Chapter 37 doubled down on its award-winning “AntennaFest” concept, and it ended up pulling in almost twice as many people.
The Washington, D.C., chapter of the Society of Broadcast Engineers this week again offered a technical conference celebrating antenna systems, combining and “all things RF.”
I told you about the first AntennaFest last year and how impressed I was with it.
I wasn’t alone; it won the national SBE’s award for Best Chapter or Regional Educational Event in 2025.
This week AntennaFest II drew more than 100 people to a conference room provided by WETA(FM/TV) in Shirlington, Va., just outside of Washington, D.C.
A group made up of mostly radio and TV engineers enjoyed a day of education and good food, for free. They heard from a dozen technical experts from sponsor companies about the state of their art, a few product pitches and plenty of tips and best practices.
William Harrison, chapter chair and chief engineer of WETA-FM, did much of the legwork in putting the event together and played host.
Jeff Welton of Nautel amused and entertained with some RF basics as well as tips about grounding and bonding. (Best tip: “Remember to wear safety shoes. Why? Because when you do something stupid it will save your ass. Take it from someone who has done something stupid.”)
Dan Glavin of American Tower offered considerations for designing a master antenna and showed pix of some systems with more bays than seemed physically possible.
Brain Kaplon of South-Tek Systems compared nitrogen vs. dry air pressure for transmission line, and offered useful troubleshooting and maintenance tips.
Cory Edwards of Dielectric highlighted recent installations of the company’s RingMaster antenna and gave details of projects in the Bahamas and Alaska done in partnership with Cesium Communications and Cavell Mertz, respectively.
There were also presentations by American Amplifier about fault monitoring and protective systems; ERI about antenna pattern designs; and Jampro about broadband vs. full-band systems.
The day was slated to end with a roundtable about AM multiplexing with Gary Cavell, Tom King, Kurt Gorman and Stephen Lockwood.
Sponsors of the event also included SCMS and GatesAir.
Putting on an event like this requires a ton of work. SBE37 does this one right, and its sponsors and attendees rewarded them for it. If the chapter decides to do it for a third year, I highly recommend it.
[Related: “Future in Focus: William Harrison on Notable Coming Tech Trends”]
