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H. Paul Shuch

American astronomer

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 23, 2024
Entity authorityQ5628479
Source-derived summary

H. Paul Shuch (born May 23, 1946) is an American scientist and engineer who has coordinated radio amateurs to help in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI).

Shuch, an aerospace engineer, microwave technologist, and radio amateur call sign N6TX, is believed by colleague Jack Unger to be the creator of the world's first commercial home satellite TV receiver. Recently a visiting professor at Lycoming College and Heidelberg University of Applied Sciences, Shuch continues to volunteer as the Executive Director Emeritus of The SETI League, Inc. He has taught physics, astronomy, and engineering on various university campuses for over four decades. He is also active in science fiction fandom and filk music.

Early life

Born Howard Paul Wakes in Chicago, Illinois, United States, Shuch later adopted the name of his stepfather, physicist Milton L. Shuch (12 Oct 1922–20 Jan 2014).

Shuch earned a Bachelor of Science in industrial technology from San Jose State University and a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in engineering from the University of California, Berkeley. Shuch is a Vietnam War-era United States Air Force veteran and active instrument flight instructor. After his military career he worked as an engineer for several Silicon Valley aerospace companies before commencing his academic career. He founded Microcomm Consulting in 1975, where in 1978 he designed and produced a commercial home satellite television receiver.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “H. Paul Shuch” is american astronomer. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Paul, Shuch and American, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1946, 1922, 2014, 1975—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1946-05-23. For this dossier, Paul, Shuch and American is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “american astronomer” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 23, 2024. The linked authority identifier is Q5628479. VIAF identifies the subject as 164355927. The Library of Congress control number is no2012124675. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1946, 1922, 2014 and 1975.

Critical limits

The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from H. Paul Shuch” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.