Harold Underwood

From The Collaboratory

Position

• Advisor to the Communications Group
  • Advisor to ACTS (Antennas, Communication and Telemetry Services)

History

Harold Underwood spent the month of January 2005 partnering with Partners in Technology International (PACTEC). The experience began with a Global VSAT Forum VSAT Installation & Training course at PACTEC's home office, including hands-on installation of a VSAT on the premises for training and test purposes, followed by 11 days of field work in Kabul, Afghanistan, where PACTEC has now installed over 100 VSATs to assist in economic and humanitarian development. While in Kabul, the author personally consulted with PACTEC pilots, one of whom shared the desire and need for better tracking of PACTEC flights on the ground, through state-of-the-art APRS technology. Out of this plea came the work of the 2005/06 Alternative Aviation Solutions (AAS) senior project group who successfully developed a prototype HF radio device to initiate a request from the ground-based unit to the airborne radio unit, and based on the response, display the GPS location report on a computer map display. Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) personnel now hope to develop this prototype into a field-ready version for use in Sentani, and perhaps elsewhere. ACTS also served, during the spring of 2006, to successfully demonstrate the compatibility of the Automatic Flight Following System (AFFS) used by the Jungle Aviation and Radio Service (JAARS) and the CODAN radios used by MAF and PACTEC. The current (2006/07) AAS senior project group, working in consultation with Mission Safety International (MSI) has decided to focus on a satellite link solution to the messaging needs of UIM International pilots in Mexico, prohibited from using HF radios.

Training

Dr. Harold Underwood has previously done graduate coursework and research in the area of RF & Microwaves, taught undergraduate students in the areas of Electromagnetics and Communications for 14 years, held a Summer Faculty Fellowship with NASA in the Microwave Systems Branch (2000/01), completed a VSAT installation training program including field work with PACTEC (2005) and in February 2007 passed the test to become an Amateur Radio operator at the Technician level (KB3OOM).

Roles & responsibilities

Trips

• Kabul, Afghanistan with PACTEC, January 2005
• Visiting Professor at Chiang Mai University (CMU) in Thailand on Sabbatical from Messiah College, June-October, 2005

You can contact Harold Underwood at HUnderw@messiah.edu.

You can view Harold Underwood's user page at User:Hunderwood.

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