Biography

I started in radio and electronics in the Spring of 1961, while in the 8th grade, when my father helped me build an AM crystal radio set. It used a coil form my grandfather had used in his home-built crystal set and a Philmore cat's whisker detector which contacted a galena (lead sulfide) polycrystal. A homemade bypass capacitor and a 2000 ohm headset completed the radio.

In high school, under the mentorship of a neighbor, Jack Zizan, who was in technical school to become an electronic technician, I learned the resistor color code, Ohm's Law, and built a vacuum tube, short wave, regenerative receiver, a vacuum tube, 2 meter superregenerative receiver (6J6 vacuum tube), a three vacuum tube audio amplifier (35W4, 50C5, 12AT6 vacuum tubes), a vacuum tube AM transmitter (using a single 6BG6 tube), transistor multivibrator, and a transistorized metal detector and a vacuum tube, 1" oscilloscope (using a 6SN7 tube, a 1", 913 CRT, and a NE-2 neon bulb relaxation oscillator). Jack also taught me about vacuum tubes, diodes, triodes, tetrodes, and pentodes as well as PNP and NPN bipolar transistors (2N107, 2N170, CK722, CK768, etc.). I was also an avid short wave listener (SWL) using, at first, the regenerative receiver and eventually, a Hallicrafters SX-110 communications receiver. I subscribed to Popular Electronics magazine (PE) and signed up for PE's SWL club. My Popular Electronics SWL call sign was WPE3DPA. I remember learning about HF ionospheric propagation and receiving QSL cards from the VOA, BBC, HCJB, Deutsche Welle, RAI, Radio Sweden, Radio Moscow, Radio Sofia, Radio Switzerland, Radio Nederland (in Bonaire), and others. I was very well prepared to enter the electrical engineering program at Carnegie-Mellon University in September 1965.

Now I am a retired research electrical engineer whose former employers included: MIT Lincoln Laboratory 1975 to 2012, CBS Laboratories 1973 to 1975, Officer (Captain), US Army Signal Corps 1969 to 1977 (ready reserve). I am a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University's electrical engineering department with a BS in Electrical Engineering 1969, an MS in Electrical Engineering, 1970, and a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering 1974. My research specialties include: Electro-optics, including laser communications, coherent and direct detection laser radar, infrared and visible imaging systems, microwave and millimeter wave radar systems and millimeter wave spread spectrum communication systems. I have also performed systems engineering and modeling using Matlab and MathCAD.

My current amateur radio interests include DX chasing, satellite communications, and Earth-Moon-Earth (EME) communications at 2 meters. I am a member of the Westerly Amateur Radio Team in Westerly, Rhode Island.
I am married and have seven children, all of whom are married, and we have twelve grandchildren.

Patents: "Wavelength Division and Polarization Division Multiple Access Free Space Optical Terminal Using a Single Aperture" - Patent date Issued Dec 1, 2009, US 7,627,251 B2. "Spatial Filter System" - Patent date Issued Dec 12, 1984, US 4,489,390

Radio License: Amateur Extra Class: 14 September 2018, General Class: 20 June 2017

ARRL Publications and Presentations:

1. Dr. William E. Keicher, "A Low Power, 144 MHz, Earth-Moon-Earth Amateur Radio Station", 2019 VHF Super Conference Proceedings, Sterling, Virginia, USA, 26 April 2019, pp 159 - 195. I will send you a pdf copy of the paper via e-mail, if you request it.

2. Dr. William E. Keicher, "A Low Power, Single Polarization, 144 MHz, Earth-Moon-Earth Amateur Radio Station", Presented at the 2019 Northeast HamXposition, Boxborough, Massachusetts, on 7 September 2019. This presentation is now on YouTube. Search "KC1HTT" on YouTube and you will find the video of this presentation or paste the URL into your browser:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9_xbltSQUQ

I will send you a pdf copy of the charts via e-mail, if you request it.

Professional Technical Publications: Subset of publications is accessible via Google Scholar under "William Keicher"

Organizations: Senior Life member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), Emeritus member of Optical Society of America (OSA), member ARRL, member Westerly Amateur Radio Team, member Academy of Model Aeronautics.

Hobbies: Amateur radio, amateur astronomy and astrophotography, radio controlled quadcopter drones and radio controlled fixed wing model aircraft, 3D printing (plastic), metal detecting, photography, long wave thermal imaging, sports cars, and swimming.

QSL Information

I use ARRL Logbook of the World, eQSL, QRZ.com, QRZCQ.com, and Club Log. I also mail QSL cards direct to confirm QSOs.

Worked DXCCs:

Equipment

HF Equipment:
ICOM 7300, HF/50 MHz transceiver, 160, 80, 60, 40, 30, 20, 17, 15, 12, 10, and 6 meter bands, 100W, SSB/CW/RTTY/FM/PSK31/PSK63/OLIVIA/FT8/JT65/JT9, 2 to 100 watts, with recording capability; ICOM PS-126 13.6V DC power supply
ICOM 9100, HF/VHF/UHF full duplex, transceiver, 160, 80, 60, 40, 30, 17, 15, 12, 10, 6, 2, 0.70 meter bands, 2 to 100 watts, SSB/CW/RTTY/FM/PSK31/PSK63/OLIVIA/FT8/JT65/JT9, 2 to 100 watts through 2 meters, 75 watts at 70 cm. MFJ-4235MV Switched Power Supply, 9V to 16V, 30A continuous.
Heil Sound Pro Set Elite-iC headphone-microphone boomset and Heil Sound HS-2 hand T/R switch.
ACOM 600S, 600 watt, solid state, linear amplifier, 160, 80, 60, 40, 30, 20, 17, 15, 12, 10, and 6 meter bands, all modes, long duty cycle.
MFJ 998, 1500 W, HF, Intellituner Automatic Antenna Tuner, 1.8 to 30 MHz, matches antenna complex impedances from 12 to 1600 ohms to 50 ohm coaxial cable.

HF Antennas: Hustler 6-BTV trapped, six band (80/40/30/20/15/10 meters), vertical quarter-wave antenna with 20 radials on the ground (5-BTV replaced on 12 July 2018). Home brew Magnetic Loop Antenna tunable from 20 meters to 30 meters with an MFJ 936B small loop antenna tuner. The Magnetic Loop Antenna is a circular, 4.27 meter (circumference), 0.95 cm diameter copper pipe. An Alpha Delta DX-20 20m half wave dipole mounted on two telescoping tripods.

VHF UHF Equipment:
Yaesu FT8900R, quad band FM HF/VHF/UHF, full duplex, transceiver, 10 meters, 6 meters, 2 meters, and 70 cm bands, 50/20/10/5 watts for 10, 6, and 2 meter bands, 35/20/10/5 watts for 70 cm band, MFJ-4235MV Switched Power Supply, 9V to 16V, 30A continuous. Base Station: Comet GP-15 triband VHF UHF antenna, 6m/3dBi, 2m/6.2dBi, 70cm/8.6dBi, Mobile: Nagoya TB-320A magnetic mount, triband antenna with a gain of 2.15 dBi at 2 meters, 3.8 dBi at 1.25 meters and 5.5 dBi at 70 cm.
BTECH UV-5X3, handheld triband FM transceiver, 5 watts, 2 meters, 1.25 meters, and 70 cm (130.000 to 179.990 MHz, 222.000 to 225.900 MHz, 400.000 to 520.900 MHz), with Nagoya NA-320A triband whip antenna.
BTECH DMR 6X2, handheld, digital, dual band, DMR/FM transceiver, 7 watts VHF (138 to 174 MHz), 6 watts UHF (400 to 480 MHz) with GPS and storage capability.

Satellite Communications, VHF/UHF
Arrow II SATCOM Cross Polarized, VHF Yagi and UHF Yagi Antennas, 146 MHz (+7.5 dBi gain), 437 MHz (+11.5 dBi gain)
Elk 2M/440LS Five Element Dual Band Log Periodic Antenna, 2 meter (+8.7 dBi gain), 440 MHz (+8.7 dBi gain).
Transceivers: Yaesu 8900R Full duplex FM VHF/UHF transceiver or BTECH 5X3 and BTECH DMR 6X2 VHF/UHF FM handheld multiband transceivers (described above).
Sony ICD-PX470 stereo digital voice recorder - record satellite voice and QSO information.

Earth Moon Earth Station, VHF (first EME QSOs on 19 January 2019
M2 2M9SSB Nine element Yagi antenna, 144 to 146 MHz (+14.1 dBi gain), Horizontal polarization, Beamwidth 35 deg V X 38 deg H
Advanced Radio Research MSP144VDG-160 low noise preamplifier,144 to 148 MHz, NF 0.55dB, Gain 22dB, powered via coax, with RF enabled coax switch.
RM Italy LA-250V Solid State, Linear VHF Amplifier, 140 to 150 MHz, 200 watts, long duty cycle. MFJ-4245MV Switched Power Supply, 9V to 16V, 40A continuous.
ICOM 9100, HF/VHF/UHF full duplex, transceiver (described above).
Comunication mode coding and waveforms - JT65B or QRA 64

Receivers:
Texsun PL-880, World band receiver, LW 100kHz-599kHz, MW 520kHz-1720kHz, SW 1711 kHz-29999kHz (AM, USB, LSB), FM 87MHz-108MHz, Variable IF bandwidth MW/LW/SW 9, 5, 3.5, 2.3 kHz, SW SSB 4, 3, 2.3, 1.2, 0.5 kHz.
Radio Shack Pro-34 VHF/UHF Scanning Receiver, FM 30-54 MHz, AM 108-136 MHz, FM 136-174 MHz, FM 380-512 MHz, FM 806-823.9375 MHz, FM 851.1125 - 868.9375 MHz, FM 896.1125 - 960 MHz
SDRplay RSPduo Dual Channel, Software Defined Receiver, 1 kHz to 2 GHz, 14 bit A/D converter, AM, SSB, NBFM, WBFM, three antenna ports.
RTL SDR v3 Software Defined Receiver, 500 kHz to 1.7 GHz, AM, SSB, NBFM, WBFM receiver.
AcuRite 02020 Lightning Alert - A portable long wave, lightning detector that provides hazardous lightning warning with alerts for cloud-to-ground, cloud-to-cloud and intra-cloud lightning strikes within a 25 mile range.
Heliognosis EM2 Electromagnetic Monitor - The EM2 is a calibrated field strength meter which detects the electric field component of an electromagnetic wave. Accuracy: +/- 10%, Frequency Range: 50 Hz to 10 GHz, Measurement range: 0.005 microwatt/square cm to 40 milliwatt/square cm.

Computer Software:
Ham Radio Deluxe 6.4.0.907, including: HRD Rig Control, HRD Logbook, and Digital Master DM780. Able to work various digital modes including BPSK31, PSK63, QPSK, Contestia, Olivia, RTTY, CW, etc. with USB 2 interface to Lenovo Legion Y520 with Windows 10 operating system.
WSJT-X 2.01 Able to work FT8, JT4, JT9, JT65, JT65B, QRA64, ISCAT, MSK144, WSPR digital modes with USB 2 interface to Lenovo Legion Y520 with Windows 10 operating system.
EZNEC+ v 6.0 Antenna modeling software. Calculates antenna gain, beamwidth, antenna pattern, SWR vs. frequency.

Test Equipment:
Tektronix 7834, 4 channel, 400 MHz, analog storage oscilloscope with a Tektronix 7A19 50 ohm input, 500 MHz amplifier, 2 each, Tektronix 7A26 dual channel 200 MHz amplifiers and 2 each, Tektronix 7B80 time bases, a Hantek 2D72 Handheld 70 MHz Oscilloscope, Digital Multimeter and Arbitrary Waveform Generator, a Philips PM 5712 1 Hz to 50 MHz pulse generator, a Wavetek 0.01 to 1 MHz waveform generator, a Rig Expert AA-54 Antenna Analyzer 0.1 MHz to 54 MHz, AAI N1201SA Antenna analyzer 137.5 MHz to 2700 MHz, an MFJ-891 2000 watt, HF SWR and wattmeter, a Nissei RS-70 200 watt, digital HF SWR and wattmeter, an MFJ-849 200 watt, digital HF/VHF/UHF SWR and wattmeter, a Nissei RS-40 200 watt, VHF/UHF SWR and wattmeter, a Realistic 120 kHz to 250 MHz RF signal generator, a Proster Model BM4070 Digital L-C-R Tester, a Radio Shack Micronta Range Doubler 22-204A analog VOM 50k ohms/volt (DC) and 10k ohms/volt (AC), a Radio Shack 22-168A digital VOM, an Elenco Model XP-581 Quad Linear Power Supply 5V @ 3A, +12 V @ 1A, -12V @ 1 A, 2.5V to 20V @2A, a Lafayette 99-5063 consumer vacuum tube tester and two linear power supplies.