[amsat-bb] Reply to W5PFG's letter of 10 July 2020

[Bruce Perens]

On Mon, Jul 27, 2020 at 12:42 PM Joseph Armbruster <
josepharmbruster at gmail.com> wrote:

> Can you start your own amateur space organization?


You mean the one that just got three different grants that, in a better
time, would have gone to AMSAT?
The one that is designing the 6U microwave transponder for space use, and
the ground station to go with it?
The one that is operated with a sufficient level of transparency that
participants can get their technical projects done, and can collect funds
for them without their being diverted elsewhere?
The one where technical discussion dominates their mailing lists, and the
most controversial subject is how to spend their money?

I founded ORI with Michelle, and wrote the $3500 check to carry out its
501(c)3 acceptance (my largest donation ever to any organization),
because we needed to get our projects done in the face of AMSAT's board
being intractable. It should never have been necessary. We were not aware
that AMSAT had already hired lawyers against Michelle and Patrick when we
formed ORI. Obviously, this would have given us more reason. But we applied
for and were accepted for an AMSAT organizational membership, because our
intent was NOT to replace AMSAT but to fix it.

As you know, I previously lobbied, successfully, to replace a large portion
of the ARRL board and end the confidentiality vs. transparency debacle
there. Ironically, there are many parallels to the situation here,
including a board that chose to publicly libel one of their directors for
his attempt to reform them, a thing that the succeeding board wisely
withdrew.

Before that, I lobbied to end Morse code testing as a criterion for Amateur
licensing, also succeeding. Even though people pleaded with me to allow
Amateur Radio to "die with dignity".

Both of those things required working against ARRL, when ARRL *and the
majority of its own membership *were barriers to the advancement of Amateur
Radio. Fortunately, that was not the case internationally, and IARU voted,
against the urging of ARRL - their own international directorate - to work
to end the code testing requirement. Today, more people use CW on the air
than ever! Everybody won!

You don't achieve these things by backing down.

    Thanks

    Bruce