If we deem a resource as necessary to the continued growth, use and survival of amateur radio, I believe that it is in the ARRL’s interest to help. The cure to software legacy is to adopt open source wherever possible and to encourage authors to release source code in a maintainable manner. GitHub is what most use - as the code is modified by others, GitHub can maintain all the branches. The resource that we haven’t seen much from recently and will miss what they once were is AMSAT. IMO, ARRL should encourage and help fund an effort for a geosynchronous amateur radio satellite that could facilitate high speed data for EMCOM and could be managed so that emergencies take precedence. WINLINK is a slow speed stop gap and many of our members hate it. Such a satellite has been built by N4HY and his team at Va Tech. The earth station has been designed by TAPR for a $250 build. Hopefully he will be given a slot at Hamcation next February to talk about it. 73, Mickey N4MB Get Outlook for iOS<https://aka.ms/o0ukef> ________________________________ From: arrl-odv <arrl-odv-bounces@reflector.arrl.org> on behalf of Minster, David NA2AA (CEO) <dminster@arrl.org> Sent: Monday, July 12, 2021 5:07:21 PM To: Carl Luetzelschwab <carlluetzelschwab@gmail.com>; arrl-odv <arrl-odv@reflector.arrl.org> Subject: [arrl-odv:32576] Re: W7EL retiring from EZNEC I never received any feedback to my response to Director Norton on this bigger issue: Do we believe that ARRL has a larger responsibility to support resources that are not ours but are important to members? Should we be looking to support or acquire those resources to ensure their longevity? I had suggested a list – you can add EZNEC to the list. I do know that MMANA is becoming quite popular. Perhaps it will go that way. David From: arrl-odv <arrl-odv-bounces@reflector.arrl.org> On Behalf Of Carl Luetzelschwab Sent: Monday, July 12, 2021 5:03 PM To: arrl-odv <arrl-odv@reflector.arrl.org> Subject: [arrl-odv:32575] W7EL retiring from EZNEC
From https://eznec.com/retirement.htm, as of January 1, 2022 Roy Lewallen is retiring and will not support EZNEC. Additionally, he says there is no practical way to sell or transfer ownership to someone else. So eventually (will it work with Windows 11?) EZNEC may fall by the wayside.
There are EZNEC files in the ARRL Antenna Book. Do we want to do something to make sure this very popular general modeling software continues? Or do we have to head people towards the more robust antenna modeling packages like FEKO or MMANA-GAL (very popular outside the US). I'm reminded of Director Norton's earlier recent post to the ODV reflector about the ARRL helping in various ways. Should we support someone financially to dig deep to keep EZNEC going? Can that even be done without the source code? Comments by others are of course welcome. Carl K9LA Vice Dir Central Div