“My Favourite Dishes” tells two stories and how they came together in my life in an unexpected way.  Firstly there’s radio astronomy so I explain the background science and the way technology has changed from basic observations to the latest interferometry techniques.  Then I recount the parallel story of satellite telecommunications and my involvement in the very early days as an installation engineer working on big dishes.  Finally I bring these two strands together with my involvement at Leeds University to convert some of the redundant earth stations into radio telescopes, with particular reference to the DARA project.

About the speaker: Rod Hine

About Rod Hine.

Born just after the war, I was about ten when my Aunt Florrie gave me a book for Christmas. It was “The Boys Book of Space” by Patrick Moore. I was already interested in anything to do with science and engineering and I devoured the book from cover to cover. Shortly afterwards, Sputnik I was launched and seeing it pass over London clinched my interest in physics and space travel. Pretty soon I was deeply involved in electronics and amateur radio. I passed the RAE in 1962 and later took the call-sign G8AQH.

I took physics, chemistry and maths at A-level and in 1964 went up to Churchill College, Cambridge to study Natural Sciences. I later switched to Electrical Sciences and after graduating I joined Marconi at Chelmsford working for several years on satellite communications. That job eventually took me to Nairobi, Kenya after which I worked there in Meteorological communications and later switched to teaching at the Kenya Polytechnic. In 1972 I married a Yorkshire lass I had met in Nairobi and we finally moved back to UK in 1976.

Since then I have had a variety of jobs in electronics and industrial controls. I was a co-founder of Bradford Instruments Limited which designed and supplied industrial control systems from 1982 and only finished trading in 2012. From about 2000 I have been lecturing part-time at University of Bradford although I now seem to have been retired as the Electrical Engineering Department has been wound right down. I got back into astronomy around 1992 when Josie bought me an astronomy book and I joined Bradford Astronomical Society. I’m currently Chairman of BAS, mostly because no-one else is prepared to do the job!

Location On Line, Virtual Meeting