[amsat-bb] AMSAT's "new" FM satellite flyer

[Patrick STODDARD (WD9EWK/VA7EWK)]

Clint,

> Patrick, your emory is a little hazy regarding the history of this publication.

My memory is not "hazy" about the history of your flyer. I didn't know
it. I knew
you had one back then, and for a while you allowed me to use it as a handout
at the hamfests or other events I attended representing AMSAT, until we had
a different flyer created for AMSAT at the end of 2008. I had only been an
AMSAT Area Coordinator for a few months as of September 2007, and not in
the discussions where your flyer received AMSAT "approval".

What I didn't mention in my post last night is that Gould had intended on having
another person work on the AMSAT flyer with Tim and me - you. Gould asked
for a flyer that could be distributed in the packets sent to new AMSAT members.
Gould had some suggestions of additional items that should be in an AMSAT
flyer, and you had objections to a few of them in one of the drafts:

1. SatPC32
2. Elk antennas
3. A photo with someone using a tape-measure Yagi

(The last item is a humorous point now, considering you used one with your
FT-60R to work the ISS last summer.)

You also questioned only referring to the AMSAT web site as an online resource
for obtaining satellite pass information, and made some other comments. At that
point, Gould directed Tim and me to proceed with creating an AMSAT flyer,
including the references to the items above. Since then, we have gone in
different directions with our respective flyers, which isn't a bad thing. This
information has also been in Gould's "Getting Started with Amateur Satellites"
books available from AMSAT, and in lots of other places on the Internet.

> BUT THE BOTTOM LINE - in my mind - is getting the information out.

Yes! Thank you for acknowledging that, after the brief history lesson. :-)

With the current web site, it is easier to make this information
available. AMSAT
has been doing a lot of that with the Fox project, and the "Station
and Operating
Hints" page is a nice, one-stop, way to gather up this sort of useful
information.
Throwing in comments like "I hope AMSAT-NA doesn't wait 12 years after launch
of FOX-1A..." aren't productive, given that you're an AMSAT supporter.

You have been talking up Fox-1A for the past few months, and AMSAT has been
talking about Fox-1A - along with the other Fox-1 satellites and the
Fox project in
general - for longer. We're all hoping for successes, as each
satellite is launched.
The recent news about Fox-1A passing its final checkout at Cal Poly last week is
a good thing.

73!





Patrick WD9EWK/VA7EWK
http://www.wd9ewk.net/
Twitter: @WD9EWK