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This year, for the first time, the annual SARA Meeting was held in the recently completed Tour Center at NRAO Green Bank WV. The 10 meter diameter parabolic dish built in 1937 by Grote Reber, W9GFZ, graces the front of the new building. Reber, the world's first amateur radio astronomer, attended the 1996 SARA meeting at Green Bank. SETI League photo

SARA President Charles Osborne, K4CSO, greets the assembled SARA membership in the Tour Center classroom. SETI League photo

Fifty SARA members patiently await configuration of the PowerPoint computer prior to the start of scheduled technical talks... SETI League photo

...while onscreen, the projection system announces "Searching for Signal", a problem known all too well to those in attendance. SETI League photo

SARA past president and SETI League regional coordinator Tom Crowler, KT4XN, provided the introductory lecture, an overview of radio astronomy. SETI League photo

Don Cline gave us our annual update on activities at the Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute (PARI) in North Carolina. This year, his talk emphasized pulsar detection activities at PARI. SETI League photo

Dr. Joe Philips, a radiologist, told us how he applied his professional skills to the design of a cosmic ray detector. SETI League photo

Charles Osborne presented an update on the SDR-14 Software Defined Radio on behalf of designers Moe Wheatley and Pieter Ibelings. SETI League photo

Dr. John Mannone spoke on solar physics experiments with the 20 MHz Radio Jove receiver and antenna. The highlight of his talk was the recitation of an original poem, written for the occasion. SETI League photo

The first day of scheduled talks at SARA 2003 concluded with a presentation by Jim Brown, NJ3B, formerly of South Carolina State University, on mapping the galaxy at 1420 MHz with a ten-foot dish. SETI League photo

During the Open Session following scheduled talks, Marilyn Gilreath treated us to a PowerPoint presentation on the construction of Dave Thelin's fully steerable radio telescope near Erie PA. Marilyn has just completed her master's degree in communications, is now starting on her Ph.D., and showed us a thing or two about professional delivery! SETI League photo

SETI League executive director H. Paul Shuch, N6TX, kicked off Day Two at Green Bank with a tutorial on building the SETI Horn of Plenty, an Argus antenna alternative. His presentation was punctuated by a rendition of "Hydrogen Line," a song honoring Dr. Harold Ewen and his famous waveguide horn antenna of fifty years ago. SETI League photo

Karen Jensen, who has just completed her Ph.D. at the University of Florida, spoke on what one can learn from Radio Astronomy. SETI League photo

For several years Jim Van Prooyen has been updating SARA conference attendees on his efforts to develop algorithms for pulsar detection. This year, he finally had results to show: the detection of several puslars at 408 MHz with a ten-foot dish! SETI League photo

Having recently converted his 15 foot radio telescope from 4 GHz to 1.4 GHz observations, Malcolm Mallette reported on "the C-band years at the University of Indianapolis." SETI League photo

Prof. Tom Troland of the University of Kentucky was at NRAO, observing with the Green Bank telescope, during SARA 2003. We roped him in for an unscheduled, impromptu presentation on his prior experiences observing at Arecibo. Ask him about the University of Kentucky basketball team. SETI League photo

Mechanical engineer Bob Anderson is head of the operations and maintenance department at NRAO Green Bank. He spoke to us about weighing the GBT... SETI League photo

...and then took us on our annual tour of the world's largest fully steerable radio telescope. SETI League photo

SETI League executive director H. Paul Shuch, who also serves on the SARA board, posed for the obligatory photo op with the GBT... SETI League photo

...and then stepped back to capture dozens of other SARA members doing the same. SETI League photo

For the past several years, SARA members posed in front of the ever-growing Green Bank Telescope for their annual group photo. This year, with the GBT long since commissioned, more than three dozen members gathered instead at Grote Reber's dish in front of the new Tour Center. SETI League photo