[amsat-bb] ORI receives half million dollar grant, and it's only the first.

[Joseph Armbruster]

Anyone on the -bb,

So, this is the first i've read about any of this amateur radio IP stuff
and i'm still digging around, learning about it.  I assume this is common
knowledge in the amateur radio community... but as for me, this is news!!!
I just whois'd 44.192.0.1 and saw good ole amazon:


Organization:   Amazon.com, Inc. (AMAZO-4)

RegDate:        2019-07-18


So it appears at least Amazon purchased part of the addresses.  Garsh... If
only I was born a couple decades earlier, and went to school with Hank
Magnuski, et al.... (ref [HM] RFC790)... Maybe, 'my charity inc' could have
inherited part of that... I mean, what a deal!!!  Now, according to
wikipedia and other sources the sale raised over 50 million USD!!! (ref:
https://forums.qrz.com/index.php?threads/a-civil-discussion-about-the-future-of-amsat-na.667517/page-4#post-5146742
)

50 million american pesos!!!!!!  Holy smokes!! ! ! ! ! !!!!! ! ! !!!!

Now, i'm not sure if that figure is correct, can anyone on the -bb verify
this?  Two public references appear to suggest this number.  If this figure
is correct, can ARDC spare another, say... several million for a launch for
AMSAT?  All this moping around on the -bb, pretending that the amateur
radio community does not have the funding for a launch at this point, all
seems reasonably ridiculous to me now...  Did I miss something?

K,
Joseph Armbruster
KJ4JIO

On Thu, Sep 10, 2020 at 9:16 PM Joseph Armbruster <
josepharmbruster at gmail.com> wrote:

> Bruce,
>
> Wowzers!  That's a pile of money and it's kind of difficult for me to
> piece this together... but, whenever such a large amount of $ is involved,
> I always like to trace it.  I'm digging through all this trying to figure
> out where the heck ARDC could come up with a metric (or english) pile of
> money like that to distribute in a grant and so-far, i've determined:
>
> 1)  IANA designated 44/8 for "AMPRNET Amature Radio Experiment Net", back
> in the day...
> ref:  https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc790
>
> 2)  Via some legal (questionable?) wizardry, ARDC was able to stake a
> claim to 100% of 44/8, and sell off IPs that were designated for Amateur
> Radio Experiment Net
> ref:
> https://www.ampr.org/wp-content/uploads/Courtesy-Notice-to-AG-Signed-ARDC.pdf
>
> 3) Robert McGwier (N4HY) is on the "2020 Grants Advisory Committee" for
> ARDC:
> ref: https://www.ampr.org/giving/
>
> 4) And he's also involved with ORI:
> ref:
> https://openresearch.institute/public/mailing-lists/ground-station/ground-station/2018-April/000087.html
>
> 5) ORI ends up with a massive grant!
>
> I do admit.... this is incredible work!  I have a few questions about
> RFC790 and the ownership of those IPs.  Can you explain to everyone on the
> -bb, how the living heck ARDC had the legal right to ownership to all of
> those IPs.
>
> One thing is quite obvious from all of this... Namely, I need to quit my
> job and come work with you all of you!
>
> Joseph Armbruster
> KJ4JIO
>
>
> On Thu, Sep 10, 2020 at 8:41 PM Bruce Perens via AMSAT-BB <
> amsat-bb at amsat.org> wrote:
>
>> This is just part of a complete plan to provide for the space and ground
>> needs of amateur radio. Thus, you can expect to see additional grants on
>> this scale. ORI remains an AMSAT-Affiliated organization, and the
>> participation of AMSAT and its members is always welcome.
>>
>>     Thanks
>>
>>     Bruce
>>
>> On Thu, Sep 10, 2020, 4:04 PM Robert McGwier <rwmcgwier at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> > ARDC awarded ORI $500,000 to do major development on the phase 4 ground
>> > digital communications terminal. ORI has assembled a tremendous
>> engineering
>> > team to do this work.
>> >
>> > Congratulations to ORI.  I was informed the check is in the mail. This
>> is
>> > the largest grant ARDC has given to date.  ORI was previously awarded
>> large
>> > grants by the ARRL foundation and the Yasme foundation to support the
>> work.
>> >
>> > 73s
>> > Bob
>> > N4HY
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
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>