Wow! Sounds like you guys have done and are doing an awful lot for the
hobby. My thanks to you. It appears there are resources out there if
AMSAT is willing to do what's necessary to have access to them. I guess
the question is what's that involve? Is it simply just going open source
or is there more to it than that? Are there other stumbling blocks that
they wouldn't be comfortable with for some reason?
73,
Michael, W4HIJ
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 2
> Date: Thu, 10 Sep 2020 22:41:39 -0700
> From: Phil Karn <karn(a)ka9q.net>
> To: amsat-bb(a)amsat.org
> Subject: Re: [amsat-bb] ORI receives half million dollar grant, and
> it's only the first.
> Message-ID: <38f30c90-6874-b8bc-5855-9e27bbb3bf66(a)ka9q.net>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8
>
> On 9/10/20 19:40, Bruce Perens via AMSAT-BB wrote:
>> In the present time, people have grown to take the Internet a lot more
>> seriously, and the world ran out of IPV4 addresses in their 32-bit space.
>> We now have IPV6, which has a much larger address space, but IPV4 is still
>> important. So, Brian and friends sold 3/4 of our addresses to Amazon for a
>> lot of money, and formed a non-profit to manage it.
> Correction: ARDC sold 1/4 (not 3/4) of its original IPv4 address block,
> 44.0.0.0/8. The part that was sold is 44.192.0.0/10, i.e., the top
> quarter, which had never been used on the "real" Internet though it had
> been used internally in some European ampr subnets.
>
> ampr.org still has the bottom 3/4 of its original assignment: 44.0.0.0/9
> and 44.128.0.0/10. Hams running IP are still able to use these two blocks.
>
> The 44.0.0.0/8 block was originally obtained by Hank Magnuski, KA6M, in
> the early 1980s, literally for the cost of a phone call. It did not see
> much use until the mid 1980s when I began work on my KA9Q NOS TCP/IP
> package; at that time, Hank transferred control of the 44 block to me.
> Brian Kantor WB6CYT and Wally Lindstruth WA6JPR soon joined in its
> management, with Brian running much of the infrastructure out of the
> University of California San Diego (UCSD) where he spent his entire career.
>
> NONE of us had any idea whatsoever that these numbers would someday have
> serious monetary value. We did amprnet simply because we really believed
> in the potential of the Internet and, as hams, felt ham radio was the
> perfect place to experiment with the Internet protocols. (Some of you
> have fond memories of those days, as do I.) We thought it was a cool
> idea that would find good uses, but we had no idea that the Internet
> over radio would change the world as much as it did. It certainly
> changed my life; in 1991 I moved from New Jersey to San Diego to accept
> a position with Qualcomm largely on the basis of my work with TCP/IP
> over ham radio, and Brian and I became very close friends.
>
> In the early 2010s, Brian obtained Hank's and my consent to transfer
> formal ownership of this address block to a nonprofit he created for the
> purpose: Amateur Radio Digital Communications, or ARDC. (Wally
> Lindstruth had passed away by this time). In 2018 and 2019, with full
> knowledge and consent of the ARDC board, Brian negotiated the sale of
> the 44.192.0.0/10 block with the proceeds to ARDC to be used for a wide
> range of charitable grants to benefit ham radio, the Internet, and
> especially the intersection of the two and their role in STEM education.
> Unfortunately, the nature of the IP address market and the size of the
> sale necessitated secrecy, which none of us liked. A nondisclosure
> agreement still limits what we can publicly say about the terms of the
> sale, though some facts can be readily determined from public sources
> such as the "whois" database and IP address market data.
>
> Brian passed away unexpectedly in November 2019 and I've taken over as
> president and chair of ARDC. Hank continues to serve on the grant review
> committee chaired by John Hays, K7VE.
>
> Since ARDC is an IRS 501(c)(3) nonprofit foundation, it is required to
> file detailed tax returns (990 forms) with the IRS; this will happen
> very shortly. By law, nonprofit tax returns are publicly available.
>
> Phil Karn, KA9Q
>
> ARDC President & Chair
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
Happy 27th birthday to AMRAD-Oscar 27, still alive and operating today!
For an amateur radio satellite operator in the early 1990s, working on a
satellite project based on the AMSAT Microsat design was a dream job!
The hams on the team (including Dino Lorenzini, Mark Kanawati, Steve Greene
and Mike Wyrick) couldn't help but include an amateur radio payload, and
were successful with the help of fellow amateurs and the local Vienna,
Virginia Amateur Research and Development (AMRAD) group: Paul Renaldo,
Andre Castillot, Dave Rogers, Glenn Baumgartner, Sandy Sanders, Matt
Butcher, Randy Mays, and Terry Fox, and with help from AMSAT’s Lyle
Johnson, Chuck Green, and Jim White, among many others.
EYESAT-1/AO-27 launched (with the amateur payload and an extra UHF antenna
for the downlink) at 0145 UTC September 26, 1993. [Ariane-4 V59 also
launched amateur satellites KO-25, IO-26, and PO-28, SSTL’s Healthsat-2,
the Stella research satellite, and the Spot-3 earth observation
satellite.] The satellite was commanded on during the next orbit and the
first QSO on the amateur payload was made the following morning on
September 27, 1993. (We think – does anyone have an archive of amsat-bb
emails from 1993 who can check?)
AO-27 was the first FM “bent pipe” satellite and proved to be easy to work
with a strong downlink and sensitive receiver. The amateur FM repeater has
served many Hams worldwide and was one of the first “Easy Sats”. AO-27 was
later used for the first successful D-Star mode satellite QSO. The 800km
orbit provides continent-spanning coverage. At least one station is known
to have worked 49 states solely via AO-27!
And here we are today, the 27th of September, 2020, celebrating the 27th
birthday of AO-27!
Thanks to Mike Wyrick N3UC who babysat the spacecraft for the last 27 years.
And thanks to all those who helped. There are many untold stories and
photos we hope to share in the near future.
Current information on AO-27’s operating schedule is at www.ao27.net
73
Mark, Mike, Steve (N4TPY, N3UC, KS1G)
Friends,
Clive Wallis, G3CWV, used to maintain a website with lots of UO-11
information, recordings and telemetry. Unfortunately, he became a silent
key in 2015.
I recently tried to go to Clive's UO-11 website,
http://g3cwv.co.uk/oscar11.htm, and discovered that is no longer on the
web. I tried the Internet Archive's Wayback machine and found that they
had archived most of the HTML pages, but not the zip files with the
telemetry and recordings.
Did anyone make an archive or a copy of Clive's website? Or, did you
ever download and save any of the .zip files with the audio recordings or
telemetry? If so, I would like to get copies of the .zip files with the
recordings and telemetry.
73,
Douglas KA2UPW/5
I've been at this satellite thing for more than 35 years, so when a
family trip took me through some relatively rare grids in Nebraska last
week, I thought it would be a great chance to try out my new FT-818 on
a rove. Looks like fun, and how hard can it be?
Well, this old satellite hand had forgotten many of the skills needed
back before I built a capable, computer-controlled station. I didn't
practice enough with the new rig at home, I didn't get familiar enough
with the location apps, and I assumed too much expertise on the part of
the operator. In fact, I couldn't even find the grid line correctly!
And on another pass, I couldn't even hear the bird (still working on
what happened there).
So, moral of the story, sometimes getting out of one's comfort zone and
trying something different is a good thing. But doing so requires some
humility. Some things are harder than they look, whether it's building
and launching a satellite, or just working one from a gravel road in
Nebraska. My hat is off to the successful rovers across the nation.
And I shall work on (re)learning the necessary basic skills before
setting out again.
(P.S., if you were one of the stations I worked from the "grid line,"
the LoTW upload has been corrected. Sorry, it was only EN11.)
--
Mark D. Johns, KØJM
AMSAT Ambassador & News Service Editor
Brooklyn Park, MN USA EN35hd
-----------------------------------------------
"Heaven goes by favor; if it went by merit,
you would stay out and your dog would go in."
---Mark Twain
Hi All,
I'm planning to be working satellite passes from DM36 this Thursday, Oct 1,
during the afternoon and evening. Please see the link below for a schedule
of passes I'll attempt. On the transponder birds I'd prefer to work CW,
but will also do some SSB. I'll be about 40 miles SSW of Colorado City,
AZ
Hope to catch you on the air :)
Regards,
Curt / K7ZOO
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1szF2-wSpscpw20DWbbyYBAWGjSjZyPKY/view?usp=…
Pretty excited about these "Sats".
I "cut my teeth" on the "RS" birds.
I still have the "Q" cards to prove it.
No computer tracking software then.
All by "hand".
I'm sure there are many others here that did this also.
Fond memories...
W1FXX - Lost in Paradise
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