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