On Thu, 22 Oct 2015 10:22:55 -0700, "Patrick STODDARD (WD9EWK/VA7EWK)" [email protected] wrote:

Only once was I encouraged to go somewhere else, although I was told at the same time I was not breaking any laws or regulations where I happened to be operating (in the hotel parking lot, outside the site of the 2014 AMSAT Symposium, near BWI airport in Baltimore).

All right, I can kind of understand this one. With all the reported incidents of people with laser pointers aimed with aircraft, and the constant fear of someone maliciously interfering with aviation radio traffic (a potentially life-threatening situation), I could imagine someone getting nervous if they saw some dude near the airport with an antenna tracking something in the sky.

Most of the time when I'm in public with a yagi it's in the middle of a deserted rice field or in a public park away from crowds. Luckily I have never been confronted by anyone (yet). But given the extremely short time of a typical satellite pass, such an occasion would ruin the whole thing, wouldn't it? "Sure, I'll go somewhere else now -- the whole session lasts twelve minutes, and you've been talking to me for five."