- Subject: 16 th Annual Space Symposium and AMSAT annual meeting
- From: Gina Pettis <pettis@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 09 Feb 1998 00:00:01 -0600
To all concerned:
This is an article written by WB5YKU (Fred Messina)about Vicksburg
and the 16th Annual Space Symposium and Amsat annual meeting.
Watch for more bulletins and ANS News items.
The cutting edge of amateur radio communications that will carry
hams into the 21st century will meet some of the finest remnants of
the 19th century Oct. 16-19 in Vicksburg when members of AMSAT-NA
gather in the Red Carpet City for the 16th Space Symposium and AMSAT
annual meeting.
The Headquarters for the four-day event is the Park Inn International
with AMSAT-NA as the sponsor and the Vicksburg Amateur Radio Club as
the hosts. Known during the War Between the States as the Gibraltar
of the Confederacy, Vicksburg is a city of time contrasts where the
epochal battles of the Civil War, known locally as the War of Northern
Aggresion, meet the most advanced sciences.
The war is remembered in the more than 1600 acres of the Vicksburg
National Military Park where the visitor can, for a nominal fee, see
where our great-grandfathers fought and died for the principles they
believed in. After a comfortable hour or so touring the modern Visitors
Center and viewing the audio-visual presentation of the Campaign for
Vicksburg, the visitor can head out for a self guided tour of the siege
lines and forts where all the action took place in 1863. You can also
opt for a tour guided by rented tape player and tape or a real, live
guide who will ride with you explaining all that you will see on the
rolling hills of the park. Near the end of the tour, you can see what
the remains of the last ire-clad Union gunboat, the Cairo, and some of
the artifacts that were raised with her from the waters of the Yazoo
River in 1963.
After your park visit, drive into douwntown Vicksburg and see the Old
Court House Museum -Eva W. Davis Memorial with its fine collection of
wartime artifacts as well as displays showing how the city lived from
the pioneer days to the present. On Washington Street, the vistor can
drop into the Grey and Blue Museum for a glimpse of the naval aspects of
the Vicksburg Campaign and then cross the street to see the Biedenharn
Candy Co. Coca Cola Museum to see where and how the popular soft drink
was bottled for the first time. In the same area there are a doll
museum, a modern pharmacy coupled with a museum of firearms and medical
artifacts and SHOPPING!!!
Although Vicksburg put up a fight, the wartime mayor remarked the city
"Did not know and was disinclined to learn the meaning of the word
surrender" the city still has several antebellum homes that are open for
tours. These range from the elegant mansion Cedar Grove, which is also a
bed and breakfast inn and restaurant to Mc Raven where the visitor can
see a dome depicting three stages of Vicksburg's development beginning
in pioneer days.
For those who want to add a little science and engineering to their
visit, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Waterways Experiment Station is
that organization's largest engineering and scientific research facility
in the country. WES'S more than 1200 employees work in fields such as
hydraulics, soils, coastal and enviromental engineering and computers.
Self guided tours are available every weekday except holidays and
weekends. Man does not live by ham radio alone, so there must be some
place to eat. Vicksburg is like New Orleans in this regard, if you
can't find a meal, you aren't looking. The food ranges from old
fashioned Southen at Walnut Hills to Lebanese at Eddie Monsour's at the
clubhouse of the Vicksburg Country Club to typical American at Monsours,
Maxwell's and the Beechwood to continental at Jacques in the Park.
There are also Rowdy's Family Restaurant, Goldies Trail Barbeque, The
Cracker Barrel and the typical gamut of fast food establishments.
After AMSAT meetings all day and a good meal, it is time for a little
evening entertainment. Four riverfront casinos feature table games,
slot machines, food and drink and Las Vegas style entertainment.
Those planning to attend, and anyone who knows what Vicksburg can offer
will know the attendance could easily double the 250 enthusuasts who
attended the last meeting in Toronto, Canada, will be wanting more
information on what there is to do and see in the city. All of that is
just a phone call, or computer contact away.
The VARC contact is Eddie Pettis, N5JGK, and he can be reached at
n5jgk@amsat.org or see the WWW page link at http://www.amsat.org.
The Vicksburg Convention and Visitors Bureau can provide all the
information a visitor needs, including a visitor's guide that lists all
attractions, restaurants, motels, antebellum homes, bed and breakfast
inns etc. along with a detailed map to guide the visitor aroung the
city. Contact the VCVB at (601)636-9421, toll free at (800)221-3536.
or e-mail at www.vicksburg.org/cvb.
The call for papers will be made in March and the registration forms
will be available in July.
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