[amsat-bb] Thinking and thanking...Tony AA2TX

[Michael Tondee]

Subject: 	RE: Thinking and thanking...Tony AA2TX
Date: 	Fri, 14 Aug 2020 23:09:28 -0400
From: 	Michael Tondee <mat_62 at charter.net>
To: 	amsatbb at amsat.org



It was Tony who told me where to get the out of production and hard to 
find OR-360 rotors that I used in my fist sat station with my homebrew 
SAEBRETrack box. I had tapped out my hobby finances just getting a sat 
capable rig and if not for that circuit and those rotators, I might not 
have gotten any further. As disillusioned as I am with where this side 
of the hobby seems to be headed now, thanks to you, Gene and Tony, I'll 
always have the memories of working AO-7 which is something I had wanted 
to do since I was a teenager and first saw it on the cover of QST. 
Unfortunately I missed AO-40 by a few years but the times I spent with 
AO-7, AO-51, FO-29 etc. using that rotor setup topped with some homebrew 
WA5VJB "cheap yagis" were some good ones and I miss them. MY thanks to 
all you guys!
73,
Michael, W4HIJ

Message: 11
Date: Fri, 14 Aug 2020 14:43:00 -0400
From: "Mark L. Hammond"<marklhammond at gmail.com>
To: Amsat - BBs<amsat-bb at amsat.org>
Subject: [amsat-bb] Thinking and thanking...Tony AA2TX
Message-ID:
<CAPRXzyr-_EKNqELfMkgmfW1-JH3zk_5qmtJPV2ihwFW-4+J0Sw at mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"

About a week ago, Facebook alerted me that it was Tony AA2TX Monteiro's
birthday. I'll admit it caught me off guard, yet it was really fun
thinking about the wonderful work he did for us, AMSAT, as the "father of
the Fox satellite family." He was such a neat and brilliant guy. So over
the past several days I have been thinking of him, and being thankful for
him. It brought back memories of a HamRadioNow.TV interview from Dayton
Hamvention in 2013, where Tony was VP for Engineering, and I was the first
VP for Educational Relations. This is before any of the Fox birds were
built and buttoned up for launch. If you're curious, and you never had
the chance to meet Tony (or even if you did!!) you might enjoy watching the
video and hearing about the vision and planning; note that the interview
starts about 5 mins into the recording. It was touching for me,
personally.

https://www.amsat.org/hamradionow-amsat-fox-1-interview-now-online/

It took Jerry N0JY Buxton as the "new VP" and friends stepping up to
fulfill Tony's vision. So I'm thankful for all of you that did all of
this. Far too many to count. And the "bonus bird" Fox-1E wasn't even part
of Tony's original vision...but I can't wait to have that one flown and
operational "someday soon" as well!

If you work AO-91 or AO-92 this weekend, maybe you'll also be "thinking and
thanking" Tony AA2TX, too!

73,

Mark L. Hammond [N8MH]
AMSAT Director and Command Station