[amsat-bb] Re: Let's Go!

[Bill Ress]

Hi Jeff,

Many thanks for your appreciated words of support. The decision was 
very, very hard and I know we'll receive many slings and arrows for it, 
but while it sure wasn't our preferred project - it is a realistic one.

We all want a HEO or would even settle for a MEO but until someone can 
"show us the money" to get our satellite there, we're stuck in LEO, 
plain and simple.

I can tell you personally that one answer is to modify a LEO orbit. It's 
no at all easy but it is an intuitive alternate for a better orbit. I am 
also optimistic, given the papers on the subject at the Symposium, that 
creative thought will be given by AMSAT-NA on the subject. It's not an 
answer for next year or even five years out, but it's coming.

Regards...Bill - N6GHz

Jeff Davis wrote:
> 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
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