This past week I participated in BNLARC’s Brookhaven National Laboratory’s 70th Anniversary Special Event from 7/16 to 7/21. BNL’s 70 Years of Scientific Discovery started with an open house for families and children on 7/16. The radio club was on site with both a SSB and CW station during the operating hours. During the rest of the week the event operated from various locations.

Although the HF bands were poor this past week I managed to make about 100 contacts. For the first time I also worked some of the event on DMR and received a great response from the guys I worked on 3100 (nationwide).

I also set up a QRZ page for those interested in getting our full page certificate.

Some interesting facts about Brookhaven National Laboratory:

•  Served as army base for two world wars
•  Hosted Irwin Berlin (Yip Yip Yaphank was the song)
•  First peace time nuclear reactor (1950 Brookhaven Graphite Reactor)
•  Developed the two common radio isotopes (technetium 99M and thallium 201) used in medicine today
• First synctron accelerator (1953 Cosmotron Accelerator)
• First Nobel Prize winner in 1957 followed by 6 more
• 1958 First video game, Tennis (aka pong)
• 1961 First PET scanner for medical use
• 1967 developed the leading drug for Parkinson’s disease treatment, L-dopa
• 1958 Maglev (magnetic levitation) patented
• 1975 started producing radioisotopes for the northeast, still a major supplier
• 1979 proved UV-a and UV-B lead to cancers of the skin:
• Current studies include: 1) Radiation studies preparing for travel to mars, 2) more efficient catalysts, 3) fuel cells, 4) photovoltaic solar cells, 5) biofuels, 6) batteries
• A 32 megawatt solar farm on 200 acres for production and study to improve efficiencies

Click HERE to find out more about the history of Brookhaven National Laboratory…