Hi Bruce,
Thank you for your great comments and ideas!
First, yes, please check with MARC to see what conditions they would like to set for sponsorship. A $20 across the board fee for AMSAT members sounds okay. With a followup to the discounts if possible. (Would be nice if we don't have to deal out money during the event.)
Please check to see if the wildapricot system can "refund" half of the fee after the event for where it is confirmed that a person indeed (1) brought a "substantial" demo station or (2) gave a "substantial" presentation knowing that individuals will be offering extemporaneous short talks/guidance throughout the event, or (3) that the attendee is an AMSAT-NA Life Member.
I really like the idea of offering Life members the discount, even though *I* do not qualify today.
So, maybe (gulp!) it should be $30 for non-members, hoping that those individuals will call Martha to become a member and effectively get "$10 off" in a way??
To recap: $30 non-members; $20 AMSAT-NA members and sponsor/MARC members (claim one, unfortunately not both); $10 AMSAT-NA Life Members, right off the top. And we consider to apply any discounts *after* to those who wish to claim a discount.
Thoughts?
(I expect to pay full AMSAT $20 price -- to test the system? -- and probably won't bother to claim a discount.)
"Leftover" money can be used to buy more goodies/ food/misc/other for the event itself and then and only then any further "left-over" be donated to AMSAT-NA. Drinks all day and a catered lunch is sounding better all the time.
I will drop the idea of a raffle or a silent auction SOON unless we find someone to delegate the task after the more important roles are filled. Since I just might consider doing this SAME workshop annually then some things like this might wait a year before implementation.
Yes, there is a dual-use factor between the high-altitude balloon portable ground station and the amateur satellite portable ground station. In fact, one of my RF sources is to be one of the PICetSat modules beeping on 433.920 MHz AM/ FM/USB.
I am working on getting a LARGE room with 6-ft tables and chairs available with lots of elbow room. Not the same building as before, it is under renovation.
A live demo is good but depending on which building we are in, and the complexity of who's station employed, will dictate.
I'd hate to hold a concurrent flea market and have to answer to that with my employer, but there HAS to be a low-impact means to barter gear.
SDR yes! Maybe Tom Clark will show his little toys and provide color commentary???
Things are starting to gell. Let's keep the idea exchanges alive. More comments?
Cheers,
Pat
-----Original Message----- From: Bruce Semple [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Monday, January 07, 2013 12:09 PM To: Kilroy, Patrick L. (GSFC-5680); [email protected] Subject: RE: [amsat-dc] AMSAT-DC Spring Workshop 2013 (Planning 1.0)
Pat, Dan, Steve .. and all
Pat - thanks for getting the ball rolling on this --
1. Great!
2. Our Club (Montgomery Amateur Radio Club - MARC) has recently purchased a subscription to a Membership Registration Service - to manage the club membership -- One of the functions it offers is event registration (http://www.wildapricot.com/event-registration) I have initiated an inquiry with our board to see if MARC is willing to be a "sponsor" of the AMSAT-DC workshop -- and allow us to use the event registration feature of this SaaS (Software as a Service) offering. Notice it would handle the fee collection, and if needed, a structured fee plan.
3. I am in favor of a basic fee -- $20 seems reasonable. Yes, I could see waiving some or all of it for presenters / demonstrators. I agree to stay "on site" for lunch would be more efficient.
Option D: -- let's see how many "helpers" we get to see if we a silent auction is an option. I am assuming we would have to have some contingency plan if some items don't get "bought" at their minimum price.
4. people are probably going to block the whole day -- so we could probably run until 4:30 -- Maybe have all the "formal" activities wrap up by 3:30 - Do we need to allow for some cleanup time -- to get the donated space "back in order"
-- it would definitely be good to get rolling by 10:00am -- are we thinking lunch @ 12:30 - 1:00 -- maybe we should start a little earlier?
-- I think it would be nice to have a couple of 20-30 minute talks or talk/demonstration planned. -- Would we be meeting in the same room as last time -- could it be partitioned off -- so that if someone did not want to attend a "talk" they could keep browsing? --
5. Do we have the option of opening it up for "satellite related" equipment swap" if hams want to bring in some equipment they want to sell?
6. Other Ideas -- -- Obviously SDR's is one of the hot tech topics -- I went ahead and got one of the $20 SDR dongles (January QST) and got the SDR# software up & running -- -- I'm still not completely sure what the I & Q signals are -- how are they created -- It would be great to have a SDR SME there to answer questions.
Regarding "working the birds" -- I think one of the biggest challenges - Especially with the linear birds is managing the Doppler shift ... -- how are you doing it on your portable station? It would be interesting to have some sort Doppler shift simulator and let participants get a sense of the tuning required.
7. Are you thinking about working a pass during the workshop? FO-29 goes overhead between 11:30am - 12:30 We should also be able to get in an SO-50 (FM bird) pass
8.Possible Talk Topics - "getting ready to work the next AMSAT-NA cubsat - SDR's how they work - AMSAT-NA - Current Operational Status of existing sats -- Near future plans - (can we get Drew to stop by?) - Pat - do you have any of your balloon hardware you want to show off -- or talk about recent flights?
73, Bruce WA3SWJ