SB SPACE @ ARL $ARLS011
ARLS011 Anniversary for AMSAT
 
ZCZC AS55
QST de W1AW
Space Bulletin 011  ARLS011
>From ARRL Headquarters
Newington, CT  February 25, 1994
To all radio amateurs
 
SB SPACE ARL ARLS011
ARLS011 Anniversary for AMSAT
 
Anniversary for AMSAT
 
Congratulations to the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation 
(AMSAT), which celebrates its 25th anniversary on March 3.
 
In early January 1969 a small group of interested amateurs 
began meeting in the Washington, D.C. area, with the idea 
of forming an East Coast group to carry on the objectives 
of Project OSCAR (Orbiting Satellite Carrying Amateur 
Radio).
 
They decided to form a non-profit corporation to 
disassociate the group's activities from any of the 
companies with whom the members were employed, which 
included IBM, the Applied Physics Lab of The Johns Hopkins 
University, and the National Aeronautics and Space 
Administration (NASA).
 
Nearly two dozen interested amateurs attended the first 
general organizational meeting, held on February 6, 1969.
 
Just two months later, on March 3, 1969, AMSAT was 
incorporated in the District of Columbia.  The first 
public announcements appeared in April QST and in 
Autocall, a Washington, D.C.-area clubs publication.
 
Among AMSAT's founders (and members of the first board of 
directors) were George Jacobs, W3ASK; Perry Klein, W3PK; 
Jan King, W3GEY; and Bill Tynan, W3XO.
 
Today, AMSAT supports both amateur satellites and the 
SAREX (Shuttle Amateur Radio Experiment) program.
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