The End of an Era

I got a note today from COMSAT alumni that they are finally removing the 32 m antenna AND-03 at the old Andover Earth Station. I used that antenna to connect to European stations using the above antenna in the 70s to monitor Soviet Nuclear Weapons tests.

This is the end of an era. The old 4/6 GHz bands no longer serve the original purpose. COMSAT was an interesting company, an evolution from a Government vision for satellite communications, managed by a collection of DoD types which lost sight of the commercial world and was slowly disassembled into nothing.

It was a great training ground to understand Washington...pure ruthless politics...played just for the sake of the game. Amazing what a monopoly can do...then it dies.