David and all,
For me, personally, it was simply amazing. I'm new to the satellites - slightly more than 4 months since my first-ever satellite contact. Having the chance to meet and spend time with other satellite folks literally from around the world was wonderful.
The seminars were first-rate, and I would encourage anyone who didn't attend - most on this board, for example - to get a copy of the Official Proceedings.
For me, Dan Schultz's presentation on the upcoming Hubble Space Telescope repair mission (Dan was the featured speaker at the Saturday night banquet) was worth the entire cost of the Symposium itself. But honestly, I could make the same statement about several of the other presentations. Paul Marsh's report on S- and X-band deep space reception blew me away. But so did several others.
An unexpected treat was Marc Hammond's (N8MH) update on and quick history lesson about AO-16. In it's current mode, AO-16 is making history in a number of ways. It disappoints me personally that so few people show up for passes here in the states. I hope it's not that way elsewhere.
I'm confident there are others here for who attended this Symposium and previous AMSAT-NA Symposiums who can provide perspective. Here, it thoroughly exceeded my expectations, which were quite high.
73 to all,
Tim - N3TL AMSAT Member No. 36820 Athens, Ga. - EM84ha
I haven't posted before now because I have no frame of reference. This was my first Symposium - the first of many! -------------- Original message from David Giles vk5dg@aapt.net.au: --------------
Hello to all those who attended Atlanta,
Apart from a new vision statement and a BOD meeting, did anything actually happen at Atlanta?
I haven't seen the usual "What a great symposium.", "It was great to catch up with ...", "I was inspired by the ...", "Demonstrations of... were held", "Hundreds of new members", or "Well done to the organisers" type messages.
I haven't even seen the usual announcement for the 2009 event. Perhaps there won't be one - that would be newsworthy in itself.
Don't get me wrong - I'm not knocking the event. It just seems unusually quiet.
73 de David VK5DG
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