Seminar on Information Technology Developments

In June, the chapter successfully organized an educational seminar on “Telecommunications and Computer Networks.” The chapter held the event in June at the facilities of the Hellenic Air Force's 128 Training Group for Communications and Electronics in Kavouri, Athens. The group's commander, Col. S. Amourgianos, HEAF, and Maj. Gen. D. Katelouzos, HEAF (Ret.), a member of the chapter's Executive Committee, opened the event. The rate of communications and information technology development has increased exponentially, and this growth led to an inevitable increase in training requirements, experts said. The event was born when the chapter declared 2012 as the “Year of Education” and set a target to get involved in this field to the maximum possible extent given the difficult economic times. To achieve this, the chapter suggested that the Hellenic Air Force partner to organize and perform an educational seminar to be held at the 128 Training Center. The event would be part of their training program, which would help attendees meet their requirements. The main objective of the seminar is a detailed report on key areas of communications and information technology, including descriptive presentation of issues such as transmission concepts, links, media and techniques, telephony, LANs-WANs, high speed digital transmission, ISDN and more. Additionally, the seminar highlighted some convergence examples for an efficient and sustainable use of information and communication technology (ICT), specifically voice and data convergence on common communication networks and infrastructure, fixed and mobile telephony convergence, where there is a tendency towards consolidation of infrastructure and services and content convergence where any form of information coexist.

The course was intended primarily for communications technical staff of the Air Force and included subjects dealing with open systems, protocols, standards, recommendations networks, TDM multiplexers (PDH, SDH), ISDN, modems, LANs, WANs, transmission techniques (FM, FSK, PCM, QPSK, QAM), crypto, transmission media (copper cables, coaxial cables, optical fibers, wireless links), circuit certification (NOISE, BERT, DB, DBM, DBMOP) and synchronization circuits. The Hellenic Air Force responded positively and the participants reached the 20 staff members. The 10-day seminar was carried out entirely by volunteer members and instructors from the chapter. During the seminar, the students had the opportunity to visit the premises of the NATO Athens Communication Node (ACN). Later in the week, the training group commander awarded degrees to the graduates. The event was followed by a small reception, which included Brig. S. Chatzipanagiotis, director of Hellenic Air Force General Staff Chief Communications Section; Lt. Gen. Leonidas Mazarakis, HAF (Ret.), chapter president, and members of the Executive Committee. The chapter plans to organize similar training seminars for the Hellenic Army and Navy.

Event Photographs: