Our next SBE CH 78 meeting will be Wednesday, March 12th at 11:30 AM at WBRA TV Roanoke.
We will have a guest presenter named Steve Floyd, Chief Engineer of HAARP. He will be presenting a fascinating look at the HAARP systems design, installation and operations. Should be very interesting to all engineering types!!
Please attend and as always please RSVP so we can have a head count for lunch that will be provided by the chapter . And as always you DO NOT need to be a member to attend. Everyone is welcome.
HAARP Presentation Summary:
The High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program “HAARP”, an Engineering Description and Scientific Review
Steve Floyd, Chief Engineer for HAARP, will present a fascinating look at the program, recognized as a highly successful research project overcoming many unique and unusual radio engineering design challenges. This presentation will provide an inside view describing how the HAARP systems are designed, constructed, installed, and operated.
The HAARP Research Station is a state-of-the-art ionospheric research project located in Alaska and was jointly funded by the U.S. Air Force, U.S. Navy, and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Designed and built by a Washington, DC based APTI/BAE Systems team, its purpose is to analyze the Earth’s ionosphere and investigate the potential for developing ionospheric enhancement technology and to support Radio Science research for radio communications and surveillance.
The HAARP facility was built in three stages starting in 1993, research operations began in 1996, and was completed in 2007. In 2015, the HAARP program and all assets were officially transferred to the University of Alaska (UAF), and it continues to operate the facility today.
The most prominent instrument at the HAARP Research Facility is the Ionospheric Research Instrument (IRI), a 180-antenna tower phased array, with 180 individual 20 kW each radio transmitter systems, operating in the high frequency (HF) band with an effective radiated power of 5 Gigawatts. The HAARP IRI is recognized as one of the highest-powered HF transmitting systems in the world and is used to temporarily excite a limited area of the ionosphere for scientific study.
Steve Floyd is a BSEE graduate of Virginia Tech, a former student DJ and Chief Engineer at WUVT-FM in Blacksburg, VA, and obtained his MSEE (with emphasis on RF and Microwave Engineering and Radar Systems Engineering) from The Johns Hopkins University in 1991. He became a licensed Amateur Radio operator at 12 years old and is active as W4YHD. Steve began his professional career designing high power RF communications and Radar systems at E-Systems Inc., then became Chief RF Systems Design Engineer for HAARP working at APTI/BAE Systems. As Chief Engineer for the HAARP facility he was responsible for all hardware systems designs, equipment installation, and site operations until 2014 when he became a part time consultant to the program. His current responsibilities are primarily involved in the design of high power SDR based Radar systems, including EW and Communications systems, at Ultra Electronics. Steve is also active in the broadcast industry, he is an SBE member of DC Chapter 37, and has a lifelong love of radio broadcasting and amateur radio.
