Paul Judson Snyder Jr

Grafton-Paul Judson Snyder Jr, (K2CBA) otherwise known as “Jud” to friends and associates passed on 2 May 2022 at in Troy NY.  He was a resident of Grafton NY since 1966, formerly of Troy and Defreestville NY. Jud was born on 18 June 1931 to Paul J Snyder Sr, and Lydia McCoy Snyder. Jud was a remarkable character, having shown a propensity for all things mechanical and electrical from an early age. He attended school in Troy and Albany Academy before joining the US Navy in 1951.  He served as a ET3 radio maintenance technician at one of the Navy’s large MF/HF receiving facilities in Maryland during the Korea War era. He attended RPI in Troy, worked for local radio station WSNY, and ultimately was employed as a Electronic Technician for the Rensselaer Gaerttner Linear Accelerator at RPI.  In his later years he ran a small business installing and maintaining satellite TV installations for private customers.  Jud first became known at the age of 16 for building a working television receiver in the back seat of his father’s car, which was documented in the local paper and was a curiosity among his family and friends.  Jud had a lifelong interest in the technology of radio electronics and television, and leveraged his training and education into the construction of his own amateur radio equipment and antennas. He developed a reputation for creating large antenna arrays, rotating towers on the order of 190 ft in height and high-power amplifiers, which he operated extensively on VHF, UHF and Microwave frequencies.  His reputation in this area caused him to be widely respected as a subject matter expert. He had many friends and colleagues with whom he shared his knowledge. He was a long-time member of the Northern Berkshire Amateur Radio Club, the North East Weak Signal Group, and was the prime instigator of the Whopping Foghole VHF and Moonbounce Society, a loose organization of like-minded individuals. He loved dogs and facilitated many litters of Great Dane puppies.  In 1970 he obtained an extra-ordinarily large 8.4 meter dish antenna left over from the cold war era, which he improvised into operating amateur “moonbounce” (Earth-Moon-Earth) communications on various amateur frequency bands when the technology was still only known to a few experimenters.  He used this to communicate by moon reflection with similarly equipped stations in Puerto Rico, Continental US, and Western Europe. Family and friends are invited to the Gerald B.H. Solomon Saratoga National Cemetery, Schuylerville on Wednesday, June 1, 2022 at 1:00 pm for a funeral service with military honors. Those with memories of Jud are encouraged to leave a memorial anecdote, as they will be collected and disseminated.  Special thanks for Jud’s care should go to the kind nurses, doctors and staff of Collar City Rehabilitation (Diamond Hill) and Samaritan Hospital. Please visit www.mcloughlinmason.com.