TP, is a retired professor of neuroscience. He has been a ham radio operator for 70 years specializing in the history of telegraph keys and Enigma cipher machines. He has given hundreds of lectures on these topics at hamfests, clubs and conferences. His books, talks and extensive historical websites make this history accessible to the world.

Bob retired from 38 years of teaching, mostly after-school STEM classes, ham radio and electronics courses, classical LATIN, photography, and occasionally other subjects, at a private school in Brookline, Massachusetts. In 2014 he founded New England Amateur Radio, Inc. (NE1AR), a non-profit educational group to provide radio education to schools, local clubs, and emergency organizations, as well as provide regular or on-call VE sessions.

Licensed in 1993. Past President of the Nashoba Valley ARC. Participant in HamSCI activities since 2017. Member of the New England Grape Group who have built and put in place over ten Personal Space Weather Stations.

Licensed since 1951. DXCC 392 on the DX Honor Roll. 11 Band DXCC. 3065 DXCC Challenge. DX’peditioner. Over 150 technical articles published in Amateur Radio journals as well as over 125 technical talks delivered.

Dave Robertson got his start in Amateur Radio as a young kid over 60 years ago in Wyoming.  That love for electronics and communications took Dave on a lifetime adventure.  Dave served in the U.S. Navy as an Electronics Tech.  He traveled the World.  After the Navy, Dave worked in electronics, finally working for Varian Associates for over 40 years.  During his years with Varian Associates (the Parent Company of Eimac) he traveled the World and was involved as a:  Field Service Engineer, R&D Engineer, Product Support Engineer, and finally, in the training department as an industrial teacher for Ion Implanters (Particle Accelerators).  He’s been in the electronics biz pretty much his whole life.  Today Dave is retired and actively working the bands for DX and one-on-one conversations with a state-of-the-art shortwave radio station at his home in Groveland, Massachusetts.

 Ted has 20+ years’ magloop experience due to living in urban QTHs.  His next project is a 2 element magloop yagi.

ARRL President Rick Roderick,K5UR, is an active DXer, having achieved DXCC Mixed 371, Phone 368, CW 355 as well as #2 in the world on 6 meters and #3 on 2 meters. Rick has also been a League volunteer for over fifty years.

In addition to operating remotely, Rockwell also often operates for Summits On The Air.

A licensed ham radio operator W3EVE from 1962, Steve was Eastern MA Technical Coordinator, Emergency Coordinator and a current District Emergency Coordinator. He is a life member of the ARRL.

I had considered getting licensed for decades before I finally took the Technician and General class tests in November of 2017. The hurricane devastating Puerto Rico was what finally got me going. I knew from the beginning I wanted to be involved in Emergency Communications. Within a year I volunteered for  a Net Control Station position. Soon after, i was asked to become an Emergency Coordinator for Eastern Hampden County then was asked to take over as Assistant Section Emergency Coordinator for Western Mass. Before ham radio I was heavily involved in Public TV, including live, on air spots. Radio is a lot easier and you can do it in your pajamas. I am also a SKYWARN NCS for Western Mass and a CERT radio operator for Westfield.

Ed Snyder, W1YSM, is President of W1NRG, the Meriden Amateur Radio Club / Wallingford Amateur Radio Group.  The Connecticut club has 145 members.  W1YSM is also SKYWARN EC for New Haven and Middlesex Counties in Connecticut.  He is a recipient of a grant award from the ARDC and ARRL.  A long time SWLer (WPE2FVH), Ed has been a ham since 2016 and holds an Extra Class license.

Terry is a D-STAR system admin, D-STAR and multimode reflector admin and a digital and analog repeater owner.

Celebrating his 54th year in amateur radio, Mitch is still quite active! He is active in many contests and is often that first Vermont station you work. He also is active at Field Day and many park activations using the club call W1NVT. And when not operating, he is often busy teaching amateur radio classes or involved with public service activities. Not only does he enjoy operating, but he also has fun visiting hams all over the world, as he just got back from the WRTC event in Italy!

Andy Stewart, KB1OIQ, holds an Amateur Extra license and has enjoyed the hobby for 15 years.  Andy has an MSEE degree from WPI with a focus on computer engineering.  By day, he is a Digital Logic verification engineer.   By night, Andy participates in many facets of our wide ranging hobby including digital modes, CW, SSB, and 2m repeater contacts.  Andy’s workbench is covered with projects ranging from Arduino circuits to old tube radios.

First licensed 20 years ago at the age of 36, James fulfilled a lifelong dream of becoming an amateur radio operator; something that should have happened earlier in life given his childhood obsession with radio and electronics. Better late than never!

Phil Temples, K9HI, was first licensed over fifty years ago as WN9EAY in Bloomington, Indiana. He holds an Amateur Extra class license. Phil is a QST author and an ARRL Diamond Club Life Member. He also serves ARRL Vice Director for the New England Division.  When he’s not focused on ham radio activities, Phil writes fiction. He has published five mystery-thriller novels, a novella, and four story anthologies in addition to over 220 online short stories. You could say that storytelling is in his blood.

In 1971, Dave Tessitore, K1DT, joined the Providence Radio Assoc (PRA) at age 14, becoming WN1QOG in ’72.  He earned General, Advanced and Extra at the Custom House Boston, and was granted his current callsign in 1977.  Along with a career in communications research, development, and project management, he’s held numerous leadership positions at the PRA.  In 2017 he was elected club President.  “Tess” is diehard Analog Man, working DX and friends on CW and SSB from 160m through 70cm using vintage gear.

Starting with a variety of shortwave radios from the local Radio Shack back in the early 1960s, John has been putting wires and aluminum antennas in trees. In 1993 John licensed up to Amateur Extra class and once again started looking to the trees to support a growing list of antennas. Along the way while DXing John came across a contest one weekend and took the leap and tossed his call into the pileup. Amazingly the far end big powerhouse European station answered with their exchange, and the contesting bug bit firmly.  The YCCC was discovered soon thereafter and here we are today.