Hospitality was excellent, with sponsored drinks and snacks from Down East Microwave. We were presented with our conference proceedings and a goody bag including CDs of Microwave design software, strips of MMIC amplifiers and (bizarrely) a sponsored back scratcher!
After a fitful jet-lagged night, the first day dawned and we were treated to a series of excellent speakers. Steve N2CEI from Down East Microwave took us on an amusing tour of the available high power surplus 13cm PAs becoming available nowadays, entertaining us with scary stories of almost flattening both his 60 Amp power supplies with a particular beast capable of half a kilowatt! The European “end” was kept up by Dave G4HUP’s versatile synthesiser design and Grant G8UBN who produced the highlight of the day during his talk on microwave SDR by explaining the difference between TCP/IP and UDP/IP by running up and down the stage pretending to be a data packet! I just hope someone captured this on video, as it was the stuff of future Amateur Radio club annual dinners!
Breaks throughout the day enabled us to partake of coffee and buns, cruise round the flea market, and drool over the array of Rohde and Schwarz test equipment that was available for anyone to use and test their kit. The afternoon break had an auction to support the organisers and the day really flew as we were entertained, educated, and slowly gathered more “microwave ballast” to fill our half empty suitcases!
One speaker told us that when explaining his passion for radio to his wife as “eccentric” got the ultimate put-down from her,
“You’re not eccentric, you’re just weird!”
Probably sums up a lot of us….
In the evening there was more free beer and another flea market, this time consisting of parts and equipment brought in by the conference delegates.
Day two was more of the same with topics ranging from the bands above 300GHz to “Rover operation” and the legendary Al Ward W5LUA talking about preamplifiers. Al has spent most of his professional life in the field, so no–one is more qualified to talk on this subject than him.
The conference closed with an evening banquet. The keynote speech was given by Nobel prize-winning Physicist Joe Taylor K1JT, of WSJT fame. Joe told us about his early life and his ground-breaking research at the giant Areceibo radio telescope in
Hand portable moonbounce, the next big challenge for amateurs?
Joe’s fascinating talk culminated in him handing round his Nobel medal to the auditorium for everyone to “touch and feel”
The final part of the evening was the raffle and in the tradition of MUD, everyone got a prize and went home happy with an invite to
The conference over, on Sunday we spent a relaxing morning looking round Valley Forge Park, where, over the harsh winter of 1777 to 1778, George Washington moulded the Continental Army of the newly formed United States of America into a viable fighting force. No battle was fought here, but the army struggled against the elements and low morale to eventually be ready to overcome the British.
"Naked and starving as they are, we cannot enough admire the incomparable patience and fidelity of the soldiery." - George Washington at Valley Forge, February 16, 1778.
Lunch in a sidewalk café in downtown
Thanks to the organisers the Packrats, to Sam for convincing me to spend the money to travel, and to Sam, Shirley and Dave for being such good travelling companions.
1 comment:
Somewhat belated, John, but I thought I ought to reciprocate.....
It was a great long weekend and Philly is a lovely city, even though it does thrive on matters that ought to be an athema to us!
Dallas should be interesting, in October.
Sam
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