I guess I'm in the 25 percent who doesn't complain at Hamfests. My first AMSAT exposure was at Dayton in 2010 I had played with the idea of receiving satellites and back in the 90's actually received DOVES beacon. Back then I was a bit confused and never thought much about it. After Dayton 2010 I have slowly been assembling a station. I joined AMSAT but dropped out when they had some problems getting newsletters out. I will be rejoining shortly and hopefully have my station ready for satellite use before Winter strikes here. I honestly believe some people think AMSAT has tons of money or maybe inside contacts just to get the birds "they" want into space. When in reality it takes a lot of work from AMSAT to be considered for a ride by NASA plus donation drives to pay for these birds to be made. Once the birds are in orbit they can be used by anyone not just AMSAT members. Can you imagine if AMSAT had the power or would lock these birds down for "members only" satellites? The membership would go through the roof.

Just my opinion, that and $ 2.00 might buy you a good cup of coffee these days!

73's

Mike/N8GBU