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The article presents an update on the Antenna Measurement Techniques Association (AMTA) as of April 2010. The association has held its AMTA Europe 2010 event at the Barcelona International Convention Center in Barcelona, Spain. It has also set its deadline for abstract submission for the Technical Program of its AMTA 2010 in Atlanta, Georgia. Information on a paper titled "Accurate Radiation Pattern Measurements in a Time-Reversal Electromagnetic Chamber," published within the issue, is also provided.

The article focuses on several conferences of the Antenna Measurement Techniques Association (AMTA) as of February 2010. The annual meeting and symposium was held at Little America in Salt Lake City, Utah in November 2009 during which lectures on antenna measurement have been presented including one by lecturer Doren Hess. The AMTA Europe 2010 will be held at the Barcelona International Convention Center in Spain. The AMTA 2010 symposium will be held at the Westin Peachtree Plaza in Atlanta, Georgia.

On April 15,2010, an unusual natural phenomenon turned the world upside down. The Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajökull, dormant for 200 years, started to erupt, melting ice and sending ashes into the high atmosphere. This huge mass of ash forced the cancellation of many flights and disrupted air traffic across northern Europe, stranding thousands of passengers, and provoking one of the worst airspace crises ever. The airport of Barcelona, Spain, like most European airports, could not escape from this closure, and many tourists and businessmen were stuck for some days at the Catalan metropolis. “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade” said someone. This was the thought of many delegates of the fourth edition of the European Conference on Antennas and Propagation, which took place from April 12-16, 2010, at the Barcelona International Convention Center (CCIB). Many of them decided to take some extra days to visit the city. Others, less lucky, rediscovered the old days of slow traveling, and with wise combinations of bus, train, and boats were able to travel to as far as Helsinki, Finland. However, all will remember EuCAP'2010 not only for its unusual ending, but mainly for the quality and demonstrated success of the conference. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology provides an effective tool for managing traceability along food supply chains. This is because it allows automatic digital registration of data, and therefore reduces errors and enables the availability of information on demand. A complete traceability system can be developed in the wine production sector by joining this technology with the use of wireless sensor networks for monitoring at the vineyards. A proposal of such a merged solution for a winery in Spain has been designed, deployed in an actual environment, and evaluated. It was shown that the system could provide a competitive advantage to the company by improving visibility of the processes performed and the associated control over product quality. Much emphasis has been placed on minimizing the impact of the new system in the current activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to characterize and model the rain fields for propagation studies from weather radar images of the northwest coast of Spain. The study includes the modeling of these images according to two well-known rain-cell models, EXCELL and HYCELL. For this analysis, a procedure for detecting rain field-s and an algorithm for identifying rain cells within the images is presented. This work is part of an ongoing activity, trying to develop dynamic space-time models of rain fields for simulating rain-induced effects on millimeter-wave communication systems. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]