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{
    "url": "https://mailman.amsat.org/hyperkitty/api/list/[email protected]/email/GHKVJPLPEPYRAO3NFOWN63JZD44BC6AN/?format=api",
    "mailinglist": "https://mailman.amsat.org/hyperkitty/api/list/[email protected]/?format=api",
    "message_id": "[email protected]",
    "message_id_hash": "GHKVJPLPEPYRAO3NFOWN63JZD44BC6AN",
    "thread": "https://mailman.amsat.org/hyperkitty/api/list/[email protected]/thread/L3HLVILO6PFOB4QXDEWLF6EWONN5XAUU/?format=api",
    "sender": {
        "address": "kf6kyi (a) gmail.com",
        "mailman_id": null,
        "emails": null
    },
    "sender_name": "Mark VandeWettering",
    "subject": "[amsat-bb] Re: Vanishing hams and an after thought about young hams and sats",
    "date": "2008-07-16T22:36:56Z",
    "parent": "https://mailman.amsat.org/hyperkitty/api/list/[email protected]/email/KQ3TIXHHX5TBATI2MH5LDN4S27UTFNHJ/?format=api",
    "children": [],
    "votes": {
        "likes": 0,
        "dislikes": 0,
        "status": "neutral"
    },
    "content": "Michael Tondee wrote:\n> Just as an afterthought about the FM sats that always seem to draw so much \n> ire and drawing youth into the hobby.\n>  Say you have a young person who shows interest in the hobby, specifically \n> satellites.Which way do you think you might have more success getting the \n> kid motivated to get his license, show them a comparetively inexpensive Dual \n> band HT and an Arrow antenna that is more than likely to be finacially \n> achievable for him/her and let them listen to grid square exchanges or maybe \n> witness the magic of APRS?\n>  Or, show them your super duper decked out sat station complete with \n> switchable CP antennas and the latest an greatest DC to daylight rig plus \n> your sophisticated AZ/El tracking system that, while really impressive and \n> beautiful, is going to seem impossible to obtain for them? Then use the \n> station with all it's technical wizardry to let them listen to some fella \n> spend the entire pass of the SSB/CW satellite yakking about his impending \n> hernia operation....... Think about it.....\n> Michael\nExcellent point, and one that should be emphasized.  We've seen lots of \npeople bitch about FM satellites, but they are very nearly ideal for \ntrying to get new, young hams interested in amateur satellites.  \n\nFirst of all, there is the cost factor.  A reasonable dual band HT is an \nitem that lots of hams can afford.  You can probably get a suitable pair \nof single band HTs even cheaper, especially if you are shopping on the \nused market.   Add an Arrow or any of the many homebrew equivalents, and \nyou've got yourself a station for operating the FM birds, not just in a \nslap/dash manner, but in a way that works pretty darned well.   Or, you \ncould use any of a number of inexpensive FM mobile rigs, perhaps in \ncombination with an HT.  What's also cool is that these rigs aren't \n\"single taskers\": people can use them to communicate with their local \ncommunities via simplex and/or repeaters, and even use them for \nemergencies.    Once they get their feet wet, they can move up to AO-51 \nvia some of K5GNA's downconverters, which are awesome and reasonably \npriced.\n\nSomeone can argue that using used equipment, one can equip an SSB/CW \nstation as inexpensively.  First of all, there is FM equipment on the \nused market even more than there is used SSB/CW equipment for VHF/UHF, \nso if you are going to resort to that, you can also make your FM station \ncheaper, and probably proportionately more cheaply, since the market for \nFM gear is generally more competitive.    Second, people who are new to \nthe hobby are unlikely to have the expertise and the networking that \nmore experienced hams do, and will have difficulty in finding those \nterrific steals that you more experienced hams seem to find with such \nease.  This means that the used market is relatively less useful for \nthem, and can be frustrating for them if they end up buying overpriced \nor non-functional gear in an attempt to \"save\".\n\nSecondly, young hams are often operate at the convenience of others.  \nErecting larger antennas and the like are even more difficult for them \nthan it is for us who might just have a home owners association to deal \nwith: they have to convince mom&dad to go to up against their home \nowners association.   So mobile operation from small antennas is more \nattractive to them anyway.   Mobile operation on most of the linear \nbirds is difficult, often using 2 radios, and guided antennas and \ncomputer aided doppler tuning.   Yes, you can do without all that stuff, \nbut it's far from easy, and very intimidating.   It's just too easy to \nmake mistakes in one or more of the five things you have to do at once.\n\nThirdly, operating with QRP level signals is just safer.  It's really \npretty difficult for kids to hurt themselves with an HT.   They aren't \nbeaming several watts of microwave energy into directional antennas.\n\nThere are other good things: APRS messaging through the birds is fun.  \nMonitoring downlinks from cubesats and from weather sats is fun, and can \nbe done with a TH-F6A or the like.   I wrote my own satellite tracking \ncode for fun.   My own satellite picture decoder for fun.  Built a small \nyagi for 2m for fun.  \n\nHam radio should be less of an investment of $$$ and more of an \ninvestment of one's own energy and enthusiasm.\n\nLook at it this way: can you think of another hobby that spends as much \ntime soul searching, trying to attract new members to its ranks.  If ham \nradio were really fun, we couldn't keep them from joining us.\n\n    Mark\n",
    "attachments": []
}