[amsat-bb] Google Summer of Code - Hamsats at schools and universities (comment0

[Robert Bruninga]

Building Amateur satellites at the Naval Academy using simple AX.25 TNC's as
command/control/telemetry using almost off the shelf APRS devices costing
maybe $300, it is frustrating to me to see *dozens* of other high schools
and universities all wanting to build a cubesat but with most of them having
great ideas but little in the way of actual talent to make a radio work.
They all want to put Raspberry pies or much much bigger processors on board
and want the power of their smart phones on board, but fail to be able to
actually build anything that works.  So they just buy $5000 xcvrs, $3000
batteries (instead of super reliable and safe NiCd's for $50.

And the failure rate of these that actually make it to orbit is quite high!
Not counting all the hardware that gets burned up by students having little
clue what they are doing during testing and integration.  It’s a crying
shame to see all this effort thrown away.  What? Maybe 1% of these projects
have a HAM mentor to encourage a Ham experiment on board.  And most such
mentors are powerless to lead the students toward something simpler that
works as opposed to the stuffing of the most complex CPUs all into the tiny
cubesat and wondering why it "doesn’t work" reliably once they unplug it
from all their USB cables....

So I endorese any effort to push our expertise out to wherever we can find
satellite interest in schools and try to help them to success.

But then, I am a modern fossil. Still clinging to robust NiCd's, 1200, and
9600 baud TNC's, SSTV and plain old ham comms.  And yes, with 8 successful
ham transponders over 18 years, I DID fail on the ax25 of PSAT2 with a
stupid mistake, though the SSTV and PSK31 UHF side still works perfectly
with plenty of power.

Anyway, standby for PSAT3 (a dupe of PSAT2 but without 5 volts on the 4vmax
Xcvr!)  and then this fossil is out of here by June.

Bob, WB4APR

-----Original Message-----
Subject: Re: [amsat-bb] Google Summer of Code - mentorship application from
Open Research Institute

Welcome! Great questions.

Participation in academia has a long history in amateur radio. From
significant atmospheric research accomplished with amateur collaboration in
the 1920s to enormous contributions from amateurs in software defined radio,
today.

There are a large number of university teams doing spacecraft. More
interaction at earlier stages with the teams wanting to authentically
include amateur radio will improve those payloads. That directly benefits
the amateur service.

There’s a large number of academic payloads with very poorly thought out
ground systems. Lots of opportunities there! Directly benefits all of us if
using a payload is not unnecessarily challenging, frustrating, or
ineffective.

Advanced digital microwave work is a gold mine of projects and
possibilities. FPGA design, power amplifiers, feed design, user interface,
accessibility design, cognitive radio, machine learning, genetic algorithms
to speed decoding... and lots more.

Why should proprietary interests have all the fruits of academic labor, and
have all the fun? Amateur radio has a unique position in the regulatory
landscape and is an excellent partner for academia. I believe we should take
full advantage of it whenever we can. GSoC is a good match.

It helps us by (potentially) producing modern work for amateur satellites.

I say potentially because some students will fail. That is the nature of any
creative endeavor. We can all learn from failures too. I argue that there is
only upside for us in participation.

Thank you,

Michelle W5NYV

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