ARDC is delighted to announce two new members of our Board of Directors:

• Robert McGwier, N4HY, of Opelika, AL, and
• Keith Packard, KD7SQG, of Portland, OR.

Both bring long and valuable experience in ham radio, digital communications and open source development to ARDC’s mission of managing the amateur TCP/IP network and its new grantmaking foundation.

Keith Packard, KD7SQG, was first licensed as a Novice (WB7OQI) in 1977. Keith has developed free software since 1986, working on the X Window System, Linux, amateur rocketry and educational robotics. Mr. Packard and fellow board member Bdale Garbee design rocketry electronics with GPS receivers and amateur radio digital telemetry systems in the 70cm band. Keith volunteers in local schools teaching computer programming and robotics to students from ages 10-17. He received the Usenix Lifetime Achievement award in 1999, an O’Reilly Open Source award in 2011 and sits on the X.org foundation board.

Dr. Robert McGwier, N4HY, has been licensed since 1964. He holds a PhD in Applied Mathematics from Brown University. He was an early pioneer of software defined radio (SDR) for both government and amateur applications through his position at the Institute for Defense Analyses Center for Communication Research, as a long time technical contributor to AMSAT and GNU Radio, and as an architect and software author for Flex Radio. Bob founded Federated Wireless Inc in 2012 and Hawkeye 360 Inc in 2017.  He holds major awards from the Dayton Hamvention and the Central States VHF Society.  Bob recently moved back to his home state of Alabama after retiring from Virginia Tech as a professor, Director of Research and Chief Scientist of the Hume Center.  He has most recently served as a member of the ARDC Grant Advisory Committee.

The rest of the ARDC board welcomes Bob and Keith, and we look forward
to working with them.

The ARDC Board now has the following members:

Phil Karn, KA9Q (President and Chair), San Diego, CA
Bdale Garbee, KB0G, Black Forest, CO
John Gilmore W0GNU, San Francisco, CA
kc claffy, KC6KCC, San Diego, CA
Bob McGwier, N4HY, Opelika, AL
Keith Packard, KD7SQG, Portland, OR

ARDC’s Executive Director is Rosy Wolfe, KJ7RYV, Portland, OR.

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out: contact@ampr.org.

Welcome, Bob and Keith!