Paul Rinaldo, W4RI, is Chief Technology Officer of the American Radio Relay League (ARRL), the national association for Amateur Radio, stationed in Fairfax, Virginia. Most of his current duties include U.S. Government relations on domestic and international Amateur Radio matters, including work with the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the Inter-American Telecommunication Commission (CITEL). He is a member of the Board of Directors of the United States ITU Association (USITUA). He is a Life Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and serves on the IEEE-USA Committee on Communications Policy (CCP).
He was first licensed in 1949 as W9IZA. He held the call sign W3FFH in 1955 and K4YKB in 1958. While he has been active on CW, phone and digital modes, his main interests are in technical experimentation.
Prior to his ARRL employment, he was a telecommunications consultant and earlier worked for the U.S. federal government in telecommunications including spectrum management.
Rinaldo came to work for ARRL in 1983 as Manager of the ARRL Technical Department. He went on to become the Publications Manager and Editor of QST, and later Manager, Technical Development.
He currently serves as Chairman of the ITU-R Working Group concerned with technical studies related to the amateur and amateur-satellite services. As such, he was responsible for studies on 7 MHz and revision of Article 25 leading to the 2003 World Radiocommunication Conference in Geneva. He has participated in two ITU Plenipotentiary Conferences, seven World Radio Conferences, Radiocommunication Assemblies from 1992 to 2003, numerous Working Parties and Task Groups, and related U.S. preparatory meetings. He chaired Task Group 8/2 on wind profiler radar and the WP 1A drafting group on out-of-band emissions. He was a principal editor of the first edition of the ITU-D handbook on disaster communications for developing countries.
He served as Chairman of the ARRL Digital Committee, which was responsible for development of the amateur packet radio standard AX.25. He has participated on a number of ARRL committees, including the Technology Task Force Committee.
He studied Radio Engineering at Valparaiso Technical Institute in Indiana. He resides in Burke, Virginia. He is President of the Amateur Radio Research and Development Corporation (AMRAD). Rinaldo has two sons, Larry and Whit, who live in Northern Virginia. Outside of Amateur Radio, Rinaldo says Border Collies are his hobby.