[amsat-bb] Re: COMPASS-1 support at the West Coast

[Roger Kolakowski]

I believe that the COMPASS-1 team reached a long way to mobilize a volunteer
effort of skilled amateurs to help recover a failing satellite. This is one
more story for the ages; how the Amateur community was trusted by being
provided open control codes, to do what they do best....provide the
diversity of location and the perseverance inherent in the hobby to bring an
orbiting object back to life.

These new "control operators" stand up with those special few who were able
to capture signals from an antenna-less Suitsat-1, 200 miles distant and
report progress to the professional team who had launched the project.

Amateur does not mean un-professional, it just means we don't get paid for
what we enjoy doing.

Roger
WA1KAT


----- Original Message -----
From: "Alan Cresswell" <alancresswell at xtra.co.nz>
To: "'amsat-bb'" <amsat-bb at amsat.org>
Sent: Tuesday, November 11, 2008 5:27 PM
Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: COMPASS-1 support at the West Coast


> Hi All,
>
> I want to fully endorse the comments from Bob and Bruce.  I have been
> working with the Compass team for the last few months and it has been a
most
> enjoyable experience.  Their willingness to provide feedback, telemetry
> decoding software and general information is I think unique in the Cubesat
> world.  Beyond that it is the only amateur satellite as far as I know that
> actually invites active participation in satellite command and control
> operations - an opportunity normally restricted to a select few. It
presents
> an opportunity to try something quite different from the normal run of the
> mill amateur satellite operations and I for one believe that Compass has
> been an excellent addition to the ranks of amateur satellites.
>
> Alan
> ZL2BX