[amsat-bb] Let's Go!

[Jeff Davis]

I want to offer 'hearty congratulations' to the BOD for the courageous
decisions made at the recent Space Symposium. I can think of no
headline more appropriate and welcome for this organization than the
declaration, "We're going back to space".

Perhaps this decision to move forward with what we can do will also be
what was needed to get the manufacturers to quit sitting on their
hands and INNOVATE!

How many threads have been spawned on this BB by someone asking the
question "what handheld should I buy to use AO-51"..?

The fact that the pat answer is that there aren't any - you need to
check eBay for a 20 year-old model speaks pitifully of the ham radio
marketplace in the 21st century.

Given the nature of LEO, portable operations are very common and going
forward, will be even more so. Who among us wouldn't love a mobile
sized transceiver that sported true simultaneous dual-band (VHF/UHF)
operation and a continuously tunable VFO on FM in a 'satellite
operation mode'?

What would it be worth if that radio also could record all pass data -
and had a USB port that supported a memory stick so that everything
received during a pass could stored on it for offline extraction and
study later when you're back in the shack. It wouldn't even require an
internal TNC to download telemetry data - the audio file could simply
be played back (offline) on a PC and the telemetry decoded there.

There are bound to be hundreds of similar ideas and dreams of new
gear, antennas, and interesting things to do at LEO - let's populate
the BB with these sorts of things and look forward, not back.

I'm more than ready to turn to a new chapter and get back to shaping
the future of ham radio in space.

Aren't you?

73 de Jeff, KE9V
AMSAT-NA 28350