Speaker: Neville Palmer

Neville Palmer, Senior Lecturer , Solent University  will be explaining how the science of radio propagation progressed from its early days when in a matter of a few years, radio transmissions progressed from a range of just a few miles to spanning the Atlantic, in much part due to the work of Marconi. This session will look at the initial history in which no knowledge slowly developed through experiment and observation, and which today is led by automation of the experimental processes in gathering data, improving predication accuracy and assists us in gaining further knowledge of solar activity.

In his younger days Neville established an interest in radiocommunication. becoming a Radio Officer in the Merchant Navy, obtaining the amateur radio callsign G4GCI. He now combines his interest in radio, computing and computer networks , in addition to his academic role , by running a digital beacon station using the Weak Signal Propagation Reporter system (WSPR). Using a low powered transmitter, his computer operates the beacon by transmitting a signal on a range of frequencies throughout the day and it also listens for other WSPR signals. Stations in the network upload their received signal reports to a web server where it can be used by researchers.