Friday AMSAT/TAPR Banquet and Speaker

The tenth annual joint AMSAT/TAPR Banquet will be held on Friday evening, May 20th.  This dinner is one of the main AMSAT activities during the Hamvention.  Tickets ($35 each) may be purchased from the AMSAT store.  The banquet ticket purchase deadline is Tuesday, May 17th. Banquet tickets must be purchased in advance and will not be sold at the AMSAT booth. Different from previous years, this year there will be no tickets to pick up at the AMSAT booth. Tickets purchased on-line will be maintained on a list with check-in at the door at the banquet center. 

The Banquet will take place at the Kohler Presidential Banquet Center, 4572 Presidential Way, Kettering, OH 45429 (just south of Dayton).  Doors open at 6:30 p.m. for a cash bar with the buffet dinner served at 7:00 p.m.

AMSAT and TAPR alternate the task of providing a speaker for the banquet. It is AMSAT¹s responsibility this year.

Michelle Thompson, W5NYV, will present “It¹s just software, right?”  She will survey the AMSAT Ground Terminal:  Who, what, when, where, why, and how we¹re designing open source radio solutions for the next generation of AMSAT payloads.

Michelle is AMSAT¹s Team Leader for the design and execution of the AMSAT Ground Terminal.  The goal is to create a “5 and Dime” (5 and 10 GHz) digital SDR transceiver that will support both voice and data modes, for both general QSOs and emergency communication, for the Phase 4B satellite and for future AMSAT projects.  This is an effort to design an inexpensive ground terminal for amateurs that would cost tens of thousands of dollars commercially, for as much under $1,000 as we can get it.

A true renaissance woman, in addition to being an engineer and a licensed amateur radio operator, Michelle has worked for Qualcomm, attends Burning Man, and is a longtime DEFCON participant.  She is also the lead for Organ Donor (an AI pipe organ).  Her Phase 4B Weekly Ground Engineering Reports are fascinating reading.

Seating is limited to the number of meals we reserve with the Kohler caterers based on the number of tickets sold by the deadline.