From: glasbrenner@mindspring.com To: orbitjet@hotmail.com; w7lrd@comcast.net; amsat-bb@amsat.org CC: k3io@amsat.org Subject: Was HEO naivete; now GEO rideshare frequency choice, etc. Date: Sat, 7 Feb 2009 12:38:10 -0500
73, Drew KO4MA AMSAT-NA VP Operations and Director
Drew...thanks for your reply. It illustrates why you are one of the "good eggs" in Amsat.
I guess that a couple of thoughts come to mind...ie ones I would have asked had I been on the board discussion.
1. Do we have any reasonable expectation of government funding? The repeater group that I belong to in Houston is in the process of getting a FEMA grant based on the repeater/packet system performance in Ike...ie we stayed up while the FEMA equipment colocated went dark. It has been "nip and tuck" and the election of a congressman from our district who some of us participated in his campaign has helped a great deal...but it isnt "all" that much money at least in terms of what I suspect AMSAT was looking at.
2. even if we got the money and got the launch ...how does it change the equation for the satellite community? It puts "equipment in the air" but would the "unique" equipment required be a show stopper like the "spread spectrum" satellite (PANSAT?) that was launched a few years ago.
3. I think that the "easy sat goal" is a "canard"...I think that it could be as easy to talk on the birds as it is for me to type this letter to you...and it wouldnt change the amateur satellite population all that much...but I do think that the other end is a limiting factor. If hams have to buy some "special box" that is the heart and soul of the station and has zero use outside of the "bird"...then I dont think that is a measure for growth.
I am sure that there are a thousand reasons where my logic goes astray. But what I see lacking in amateur satellite communications is a secure supply of the "birds" that are accessable with commercially available gear.
Since you have been so kind, may I prevail for a question...?
If SpaceX granted us a ride on its Falcon 9 which might go this summer...is there anything to put on it?
Robert WB5MZO
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