06/01/2021

Former AMSAT Board of Directors member Andy MacAllister, W5ACM, ofÿ Houston, Texas, died on May 19 after a brief illness. An ARRL and AMSAT Life Member, he was 68. MacAllister had worked at NASA and was a member of the Johnson Space Center and Brazos Valley Amateur Radio Clubs. More recently, he was the Chief Engineer for Rice University's radio station KTRU.

"Andy and I had a great time at many AMSAT symposiums, where we would work satellites from parking lots of restaurants or outside a hotel," recounted Bruce Paige, KK5DO, an AMSAT Board member who shared duties with MacAllister on the Houston AMSAT Net. "During the AMSAT Symposium in 2016, we worked each other from the deck of the cruise ship when we were standing about 3 feet from each other."

Paige notes that MacAllister gave presentations and demonstrations at many hamfests and conventions. He also initiated dozens of ham radio balloon launches.

The family has requested that donations in MacAllister's name be made to AMSAT[1] or to the Brazos Valley Amateur Radio Club, PO Box 2997, Sugar Land, TX 77487-2997 (reference the Andy MacAllister BLT Memorial Fund).


[1] http://www.amsat.org/

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