Patrick asked..... We're listening... what do you suggest? Sophisticated home stations like what you described in an earlier post don't work well for those of us at hamfests or other events, even if we have videos that can show that off. The sophisticated home station may even scare off some, who fear that it would take a lot of time - and more $$$ - to get on the satellites.
Well I don't know but it seems like to me that same handheld antenna mounted on a tripod and using small DC motors to track the satellite in both the azimuth and elevation planes ( something like Mark Spencers latest creation) along with full blown doppler correction being provided along with it from some type of "black box" transceiver and/or interface which was assembled from a reasonably inexpensive kit and is being run by an iphone , droid or tablet with an app or possibly by a laptop and the whole shebang being powered from a reasonable sized cluster of li poly batteries is much more impressive than a guy with an HT pointing an antenna in the air with his hand. IMO that also would not seem unattainable and monetarily out of reach to the average joe ham who has somewhat bothered to keep up with the technology available to him or her today. I know I would love such a system. You could also have a demonstration of the simpler hand held station going and let people make up their own mind which had more appeal and "cool" factor. My idea isn't so complex that it overwhelms but is not so simple that it totally takes away the "wow" factor either. Unfortunately, I can dream such a system up but don't have the technical savvy to bring it to fruition. I wish I did. I could build it from a kit if the SMD's were kept to 1205 size and larger. I find hand soldering anything smaller a bit difficult. Think of the fundraising abilities of such a " black box system" as well...... Anyway...I got to run and perform some family obligations, you asked the question so I thought I'd do my best to answer it... 73, Michael, W4HIJ