Tribute to Richard Dean Straw

Tribute to Richard Dean Straw - N6BV
March 1, 1946 - July 9, 2025

Dean was from San Francisco, CA. I am very sorry to hear about my friend and colleague Dean Straw, N6BV, becoming a Silent Key. What I remember most about Dean is when I had a Navy project in the early 1990's to measure dipole and vertical antennas in front of a hill, on top of a hill, and behind a hill at HF in Utah. We used a helicopter that towed either a 3-axis receiver (RELEDOP) or a transmitter (XELODOP) that was developed by SRI International in Menlo Park, CA. This system was used for measuring and verifying antenna performance mainly for the military. It flew at an altitude of 10,000 feet and could get the elevation pattern by flying from almost horizon to horizon to get down to really low take-off angles. While these measurements were being performed, I also came up with a way to model the terrain with what is known as the Geometrical/Uniform Theory of Diffraction (GTD/UTD) [1] that used plates with lossy ground characteristics and computed all the ray reflections (Geometrical Optics - GO) and diffraction (GTD/UTD) from edges of the plates. This technique was normally used at much higher frequencies and never applied before at HF. After getting really good agreement between the measurements and modeling as reported in an IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society paper [2], I told Brian Beezley K6STI and Dean Straw N6BV about the great results. Brian wrote a code named Terrain Analyzer (TA) [3] that worked in DOS and Dean wrote the code HFTA [4] that worked in Windows. Brian's code was more interactive and worked with horizontal and vertical polarization, and Dean's code worked in Windows with many built in horizontal antennas including stacking and also had statistics of propagation that he also produced from VOACAP [5]. Dean's HFTA code became very popular and was included with the ARRL Antenna Book [6]. More recently, Stu Phillips K6TU [7] provides a service of producing the terrain files for any location that can be used directly into HFTA. Since Dean was the editor of the ARRL Antenna Book, he had an extensive section on terrain analysis and how to use HFTA. The other incredible project that Dean worked on was the creation of a huge database of propagation statistics using VOACAP for various paths in the world for all sunspots, seasonal variation, time of day, etc. It is also included in the ARRL Antenna Book. This was just a voluminous amount of work that Dean did putting these results into something that was understandable to any Amateur interested in propagation. Dean was also an avid antenna designer and modeling expert and designed many excellent Yagi designs in the Antenna Book. He was the editor of the ARRL Antenna Book for many years and completely modernized the previous versions with more accuracy and technical understanding with antenna modeling. Dean also was quite a competitive contester and was inducted into the CQ Contest Hall of Fame. He was much competition to my K3CR contest station in the day. One of the programs he also made was TLW [8] that I still use a lot that can model transmission lines, loss, and tuner design. He will be missed very much and my sincere condolences to his family and friends. All of his work will live on by many who have used it in the past and still use it presently. He was one of a kind for sure, and I am so honored to have known him as a friend, collaborator, and colleague. RIP Dean N6BV SK. Jim WA3FET

If one wants to read more about some of the history and some of the kind of results that can be produced from Dean&rsquos HFTA, please look at the following link:

CTU Presents

References

Keller J., "Geometrical Theory of Diffraction," Journal of Optical Society of America 1962
Breakall J. et. al., The Modeling and Measurement of HF Antenna

Skywave Radiation Patterns in Irregular Terrain, IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, VOL. 42. NO. 7, JULY 1994.

Beezley B., Terrain Analyzer (TA), Copyright 1998.
Straw D., High Frequency Terrain Assessment (HFTA) Program, ARRL Antenna Book.
VOACAP, www.voacap.com.
ARRL Antenna Book, 25th Edition, First Printing (2023), ISBN: 878-1-62595-183-0.
K6TU Propagation Services, https://www.k6tu.net/
TLW (Transmission Line for Windows), in ARRL Antenna Book software.

I knew Dean from talking with him at the Dayton Hamvention. He was always humble and had a smile on his face. He was very friendly and interesting to talk to. His contributions to amateur radio are well know. He will be missed. RIP my friend. Tom K8CX

Dayton 1997