A big thank you goes out to our speakers!  Although I gave up trying to attend the presentations due to my "chairman commitments", it was obvious that attendance at the tech talks remained high throughout Friday and Saturday.  At times it was hard to find a seat!  First and foremost this is a technical conference and I truly believe Bob Morton, VE3BFM, with big help from your volunteer speakers, put together a top-notch program for all. 

Bob also arranged the Antenna Test Range and the Preamp Measuring/Tweaking clinic.  Not including the reference antennas, 78 different antennas were tested up through 10 Ghz, and 35 different preamps were measured.  There were so many antennas that the test team was busy until mid-afternoon Friday!  Some of you may not know that Bob put together a complete new system for antenna testing, a huge effort, to avoid border issues with the equipment.  The added benefit is that we now have a system available to those of us in southern Ontario, which we will put to good use at local conferences.

The top three entries of the "States Above 50 Mhz" this year were Bob Matthews, K8TQK with 197, Tony Emanuele, WA8RJF with 169, followed by some lid who can't seem to break 3^rd place.  Congratulations to Bob for making it to the top, and to Tony for breaking into the "top three" for the first time.

Congratulations to this year's Chambers Award winner Emil Pocock, W3EP, for his many years as editor of QST's "World Above 50 Mhz" and his many articles on VHF/UHF propagation, and to Wilson Award winner Gerald Youngblood, AC5OG, for his technical development work on software defined radio.

Our guest speaker at the banquet was Dennis Motschenbacher, K7BV/1, who gave us an interesting human perspective on DXpeditions with his talk on the "Timor Lorosae DXpedition, 4W/K7BV, Memories Beyond the Pile-ups".  Barry Malowanchuk, VE4MA, won first crack at the fantastic prize table and walked away with a new

Check out NEW VUCC/r Reverse VUCC Award Program and 2004 States Above Program Wrap-Up in this issue!

It seems hard to believe now that it has been three month's since the conference!  What a time we had!  From all the reports, your 2004 Conference team put together a huge success, enjoyed by all those who made the trip to the Delta Meadowvale in Mississauga.

146 hams attended the conference.  Of the hams attending, 117 attended the banquet along with 49 family members for a total banquet attendance of 166. Participation in the family program was up from previous years with 41 attending the Stage West Dinner Theatre with the musical show "British Invasion II - America Strikes Back", 34 attending the Niagara Falls area bus tour, and 42 attending the City of Toronto bus tour.  Of those on the Toronto tour, 36 braved the 1100' CN Tower observation deck, and I have it on good authority that almost everyone ventured onto the glass floor!   We had to add an extra bus on each of the tours due to their popularity.  The boat tour of Toronto harbor, courtesy of the Ontario VHF Association, was well received, thanks in part to the perfect weather.

The hospitality suite was a blast!  As one of the last leaving the banquet hall on Saturday night, I expected to find a few tired souls at the suite, but I was amazed to find the room packed once again with 50 or 60 people, despite late night socializing to 4 and 5 in the morning on the two previous nights!  Without a doubt this is one tradition that must be maintained.  It is absolutely one of the best opportunities to get together with your friends from all over and "catch up a bit".  Once again, our thanks go out to Paris Truck Caps (Steve Land, VE3TFU), and the Rochester VHF Group for sponsoring our suite.

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