Phil VK6KPH recommended for a merit scholarship by Curtin University

Congratulations to Phil Hollis-Watts VK6KPH.
In July 2011, Phil, was recommended for a merit scholarship by Curtin University in support of his research studies at the Western Australian School of Mines.

Phil has been a postgraduate student since 2007 and his research is now commanding global attention having been presented at peer-reviewed international meetings. Phil is conducting research into high altitude millisecond electrical discharges that seem to originate in the mesosphere over regions of impending earthquake activity. Discoveries in science often begin with a happenstance, and that's what set Phil on this research path.

Some time ago Phil was listening in his car to commercial radio in the amateur 2 metre band. Phil noted that 24 hours later a strong (M=5.9) earthquake hit Newcastle in New South Wales, Australia. The recollection of the first event came when in October 2001 a similar anomaly was registered by him in Esperance, Western Australia, (even on the FM music band at 104.75FM) and 14 hours later the Earth trembled under Esperance (the epicentre was 200 km west at Ravensthorpe). Having had 35 years experience as a radio amateur, TV electronics engineer, ex RAAF avionics technician and part time post trade industrial electronics teacher he started to record the suspicious signals using transceivers tuned to different frequencies, using many of the skill utilized by Amateur Radio enthusiasts.

Congratulations Phil on you ongoing research, and I wouldn't be surprised to see an article in a future edition of AR magazine about your work. Phil's work is in chapter 7 of this free pdf accessible by clicking the following Link

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