Paul Judson Snyder Jr.

1931 - 2022

Snyder, Paul Judson Jr. GRAFTON Paul Judson Snyder Jr. (K2CBA), otherwise known as "Jud" to his friends and associates, passed on May 2, 2022, in Troy. He was a resident of Grafton since 1966, and formerly of Troy and Defreestville. Jud was born on June 18, 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 the Albany Academy before joining the U.S. 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 Korean War. He attended R.P.I. in Troy, worked for local radio station WSNY, and ultimately was employed as an electronic technician for the Rensselaer Gaerttner Linear Accelerator at R.P.I. 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 feet 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 extraordinarily 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 U.S., and Western Europe. Special thanks for Jud's care should go to the kind nurses, doctors and staff of Collar City Rehabilitation (Diamond Hill) and Samaritan Hospital. Family and friends are invited to the Gerald B.H. Solomon Saratoga National Cemetery in Schuylerville on Wednesday, June 1, at 1 p.m. 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. Please visit www.mcloughlinmason.com.