Banquet Speaker

After our fine dinner, but before our traditional prize table, we will hear from our banquet speaker.

This year, our speaker is Jeff Kruth, WA3ZKR.

First licensed in 1975, Jeff has had an undying fascination with VHF and microwaves for at least 10 years prior to that. That resulted in a 30 year career as a microwave engineer involved in DoD work. He particularly likes weak signal work on the higher bands for both the technical and operational challenges presented.

His previous station in FM19OF was operational from 6 meters to 10 GHz. He has been tinkering together stations for 24, 47 and 78 GHz, but development has been slowed by life and the fact that he currently lives in a hole in the ground!

He previous spent 20+ years teaching college while running Kruth-Microwave Electronics Company (K-MEC) and engineering the first ever non-NASA DSN station at the Morehead State University (MSU) Space Science Center, where Jeff was the staff EE in charge of the 21 meter Space Tracking Antenna (STA). Duties also include teaching, where he has developed and taught courses in Space Systems Engineering at both the Undergraduate level (SSE-442 Microwave Systems, & SSE-444 Microwave Communications) and in the Masters program (SSE-644 Advance Space Telecom & SSE-660 Remote Sensing), among others.

He is a lifetime member of the ARRL, the Association of Old Crows (AOC, for EW), the Society of Amateur Radio Astronomers (SARA), the Mid-West Vhf-Uhf Society (MVUS), NTMS, and the Central States VHF Society (CSVHF). He currently holds an Extra Class license.