Amateur Radio received excellent exposure during the IEEE International Symposium on Antennas and Propagation July 7 – 12 in Atlanta, Georgia. Some 1,400 delegates from 23 countries attended, and many visited ARRL’s exhibit to learn more about Amateur Radio. Three active Amateur Radio stations were available via remote Internet connections.

“I wanted the booth to be inviting and get people's attention,” said Wes Lamboley, W3WL, of the North Fulton Amateur Radio League, who headed up the team of booth volunteers. “The main objective was to engage people and find out what their interests were and then make them aware of aspects of ham radio that may be of interest.” That included Amateur Radio in space activities, including the Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) program and ham radio satellites.

“We had very favorable position in the commercial hall, and managed to get an extra booth for our team,” Lamboley said. “We really needed the space!” He estimated that up to 400 attendees visited the ARRL exhibit, and all received an “Ask Me About Amateur Radio” pin designed by Ward Silver, N0AX.

“As this Symposium was about antennas, propagation and radio science, the most interest on the part of non-hams seemed to be the frequency allocations we have,” Lamboley observed. “It seemed that over 50% of the attendees were working in the 10 to 100 GHz range and engaged in many experimental/research endeavors in that range. This is being driven by 5G. There was much interest in Arduinos as well.”

Several attendees sat for Amateur Radio examinations offered at the conference. One grateful individual was Artem Roev, RN6HBZ, who now also holds a US Amateur Extra class ticket and the call sign AJ6KM. Another was Eric Eveleigh, KN4VRW — a conference attendee and graduate student from Canada who passed the Technician and General exams and plans to get his Canadian license when he returns home.