President's Report

The AMTA 2010 Atlanta Symposium was a great success. Everyone I talked to said they had a great time, thought the papers were good and especially liked the Aquarium tour. Two new members were elected to the Board of Directors, namely Per Iversen and Lydell Frasch. Congratulations to both of them. New officers for 2011 were also elected. Kim Hassett will serve as President, Javier Marti-Canales as Vice President, Brian Fischer will continue as Technical Coordinator, Vince Rodriguez will continue as Meeting Coordinator, Per Iversen will serve as Secretary and Lydell Frasch will serve as Treasurer. I'd like to thank Ed Urbanik who served as Vice President in 2010 and as Technical Coordinator before that. Ed was a driving force in getting AMTA's tax status changed allowing AMTA and our exhibitors to save money. Thank you for the honor of letting me serve as your President in 2010. I've enjoyed working with the dedicated group of AMTA Board of Directors and the many others that devote their time and energy to keeping AMTA working smoothly. Kim Hassett takes over the reins of AMTA with a healthy backlog of future conferences and a healthy financial status. I'll still be involved with AMTA next year as head of the Awards Committee and look forward to seeing you at AMTA Colorado.

Don Bodnar
MI Technologies
2010 AMTA President
President@AMTA.org

AMTA 2010  Atlanta Review and Recognition

I'd like to sincerely thank everyone who attended AMTA 2010 in Atlanta, GA! I hope that our technical program, vendor exhibits, and social events were both informative and enjoyable, and that downtown Atlanta proved to be a great venue.

I'd also like to thank all of the companies that exhibited at the Symposium. I hope that your experience was a positive one and that we will all see you again at AMTA 2011 in Denver, CO.

I must also thank the 2010 AMTA Board of Directors, Three Dimensions, Milestone Marketing, and the Westin Peachtree Plaza event staff, who helped us pull everything together and make this a great year. I'd like to recognize our co-host, The Georgia Institute of Technology, as well as the entire 2010 Host Committee. The Host Committee included Jeff Kemp (Vice-Chair) and Philip Brady (Technical Liaison) from GTRI, Jamie Huff from The Howland Company (Technical Tour Coordinator), Dave Pinnell from Star Dynamics (Social Events Coordinator), and Kim Rutkowski (Student Liaison), Angie Carpenter (Treasurer), and Stephanie Stocker (Marketing/Publications Coordinator) from the Microwave Vision Group. Jeff Kemp (AMTA 2008 President and AMTA 2010 Vice Chair), Janet O'Neil and Mike Francis (AMTA Advisors) provided invaluable experience and guidance throughout the entire process. Special recognition goes out to Stephanie Stocker, my right arm, who spent countless hours in planning and promoting AMTA 2010, and who did a fantastic job on the publications, and keeping us on track.

To all of you, I extend my sincere gratitude. Your hard work and continued efforts helped to make the 2010 Symposium a huge success, and AMTA 2010 would not have been possible without all of you. I would be remiss in omitting the Microwave Vision Group, The Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI), Star Dynamics, and the Howland company for their support of the Host Committee members, and the hours and efforts that they spent in organizing the 2010 Symposium. And last, but certainly not least, I need to once again recognize and thank the many companies and publications who sponsored us this year. Your support is greatly appreciated.

Thank you for the opportunity to have been your Host Committee Chairman. I am truly proud to have been part of the AMTA 2010 Symposium. I look forward to seeing you in Denver!

Sincerely,

John Estrada
The Microwave Vision Group.
AMTA 2010 Host
Host@amta.org

AMTA's 2010 Distinguished Achievement Award

AMTA's 2010 Distinguished Achievement Award was Michael H. Francis of NIST. He was recognized by his peers at AMTA for his tireless work to promote the goals and objectives of the Antenna Measurement Techniques Association and

• For his contributions to the application of the theory and practice of near-field measurements.
• For his contributions in the development of probe-position correction methods for both planar and spherical near-field measurements.
• For his contributions to uncertainty analysis methods for near-field measurements.
• For his continued service as Senior Advisor to the AMTA Board of Directors.

Click here to read Mike Francis' acceptance speech.

Technical Coordinator's Report

Thanks to everyone who participated in AMTA 2010 in Atlanta! There were many excellent technical papers and I am most appreciative to the authors who put in the hours of hard work which ultimately made our technical program successful. I encourage everyone interested in participating as authors this year to mark May 2, 2011 on your calendars for abstract submittal and to begin thinking about public release timelines early. Our venue in Denver will be an outstanding platform to showcase your work, and we are certainly looking forward to great participation in 2011.

I appreciate the feedback I've received regarding the technical program, as well as those who have stepped up to help with the technical committee and session chair responsibilities. Based on the feedback, I am anticipating some modest adjustments to aspects of the technical program which I will report on in the next newsletter.

The featured technical paper included in this newsletter is from Andrea Cozza (Département de Recherche en Electromagnétisme, SUPELEC) and Abd el-Bassir Abou el-Aileh (Université Libanaise, Faculté de Génie and AMTA 2009 entitled, "Accurate Radiation Pattern Measurements in a Time-Reversal Electromagnetic Chamber." The next newsletter will feature from among our Best Papers for the 2010 symposium.

Thanks again for your support of our technical program, and I appreciate the chance to serve again in this capacity for 2011!

Brian Fischer
Integrity Applications Incorporated
2010 AMTA Technical Coordinator
technical-coordinator@amta.org

AMTA Europe 2011

Ciao AMTA,
Here is your AMTA European Liaison reporting from Rome (Italy), also known as the eternal city! AMTA members are invited to attend the next edition of AMTA Europe on the 10th of April 2011 in the EUR Congressi (please mark this date in your calendar) under the auspices of the EuCAP Antennas and Propagation Conference.

It would be interesting to know what the Romans would have thought about a bunch of barbarians converging on their capital city to talk about designing objects which resembled their own shields!

As usual we are planning a rich programme to include the following:

Convened Sessions:

• "Pattern Comparison Techniques"
• "Near Field Measurements"
• "Special Antenna Measurements"
• "Antenna Diagnostics"

AMTA Workshop: "Pattern Comparison Techniques"
Short Course: "Extensions of Spherical Near-Field Scanning" Dr Doren Hess
Invited Paper: A technical contribution from Prof Breinbjerg

We are also trying to arrange a technical tour at the short wave transmission station of the Vatican Radio just outside Rome. This cannot be confirmed at this point due to bureaucratic reasons and final approval from the authorities in the Vatican City. An alternative will be suggested as a backup plan.

As you can see this will be a very exciting event and we do hope you will manage to attend. As usual further information can be found at www.amtaeurope.org or E-Mailing info@amtaeurope.org

Arriverderci

Dr. Carlo Rizzo
AMTA European Liaison
Eurolink@amta.org

The AMTA 2010 Regional Event – Dayton, Ohio

This year's AMTA regional US event was held in Dayton, Ohio on August 24. Some 70 people attended the full day colloquium and exhibition from academia – including the Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT) – industry, and, of course, nearby Wright Patterson AFB and its Air Force Research Laboratory. The outstanding technical program included:

• Absorber Optimization Techniques by Mr. John Aubin, Orbit/FR
• Spherical Near-Field Modal Filtering in a Contaminated Environment for Improved Pattern Accuracy by Dr. Doren Hess, MI Technologies
• Antenna Measurement Anechoic Chambers for the 100 to 300 MHz Range and the UHF Band by Dr. Vince Rodriguez, ETS-Lindgren
• Overview of Image-Based Near Field-to-Far Field RCS Transformations by Dr. Ivan LaHaie, Integrity Applications, Inc.
• Recent Advances in the National RCS Test Facility Measurement Capabilities by Dr. Brian Fischer, Integrity Applications, Inc.; Dr. Peter Collins – AFIT; and Mr. Tim Conn, Holloman AFB
• Air Force Research Laboratory Sensors Directorate: An Update on the Organization, Our Major Research Interests, and On-going Laboratory Construction and Modernization Activities by Dr. Brian Kent, Air Force Research Laboratory, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base

There was plenty of food all day in keeping with AMTA's unofficial acronym "Another Meal To Attend," and plenty of good technical material to digest. How can you go wrong with Ivan LaHaie AND Brian Kent on your program, not to mention the other excellent speakers!? There were also plenty of tabletop displays with a diversity of products and services to keep things interesting. One person in the audience came all the way from Korea to attend – now you know that means the event was a winner!

Follow this link to see the photos from the event – the pictures tell a thousand words!

Thank you to the AMTA volunteers who organized this event. They include Jan Kendall of MI Technologies, Brian Fischer of Integrity Applications, and Larry Sheridan of Delta Technology Solutions.

Thank you also to the exhibitors who supported the event, including Advanced Test Equipment Corporation, ARC Technologies, AR RF/Microwave Instrumentation, CST of America, Cuming-Lehman Chambers, DLS Electronic Systems, EMSCAN Corporation, ETS-Lindgren, FEKO – EM Software & Systems, IN Compliance Magazine, MI Technologies, Nearfield Systems, Orbit/FR, Rohde & Schwarz, Inc., The Howland Company, and TÜV SÜD America.

Plans for the AMTA regional US event next year will get underway shortly. Initial thinking is a location near NASA Langley. If you have location suggestions, please contact Janet O'Neil, AMTA Meeting Advisor, at janet.oneil@ets-lindgren.com, phone 425-868-2558.

Janet O'Neil
ETS-Lindgren
AMTA Meeting Advisor
Meeting-Advisor@AMTA.org

Vice President’s Report

AMTA Short Courses

Planning has already started for the 2011 through 2013 Short Courses. For 2011 in Denver, we are offering Diagnosis of Antenna and Scattering Measurements and Far-Field Test Ranges with Dr. Inder "Jiti" Gupta and Dr. Teh-Hong Lee of The Ohio State University. Topics include:

• Time domain (down range) processing
• Doppler domain (cross range or holography) processing
• Time-Doppler (range and cross range) processing
• Effects of range stray signals on antenna / scattering measurements
• Stray signal mapping in far-field ranges
• Isolation of range stray signal errors in antenna measurements

For 2012 in Seattle, the board has approved a proposal for a short course by Professor Yahya Rahmat-Samii! The proposed title of the class is Modern Topics in Antenna Measurements, Diagnostics and Optimizations: From Fundamentals to Recent Advances. The tentative outline is as follows:

• Fundamental of EM Concepts for Antenna Characterizations
  • Antenna Radiated Fields, Ideal Dipole, Solution of Wave Equations and Special Functions
• Fundamentals of Various Near-Field Measurement Techniques
  • Equivalence Theorem, Spectral Formulation and Probe Corrections
• Understanding Antenna Near-Field Diagnostic Techniques
  • Simulation Models, Back-Projections, Sampling Theorems
• Case Studies of Several Reflector and Array Antenna Measurements
  • Reflector and Array Antenna Measurement Examples
• Phaseless Measurements and Recent Advances
  • Why Phaseless Measurements, Phase Retrieval Algorithms, Measured Results
• Advances in Antenna Design Optimizations
  • Genetic Algorithms (GA) and Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO)

For 2013, I have a tentative commitment from Dr. Daniel Janse van Rensburg and Kim Hassett, our 2011 President, for a short course on near field topics. Knowing how well Kim and Daniel work together, this should be a fantastic course!

AMTA Advertising
During the AMTA 2010 meeting and symposium, we reminded our exhibitors about the opportunity to advertise with AMTA. One option is to advertise with this newsletter. Your advertisement will appear as a banner across the top of the newsletter and is the first thing that our readers will see. These readers include many more than just our members. The banner includes a hyperlink to your home page as well. The newsletter advertisement cost is $750 per issue and the newsletter runs generally on a quarterly basis. We have not had anyone advertise on the newsletter for some time but an example can be found at http://www.waterwebster.org/AMTAnewsletter/October2008.htm.

The other option is to advertise on the AMTA Web page. We currently have six companies advertising on the web site (www.amta.org) for 2010 and their space is due for renewal. Renewal notices for the current spaces are going out now. AMTA accepts display ads of 130 pixels wide and either 120 pixels or 60 pixels high with a hyperlink to your website included in the ad. The price for the web advertisement is $1500 per year per placement or $750 per 6 month period. Details on the advertising policy can be found at http://www.amta.org/advertise/ad2.htm. These spaces, which can be increased, are first come, first served. As an added feature, those who advertise on the web will receive discounts as shown in the table below:

It has been a great three years serving on the AMTA Board. While, I am not sure that the other Board members feel this way, I am truly sorry to be done with my term of service. With the 501(c)(3) application finally complete and short courses planned until 2013, I feel I am leaving Javier in good shape to tackle the thornier issues of the web site and the challenges of our new President. I certainly plan on continuing to attend and serve on the Technical Committee (Brian?) and, who knows, maybe I will run again! Until then, may your dB's always be positive (except for those RCS guys!). Now, as Brian noted during my session this past October, I will just Phased Array…. (not)

Ed Urbanik
BAE Systems
2010 AMTA Vice President
vice-president@amta.org

Keep Your Face to Face Meetings an Important Option

WIKILeaks raises important questions about technology's reach

Before this past spring, WIKILeaks may have been best known for hacking into Sarah Palin's personal e-mail account. Yet, this international organization that publishes anonymous submissions of classified information on its website had been steadily gaining notoriety for a number of high profile leaks, ranging from the inner workings of the Church of Scientology to the British National Party.

Then, in April 2010, WIKILeaks released a classified military video of a US air strike in Iraq that may have killed a dozen civilians. That was followed in July 2010 by 90,000 plus classified documents relating to the War in Afghanistan. Since then, there has been a firestorm of controversy surrounding WIKILeaks and its founder Julian Assange, as well as the privacy surrounding the website and its resources.

Leaking private information is nothing new, in the digital age, however, a near infinite number of documents and data are stored on line. It is so much easier to access and decode classified information. It's also become much easier to transfer large amounts of data and for informants to protect their own identities.

Technology can both positively and negatively affect the way we do business. For instance, Social Media allows us to connect with people we might never meet in person. It also allows us to share information faster than ever before. But does Social Media improve the quality of our relationships? A Tweet, Facebook Post, or an e-mail is still less personal than a face to face exchange, where you can see body language, facial expressions etc.

Then we have the Virtual meeting. Producing these events has become much easier and less cost prohibitive. The virtual meeting does offer opportunity for organizations to complement their face to face meetings and enhance their reach to other organizations throughout the year. However, lowering the barriers to entry may convince organizations that virtual meetings can replace the face to face meetings, even though live meetings have proven to facilitate a more effective exchange of ideas, provide the human connection necessary to power business, and are a far more effective setting for education if done properly.

The controversy surrounding even more recent WIKILeaks is red hot. In the heat of the fire, Assange made a surprise public appearance at TEDGlobal 2010 in Oxford, England. This is a man who was intensely private even before the latest WIKILeaks dust-up; someone who has made so many enemies that he reportedly is afraid to sleep in the same place two nights in a row. It was striking that he chose a face to face meeting for a rare public appearance. Perhaps in a face to face meeting it is easier to control the leaking of pertinent information.

Face to face meetings are still one of the best options for exchanging ideas, thoughts, theories and product performance. This, I believe, is the reason that face to face meetings, like the AMTA Symposium are so successful. The personal relationships, exchange of ideas, education, and vendor product information that can be gathered at our symposium in a face to face interchange is invaluable to all of those involved in the process. In this world of postings, e-mail and virtual meetings, do not forget the most important and in depth exchanges of information is in a face to face meeting, not to mention the ever-present possibility of information being leaked to those who do not have a "need to know".

Lawrence L. Mandeville
Raytheon Missile Systems Co.
2010 AMTA Newsletter Editor
Newsletter@AMTA.org

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The AMTA Newsletter is edited by Lawrence L. Mandeville and is prepared and distributed by Milestone Marketing, Inc. 241 Shyrewood Drive, Lawrenceville, Georgia 30043.