[amsat-bb] Re: status

[Michael]

Patrick asked.....
We're listening... what do you suggest? Sophisticated home stations like 
what you described in an earlier post don't work well for those of us at 
hamfests or other events, even if we have videos that can show that off. 
The sophisticated home station may even scare off some, who fear that it 
would take a lot of time - and more $$$ - to get on the satellites.

Well I don't know but it seems like to me that same handheld antenna 
mounted on a tripod  and  using small DC motors to track the satellite 
in both the azimuth and elevation planes ( something like Mark Spencers 
latest creation) along with full blown doppler correction being provided 
along with it from some type of  "black box" transceiver and/or 
interface which was assembled from a reasonably inexpensive kit and is 
being run by an iphone , droid or tablet  with an app or possibly by a 
laptop and the whole shebang being powered from a reasonable sized 
cluster of li poly batteries is much more impressive than a guy with an 
HT pointing an antenna in the air with his hand.  IMO that also would 
not seem unattainable and  monetarily out of reach to the average joe 
ham  who has somewhat bothered to keep up with the technology available 
to him or her today.  I know I would love such a system.  You could also 
have a demonstration of the simpler hand held station going and let 
people make up their own mind which had more appeal and "cool" factor.  
My idea isn't so complex that it overwhelms but is not so simple that it 
totally takes away the "wow" factor either.
Unfortunately, I can dream such a system up but don't have the technical 
savvy to bring it to fruition. I wish I did.  I could build it from a 
kit if the SMD's were kept to 1205 size and larger. I find hand 
soldering anything smaller a bit difficult. Think of the fundraising 
abilities of such a " black box system" as well...... Anyway...I got to 
run and perform some family obligations, you asked the question so I 
thought I'd do my best to answer it...
73,
Michael, W4HIJ